In June 2017 Andy and I both travelled from South Wales to a town 250km south of Mumbai to take in all of the cultural and geographical delights Maharashtra has to offer.
By this time our ideas had already started to take shape and a lot of work had gone into establishing a very good relationship with an organic Indian manufacturing company specialising in natural cosmetics; after months and months of emails and Skyping we were finally going to meet our manufacturers and see where our products would be made!
The journey from Mumbai to the manufacturing site was by road but despite the long journey, we were incredibly excited to meet our Indian colleagues.
Much of the time we spent at the manufacturing site was spent discussing the ingredients and sampling various combinations of essential oils and supercritical CO2 extracts.
We were shown amazing hospitality in India and it is no underestimation to say that we were completely blown away by the knowledge and professionalism of our hosts and the incredibly high standards of the manufacturing facility itself. Every area of the site was pristine; the staff and employees were well-informed and eager to explain every aspect of the manufacturing process; and most importantly we were absolutely delighted with the recipes and products we designed and were able to sample whilst we were there.
A full two days of discussion and ruminations later, we had samples of our final products. When we arrived home we continued to test them to see how they worked in the UK climate with the much lower temperatures we are blessed with here in South Wales. We lathered, scrubbed and rubbed our way through 2 weeks of hard cosmetics testing at home and, after a few tweaks, selected our three launch products.
However, our Anglo-Indian business model was not to be. Despite exploring all avenues we were unable to source a suitably sustainable packaging material and, for us, that was a deal-breaker. However, armed with our Green Jiva tenacity and resourcefulness and with the benefit of our wonderful new friends in India, we were not only able to keep hold of our new recipes but we worked hard back in the UK and added to them. After successful statutory testing we were now ready to launch with 8 fantastic products.
We soon realised that the work was only just beginning. We had to finalise funding, branding, the website, our eco-social collaborations, not to mention the packaging and launch details… the list went on and on. There were only two of us and we both have full time jobs so the question “can we really do this” reared its ugly head more than once or twice…
With the help of our innovative designers, Dirty Little Serifs, who continue to understand and share our vision, the brand took shape and the business seemed come alive.
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