Vogue India July 2016

HAIR AND MAKE

-UP: SONAM KAPOOR: PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

MAKE-UP, HAIR, FRAGRANCES, HEALTH, FITNESSANDWELLNESS

EDITED BYNIDHI SHARMA PUNJABI

beauty

EXCLUSIVE

Pretty. Luxurious. Beautifully fra-

grant. Not words you would normally

associate with Ayurveda. Pure, yes.

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a doubt. At a time when the 6,000-year-

old science was considered a pain to

use and compared to grandma’s kitch-

en cures, an elegant little brand came

along to turn Ayurveda on its head.

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was simple—combine authentic Ayur-

vedic skincare recipes with the purest,

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that would sit pretty on dressers from

Mumbai to Manhattan, and deliver

one powerful message to the world:

Ayurveda is not boring or bland—it’s

beautiful, bountiful and better for you!

When it comes to skincare, I’ve al-

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I prefer my peptides to cold-pressed

oils and retinol over gold bhasma. Yes,

mogra smells lovely, but replenishing

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tion? I had my doubts. I’ve always been

fascinated with Ayurveda, the idea

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herb has the power to ‘reinvent’ your

skin is pretty darn interesting. Grow-

ing up with two granddads who dou-

bled up as vaids in the family also

fuelled my fascination. But until now

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the skincare cynic in me questioning

everything about it.

I found my answers at a quaint fac-

tory in a small village called Lodsi, nes-

tled in the breathtaking foothills of

Rishikesh in Uttarakhand. I saw rows

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stacked neatly aside ancient scrip-

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pounded into glow-giving ubtans; car-

damom and rose swirled into creamy

soaps, all to the soothing chants of the

Gayatri Mantra.

And so my intimate experience with

Ayurveda began when Mira Kulkarni,

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tials, opened the doors to her beautiful

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that skin! If this is how someone could

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the ubtans, slather on the kesar and

swap the science-y stuff for Mother

Nature’s bounty. Her skin was step

http://www.vogue.inVOGUE INDIA JULY 2016 191

irst family of beauty

Fifteen years ago, a batch of handmade soap wrapped

in brown paper and tied with raia ribbon sowed the

seeds of a multimillion-dollar skincare empire.NIDHI

SHARMA PUNJABImeets the family that’s taking

Ayurveda to luxury aisles around the world

Photographed by ANKITA CHANDRA

>

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Clockwise from left:Mira Kulkarni,

Samrath Bedi, Karishma Manga

Bedi and Diviya Chawla

WorldMags.net