Juicy Chemistry offers more than 100 organic products for conditions such as acne, oily hair, hair fall, dark circles (below eyes) and pigmented lips.
But life for the couple has not always been a bed of roses. Early in their marriage, they faced several hardships and failures. Two years after their marriage, in 2011, Pritesh who was just 26 then, lost his father to cancer.
Sometimes a lot of expectations can put a lot of burden on the younger generation and that was what happened with Pritesh when he joined his family business. His father had a petroleum products manufacturing unit, but Pritesh couldn’t continue the business despite his best efforts. He failed 18 times to raise capital, or to get a partner, and had to sell off some machinery. It was a difficult phase in his life personally as well as professionally. He went bankrupt, and at one point in time putting food on the table for the family became difficult for him.
To supplement household income, his wife Megha took up Mehendi orders for weddings and later set up a small boutique to sell designer dresses under the label Megha Asher Design.
After that, Pritesh wandered around a lot in search of new opportunities and then the idea of launching organic skincare products had occurred to the couple while they were looking for some organic lotion to treat Megha’s acne-prone skin.
It was then that they found that products that were labelled as organic or natural contained preservatives, parabens and mineral oils. Pritesh was familiar with some of those chemicals as they were used at his father’s petroleum products manufacturing plant.
In the initial days, they sold their products via Facebook and WhatsApp. In 2016, they listed their products on Amazon.
The same year a video of their products went viral and business boomed. “We couldn’t put the phone down, as we continuously received orders. We started doing exhibitions in Delhi, Mumbai and other metro cities as well,” says Pritesh.
In 2017, they moved from their home office to a 2,500 sq ft property in the heart of the city, where they set up their office and factory.
They also obtained the prestigious Ecocert certification for their products. (Ecocert is an internationally recognized organization based in France providing an organic certificate to cosmetic brands.)
Today, Juicy Chemistry imports raw materials from across the globe. They have customers in 35 countries and distributors in six countries. Their products cost anywhere between Rs 350 for a lip balm and Rs 1,100 for hair oil. In 2019, they received a seed funding of Rs 4.5 crore. The company has invested in adding new machinery and expanding its production facility.
