Indias organic personal care market has been constantly evolving to cater to its consumers’ diverse tastes and demands. The current scenario is such that it is growing at a rapid pace and seems to have a promising future. Various factors are contributing to the growth of the segment. The growing consumer awareness, changing lifestyles, and increasing disposable incomes, along with rising health and environmental concerns are expected to be the major factors driving the growth of organic skincare and haircare products in India. Consumers are ready to spend on products if they are organic and can naturally boost their skin health. The surge in the aging population, increasing awareness of organic products, the growing millennial population, and more working women are the other reasons contributing to the growth of organic personal care in the country.

Blend It Raw Apothecary is India's first DIY organic skincare and haircare brand, founded in 2017 by Aarushi Singhal, a certified skincare formulator when she was 19 years old. Blend It Raw Apothecary offers pure multi-purpose pure, raw, and unrefined ingredients from all across India for natural beauty, DIYs, home, health, herbalism, aromatherapy, and well-being. All of the ingredients available on Blend It Raw and Apothecary are single-ingredient items. These are not a mix of items, but rather a single ingredient that can be utilized for natural beauty, home health, and aromatherapy.

Aarushi Singhal's passion for herbalism prompted her to ethically obtain the ingredients directly from farmers, with whom she collaborated to assure authenticity. In addition to offering ingredients sourced from all around India, the company also gives simple DIY recipes for using those ingredients in a variety of ways for skincare, haircare, and wellness. The company focuses not just on highquality ingredients, but also on educating the audience. Each of the ingredients can be directly incorporated into the routine. For instance, when it comes to coconut oil, one can use it directly as hair oil, body oil, cooking oil, oil pulling, and so on, but they can also use it in their own formulations, for which the company gives recipes if required. “I find DIY skin care enjoyable and rewarding, like cooking a meal the way you like it, using the ingredients you choose and tweaking it however you feel like to make it perfect for you,” adds Aarushi Singhal, Founder, Blend It Raw Apothecary.

A Notch Above All
Aarushi Singhal has always been available to her customers to provide DIY solutions from day one itself. Being a certified formulator, her focus has been to educate the audience on safe and effective remedies for skincare

and haircare. According to Aarushi, there has been a backlash against DIY over time due to people sharing weird skin and hair combinations without any education. Her main goal is to make Blend It Raw Apothecary a safe community where individuals can gather knowledge on what remedies are genuinely safe and helpful for skin, hair, and other wellness related concerns. Blend It Raw is directly connected to the growing process of its ingredients, which acts as a primary USP and distinguishes the firm from the other peers in the market. The firm collaborates directly with the farmers and stays connected with them. The platform also shares the manufacturing and harvesting processes of each of its ingredients from around India. These ingredients are indigenous Indian herbs and oils that are not sourced from abroad.

Blend It Raw is directly connected to the growing process of its ingredients, which acts as a primary USP & distinguishes the firm from the other peers in the market

“We have moved on to make our brand as sustainable as possible and focus on minimizing waste emissions throughout the value chain. Blend It Raw has been devoted to natural, sustainable, and responsible practices since its beginning. Also, we don't work with ingredients that are endangered, for example, sandalwood and have launched ingredients that abundantly grow in India", emphasizes Aarushi.

How it All Began
Blend It Raw and Apothecary happened quite organically. Aarushi's mother has been making Ayurvedic DIY masks and oils at home since she was a child. As Aarushi grew up, she started to develop an interest in DIYs and when the Instagram blogging culture came into India around 2013-2014, she started her own blog on DIY skincare, where she shared her mother's recipes for hair masks, ubtan, oils, and so on. Being the first DIY blog in India, it gained a lot of attention, receiving messages from all over India for the recipe. As a result, she enrolled in an organic formulation course, to have a grasp of knowledge and not just do things randomly. She enrolled in Formula Botanica, a Skincare Formulation Certification based out of London. While taking that course and learning the fundamentals of skincare creation, she launched a DIY subscription box with an Ayurvedic hair mask recipe with 5 ingredients. Without a website or a formal launch, the subscription box in India sold out over 100 boxes in the first month, which was a significant deal in itself. Aarushi then gradually expanded her product range, started working on sourcing the ingredients from different places in India, and partnered with traditional farmers across India to supply her ingredients direct from the source.

Over the years, Blend It Raw has grown majorly through customer feedback, with over 60 percent repeat customer rate, which is a large number for any company, and it has expanded primarily by word of mouth. And as it forges ahead, the firm is laying its focus on hair care and looking to increase its product portfolio on the same after witnessing a large number of people in the country suffering from hair loss. Further, the firm will be focusing on the dissemination of information and knowledge. And for these, the firm is starting free DIY online workshops for people to understand its product better and also to learn something in return. The firm has already created a valuable community on Whatsapp with around 20,000 people who stay connected, wherein the company keeps sharing ingredients, which has greatly contributed to clients learning new things about skincare and hair care. Instagram has been the major contributor to its growth, but now the firm wishes to move towards other platforms as well.