The health and wellness market has experienced significant growth in the last few years, with increasing numbers of people seeking a more natural and holistic approach to their health and lifestyle.
Natural beauty products are becoming more and more popular – enabling businesses operating in this industry to grow and spread the benefits of their natural formulations.
Without further ado, meet today’s guest, who after successfully running a wellness spa, started his own business selling Ayurvedic beauty products across the globe.
Allow me to introduce the Co-Founder of Blue Nectar Products, Kapil Dhameja…
—
I am the Co-Founder of Blue Nectar Products. We sell Ayurvedic Beauty products globally. We have a significant presence in India, the US, and the UK. We have 90+ different products like face creams, face wash, hair products, body lotion, etc.
Blue Nectar is the journey of discovery and innovation for two enthusiastic IIT-IIM graduates. They loved traditions. Yet they didn’t believe in blind faith. Their love for tradition and disregard for blind faith created a paradox that made Sanyog and Kapil embark on a journey that resulted in the creation of Blue Nectar in 2017.
Troubled with weight problems, a common issue for millennials, Kapil visited the Panchakarma Center in Chennai in 2008 when he was based there. To his shock, the Panchakarma Center asked him to drink 1 liter of ghee to detoxify as the first step to losing weight. The concept of drinking ghee for detox was out of his thought realm, but that experience did create enough intrigue to explore more into Ayurvedic sciences.
This experience offered a challenge to present something more palatable and acceptable to the younger millennials. This, along with the urge to make Ayurvedic practices more acceptable, led the two to leave their cushy MNC jobs. While Kapil had a decade of experience with GSK, Sanyog, a fellow believer in Ayurveda, had worked across continents with Cognizant technologies. Together, they started their first Blue Terra Wellness Spa in 2010.
Blue Terra Wellness Center offered traditional Ayurvedic techniques like Nadi Vidya and Panchakarma to heal lifestyle disorders. While the guests benefitted from the various therapies, they preferred less greasy and nicer-smelling Ayurvedic oils.
Initially, all Ayurvedic therapies were done on a hard wooden bed in Blue Terra centers. As winter approached in Gurgaon, customers started complaining of cold, hard beds!
Not being one to disappoint customers, they started looking for ways to contemporize Ayurved. This led to Kapil and Sanyog working with Ayurvedic doctors and researching Charak Samhita (an Ayurveda traditional book) to formulate less greasy and aromatic Ayurvedic oils. They also implemented other innovative ways to make hard wooden beds mildly soft and comfortable and a contemporary steam and shower experience with state-of-the-art fittings, etc.
This was the beginning of the concept of contemporary Ayurved, to make Ayurved more adaptable. Making Ayurved a science of choice and lifestyle, rather than being relied on at times of disease or pandemic became the motto of Kapil and Sanyog.
The first set of products was made at the special request of customers who could not visit regularly for therapies. As these customers had found the oils to be effective, they wanted to continue application in the comfort of their homes.
Very soon, appreciation and recommendations started pouring in for the oils, and demand started increasing. Customers started coming to the spa via word of mouth, especially to purchase the oils and not the spa services. That is when the first avatar of Blue Nectar products formally started in the form of oils and green tea.
What started with 4-5 products that were used in Blue Terra Spa – pain oils, aromatic massage oils, green tea, and face creams in 2017 – has extended to 80+ different products across four categories in the convenience of jars and bottles that one can use with ease. Blue Nectar originated with the firm belief that nature holds all answers and cures, and our body has the best ability to heal and nourish itself.
Blue Nectar has reconceptualized the world of beauty and wellness, presenting products that are plush, lovable, as well as effective. Each product has been carefully crafted and designed to have natural hedonistic aromas, silky smooth textures, and exquisite packing to transform you to a sensuous world of luxury.
With the use of more than 150 quality herbs, we can proudly claim that Blue Nectar products have a High Herb Quotient. The Herb Quotient of a product helps to easily identify the number of pure active herbs contained in a product and gives an indication of its effectiveness. To further add to this, products are free from harmful chemicals, preservatives, and mineral oils. All ingredients on the packaging are displayed, helping a customer to make informed decisions.
The products have also undergone clinical testing to corroborate their effectiveness and are being shipped worldwide.
“Traditions are good. We need to revive and contemporize them,” says Kapil and Sanyog on their mission to make Ayurved practices a way of modern living.
We (my cofounder and I) had started a spa business. We enjoyed the start-up journey, but what we enjoyed even more was the interaction we had with our customers. The most common feedback that we used to get from customers was that Ayurvedic oils were greasy, thicker, and heavier. They would prefer oils that smelled nice and were lighter. The expectation was the same from a few Ayurvedic treatments that we used to do.
What stuck was that customers want Ayurvedic products that are practical and more contemporary rather than traditional Ayurvedic products. Based on their feedback, we briefed our Ayurvedic doctors and factories to develop ‘aromatic’ Ayurvedic oil that has the goodness of Ayurveda and the texture, aroma, and absorption properties of a modern body massage oil.
That was the genesis of our first product, called Sensuous Jasmine Bath & Body Oil. We launched a new therapy called ‘aromatic abhyangam’ using Sensuous Jasmine Body Oil. ‘Aromatic abhyangam’ was loved by customers and became a top seller therapy in our spa centers.
Sanyog (my cofounder) and I started the company in 2010 with our own savings. Both of us belonged to middle-class families and didn’t have much family investment. We poured our own savings from our previous jobs to start the company. The first few months of launching the business were full of dissonance, but slowly things stabilized and settled in.
As a result of 1 spa center in 2010, we grew to 15 spa centers in 2014!
Obsession with customer feedback. We do accept that not all customers will love our product. We need to accept the feedback, take a good view of it, and decide if any changes need to be made to the product based on customer feedback. We feel that as we are a start-up, the product lifecycle is a continuous evolution
I read lots of autobiographies and biographies. Some of my favorite biographies have been ‘Open’ by Andre Agassi and ‘The Ride of a Lifetime’ by Bob Iger.
Apart from this, I listen to various podcasts: ‘On Purpose’ by Jay Shetty and podcasts by Osho (spiritual guru).
Things have been going extremely positive in the last few months. We have launched our new packaging based on our ethos of contemporary Ayurved. This has been very well accepted in the market. We are looking at very exciting growth with new packaging.
www.bluenectarproduct.com
www.instagram.com/bluenectar_ayurved
My mother in law loves to sew.
A few years ago she asked me how to set up an online store.
She wanted to sell fancy throw pillows she was making.
I gave her very basic steps. Enough to get started (I don't know much about ecom).
A few weeks later she showed me her site. It…
Whatever your 2024 goals, hopes, and dreams are.
I hope you make it.
Everyone wants “yes.”
But they don’t wanna pay the price.
100 Nos is the price of one yes.
You can get as many as yeses as you damn well please as long as you’re willing to pay the price.
I was sad to learn that Charlie Munger died today at age 99.
What a life.
He would likely roll his eyes and argue that none of us should be too surprised, based on the actuarial tables, but we’ve lost one of the 20th century’s greatest investors and businessmen.
Chris and I…
