CHENNAI: Imagine being in a room full of scented body baths, scrubs and oils — all made from natural and organic materials. Since organic products are a fad now — in food, cosmetics or other personal care products — Fruits And Herbs has been cornering the market with its natural personal care products. Launched by two sisters, Bharathi Ramesh and Sudha Sridhar, the venture which launched their official Instagram page last month, has however been creating a name for itself for over a year.
“When I was younger, my mother used to make these natural and home-made products like oils and face packs, besan powder for bathing, etc. So I followed the same for my kids as well especially when my daughter started facing hair loss problems. I made natural hair oil again, and that really made a difference,” she adds.
And soon, Bharathi began making soaps, creams and hair oils but realised she needed a helping hand because of her work schedule. That’s when her sister Sudha joined her. “Before we ventured out as a proper business, we used to deliver these to some family and friends. We got good response from them and that encouraged us to venture out as a business,” explains Sudha.
Selling more than 25 varieties for different needs such as sensitive skin, dry skin, dry scalp, etc, Fruits and Herbs has been getting at least five to six orders a day on an average. Their line of products range from hair oils to soaps, face packs, lip balms, body butters, lip scrubs and shampoos.
Each of these product is made out of natural ingredients like — neem, mint, turmeric and orange peel for the Ubtan face pack (helps to reduce acne and brightens the skin); hair oil made out of neem, henna, amla (gooseberry) and hibiscus (reduces hair fall and nourishes the scalp); a special bubble gum lip scrub made from almond oil and fine castor sugar (heals chaps), etc. Their other products include coffee (exfoliating) soap, lemon grass soap, charcoal soap (called the black hole), fruit flavoured soaps - strawberry, grape, papaya.
Where do you get the most number of orders from? “Chennai and Bengaluru...but we also supply across the country and often get orders from Delhi, Mumbai, and Bhubaneswar, too! And we have also noticed that a lot of people between the ages of 18 and 24 purchase the soaps and creams, and the oils and face scrubs are purchased by 40-plus women,” explains Bharathi.
The oils are sold at `220 for 100 ml, face pack for `300 for 100 grams, soaps for `175 and the lip scrub at `150.
For details, visit their Instagram handle @fruitsandherbsindia