The Meaning of Modern Ayurveda in Skincare featuring Pritika Swarup of Prakti

0:00Hey guys, welcome back to Skin Anarchy. It's a very, very special episode. I am very honored to be hosting our guest today. She is truly a trailblazer in the skincare and beauty community. Many of you might recognize her from all the modeling work she's done and all the wonderful work she does across the board, but her brand is absolutely brilliant. So without further ado, please welcome Pritika Swarup from Procti Beauty. Welcome Pritika, I'm so excited to host you. So I'm so excited to be talking to you and I'm just thrilled to be talking about ProcDate's our four-year anniversary and so excited to jump in.

0:32Yeah, I can't wait to get started, but I want to actually kind of, you know, have you walk us down memory lane. You've done so many things and accomplished so much at such a young age. I feel like that's, you know, that's like the brown person motto in life. So walk us down memory lane. What got you into modeling and like your whole career? Like what led to that? Well, I was scouted at Disney World. So that's how I got started in this whole modeling industry. I'm from Virginia. And that's what brought me to New York. And, you know, that's how I started going to school here, building my career.

1:05That's where like, everything kind of happened at once. I was just 17. And as far as my skincare, my whole skincare journey started when I was like four years old with my mom. And you know, she's an Ayurvedic practitioner. So she really taught me what beauty is, you know, beauty from within and this idea of holistic wellness and just that everything is connected, which was so different from anything I had understood in my career. So they were like conflicting ideologies, right? And yeah, and then I went through college, I actually started Procti, I started building Procti my senior year. So, you know, it's been with me for, I mean, I feel like now it's been six years that I've been building the brand.

1:46um four years the brand has been live and out there so it's been a really really fun journey with a lot I like I know we were before the interview started and I was just telling for all of our listeners I was telling Ritika how excited I've been to watch Procti grow because it's been a brand that I remember like the first time I saw it on Instagram I was like I love this and I love everything about it because it's colorful. It's like the Hindi is there, the words, the meaning. It's all there in a way that's meaningful to a South Asian person, but it's still discoverable by somebody who doesn't understand the language, hasn't been introduced to the culture yet.

2:27And I feel like that is so difficult to do from a branding side, I feel like. I've seen a lot of brands in this industry, but I would love for you to speak on that. What was that blueprint-making phase like for you? You know, like putting everything on paper before you even started the branding side of everything. Well, there was no blueprint because it hadn't been done. I think, you know, really started by, I mean, just, I've always felt really proud to be Indian and I've always felt very much connected to my culture because of my mom. And so, you know, when I was thinking about this brand, I wanted it to embody not only the philosophies of Ayurveda, but also, you know, we are, you know, our beautiful jewel tones in India, or, you know, we talked about our copper skincare tools, even the names of the products, like their Hindi English words, it's just a celebration of our culture.

3:19And I think it's also, you know, people will always have different stereotypes of what Indian culture is, right? But it's just being able to show that in a way where I was just super proud of it. And even from the ingredients in the formulas, like everything was built with such care and intention and especially with the packaging. Like, I think that's where a lot of it shows not only in the formulas, but like the genie shaped jars and, you know, it just down to the, to every single detail. Like I get really excited about it because I mean, it took a long time, I think, to, to really get the sweet spot.

3:53And it, it took a lot of time, you know, the two years of development was really, um, was really difficult because you want to get it right. And you don't know how people are, are they going to love it? They're going to hate it. Are they going to understand it, right? So that's what I get really excited about talking through is just honestly, like the packaging and the fusion of all of the nods to India. Yeah, no, I mean, honestly, it comes through in a very, very elegant, beautiful way. And I think that embodies Indian culture, that embodies how all of us see it, right? When we look at our culture, I mean, I know for me, it's always been like this.

4:30I grew up in the culture, but I'm always in awe of all the wonderful moving parts, and especially when it comes to beauty for so long, and I'm sure you've seen this, obviously. I mean, you created such a beautiful brand, but for all this listening, I think a lot of South Asian people, especially when we are living in America, living in other parts of the world, we see our culture being appropriated so much that it becomes like, I don't know, just routine. And so when you start seeing it come out again, you know, in a beautiful way, in a blended way, it's beautiful to watch that, you know? So I really, really celebrate what you've accomplished here.

5:04And I think that's also why Procti grew so fast, right? I mean, you've had such an upward trajectory since you launched. How's that been, you know, from the business side? I mean, I think it's been, I mean, I was really surprised and excited, like, as we gained momentum, we started with one product, now we have 10. So in the one product, our Instant Glow Exfoliator, that's still, you know, a fan favorite. I think, you know, we spent years with the research and, you know, leading focus groups and with hundreds of women, right. And trying to understand like what they really want from beauty and, you know, obviously they wanted like healthy glowing skin.

5:41So that's why we launched with pretty polish. And then we followed up every few months with the new product, like taking all the learnings and like what our audience really wanted and putting that into the next product and the next product. And, And, you know, sooner or later, like we figured out our DTC and then we started launching with different retail partners. So, you know, there was Goop and then Credo, then Revolve and Bloomingdale's. And I think I think what's really exciting is when you feel like you understand your consumer and you know what they need. And that's what kind of fuels you to keep going and putting out new, new, new.

6:15And that's kind of how it just happened. I mean, it's a lot of it's a lot of trial and error, too. Right. So I think we learned with every single step. Yeah, no, I mean, that's awesome, though, that you were able to grow it the way you did. And I really want to actually dive into the Ayurveda side of it because Ayurveda is such a broad and in-depth area of study. And it's like there is nothing that can encompass everything that we can possibly learn from this science. So tell me about your journey with Ayurveda. though, like what were things that really inspired you and obviously that you incorporated, but like where did that begin and how did you really digest it in a way that you're like, I can translate this, you know, meaningfully in a brand?

7:03I mean, the journey, it's been my whole life. I think, you know, as I said, my mom's an Ayurvedic practitioner. She actually works at the Ayurvedic Institute. Like she, she really taught me about the idea of balance within the body, mind, body, consciousness, and that a lot of issues with skin health, like inflammation, hyperpigmentation, acne, like it's never about solving like the symptom or like the surface level. It was really that it was coming from inside, right? Like stress, lack of sleep, you know, a lot of inflammation. Like there was just this idea of this interconnectedness, right? So that had always been just in the back of my mind.

7:42And it'd been like part of a lot of practices that I was doing since I was a kid. and just realizing when I started to spend more time in the industry, like even just working with all these different cosmetic and beauty brands, like I started to see that the industry and just in general, like, I guess you could say modern skincare brands were all about just addressing like the symptoms versus understanding what the root cause is. And then looking at skin, like it's isolated, right? Like it has nothing to do with any of our other systems. Like, And that was really strange to me. So that was kind of like the first gap that I saw there.

8:18I was like, oh, they're these two philosophies, but they're growing completely independently. And I mean, that was like one of the biggest things is that I wanted to bridge these two philosophies. I never wanted to obviously put out products that weren't like efficacious. That was always going to be like the number one. But then there was the idea of balancing the microbiome, strengthening the skin barrier, thinking of skin health as long term. And also like something that I really get excited about is the ritual aspect. Like when you think about Indian beauty rituals, they're very sensorial. They're indulgent.

8:53We got excited and we look forward to, you know, our beauty routines. And that was something that, you know, over here, it was just not the same. It was just a lot more like clinical. And I was like, okay, this is a routine. I have to do these things. But, you know, it's something it's a time where you can give back to yourself and you should truly enjoy and look forward to. And I wanted to bring that back to skincare. And so every Proc-D product is its own ritual. Like we have our instant glow exfoliator. It gets activated with water. It changes color. It has mood boosting aromas. Like it's just this moment where you can truly be surprised and excited and enjoy.

9:35So, you know, and that's, I don't know if that's like the Ayurvedic philosophy, right? But it's the idea of like how we enjoy our rituals. And so I wanted to infuse that into the brand. And then, you know, we actually, I saw what you had sent earlier about Ayurveda being known as like just the ingredients, just natural botanicals. And it's just such a small part of what Ayurveda is. It's this whole system. So I think just picking and choosing the right, like the right philosophies that could be, you know, relevant to skincare, right? I think that Ayurveda is a huge science and it's been around for thousands of years.

10:13So it was just understanding like how I can also educate on this, right? And how people understand Ayurveda. Absolutely. That's beautifully articulated. And I couldn't agree with you more. I think there's so much that gets lost in translation sometimes when you talk about Ayurveda and like everything that you said resonates so much with me because like I know for a long time for me for the podcast, I was talking to a lot of brands that were, you know, trying to explain this idea of like the sensorial aspect of skincare and how important that is. And now we're catching up with it from the psychology side, the psychiatry side, where we're realizing this is a doorway for so many people to have that time in their space and their day where they can be like, okay, this is me time.

10:59Even if it's five minutes, even if it's two minutes, it becomes a part of you and it becomes a part of your self-care. And I feel like there needs to be an understanding that there are ancient sciences, ancient wisdom that's already existing, right, in the world. And South Asia is a beautiful place. That's an example of that, that this has been there for so long. And so for us to not tap into that is almost like an injustice. You know, as human beings, we aren't looking into what already exists and really leveraging. I mean, look at all the bathhouse cultures, right, across the world, like Morocco and the Roman Empire.

11:35And there's so much that we can take from that. But then, I mean, to bring that forward from the Ayurveda side is really, I think, very meaningful because it's one of the only cultures that survived for so long in that robustness, in its robustness. You know what I mean? So I don't know if that made sense where I'm trying to go with that, but it really does matter, you know, for us to understand. And so I love that you really dug into it and I love that you brought it forward. It's such an important area. So no, thank you. Well, I think Ayurveda is even more relevant today. I mean, you know, we talk about like now right now, like the gut skin connection, like people are talking about these things.

12:11Like you're seeing like ashwagandha and rhodiola rosea like pop up in like supplements. Like I think it's super relevant today. And I'm excited to see, you know, a lot of these things becoming more and more mainstream. I think, I think we saw this a long time ago, but it's, It's really happy, you know, makes me very happy to see. Yeah, absolutely. Now, I want to actually ask you, I want to divert a little bit because there are so many conversations I feel like going on right now around like South Asian inspired beauty, you know, and I know we've seen this for a long time, right? We saw like Haldi and like all the, you know, ginger and everything was coming up in little bits and pieces.

12:49But then like, I almost feel like the narrative went left, you know, like it was like really, really, really good for a long time. but then I started seeing social media talk about South Asian women in a very like negative light and I I think I talked to Adi I don't know if you saw that episode I did recently with Adi but he was I asked him this and I want to actually get your perspective on this where where did that narrative turn into how South Asian women aren't desirable because I'm telling you as a millennial I did not grow up with that at all like I did not hear it my white friends weren't talking about it my black friends weren't talking you know what I mean and so all of a sudden I look in the social media world in this realm and I'm like, what the heck, man?

13:29Like, where did all of this start? Like, I mean, have you seen that? Or I don't know if I'm hallucinating. No, I don't know if I've seen that South Asian women aren't desirable. I mean, I think that there's always a lot of opinions out there, right? And I think I haven't seen anything like super negative. I mean, you know, as a kid, people go through a lot of different things. Sure. Like, I mean, there's like bullying. There's like, okay, you're different, right? But I also feel like when people kind of open their minds to see different types of cultures and backgrounds and, you know, identities, like that's the way that it should be.

14:05But that isn't always the way that people, you know, have the experience being brought up. And so I don't know if it's like a younger generation of not having the openness and, you know, being able to be just receptive to different cultures and ideas and people and backgrounds. Like I, it could be that, but, um, I don't, I haven't seen too many negative things about people hating on South Asians. Like, I don't know. I'm glad you haven't. You know, it might be because I filter my social media use. Like I don't, I'll go on to post. I'm not like one of those, like, you know, scroll, like I'm not scrolling for hours.

14:42And I know that that can sometimes be bad because, you know, we want to stay up to date with everything. We want to be able to, you know, just be educated about everything from the trends to what the hot topics are. But I also feel like that can cloud my, it can, it not only like takes a lot of time, but it just clouds my mind, you know? No, it does. It does. No, you're right. And I think that's brilliant that you don't do that because you're not missing anything. Yeah. I mean, I would definitely be, if I was seeing things like that, I'd be like, what are you talking about? That's what I'm saying.

15:13that's what like honestly that's why I'm asking you because for my entire childhood growing up watching Miss Universe watching Miss World I was like are you serious like South Asian women are like some of the most beautiful women on the planet like what are you guys talking about and I see all these young right okay and and also like the thing is like I've I've seen it with the younger generation that's why I'm bringing it up it's like I've seen a lot of younger creators they're beautiful women beautiful creators they bring our culture up and they also bring this narrative up and it just like breaks my heart to hear that because I'm like we should never have to like no culture should have to deal with that but then also like when things start popping up out of nowhere it makes it even more in my opinion important for brands to exist that really reflect the culture you know what I mean so people can start understanding what we're all about like at the end of the day.

16:03That's really what it is. So yeah, it comes from that understanding. Like, and I get why it's like the younger generation too, because I think we've all experienced different forms of that, like growing up where people don't understand, like coming to school with oil in your hair or, you know, what a bindi is like, I think we all experienced that when we're younger, but I think, you know, this generation, people are just, they're out there, you know, they're online. Like it's, it's so much more important. I think now to even say something, to be like, let me tell you about this. So you know what you're, what you're commenting on.

16:36Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I hear you. Um, no, I want to ask you because I know skincare is an incredibly saturated industry. It's been like that for a few years now and you launched probably when, I mean, this was kind of starting to happen. I feel like, you know, or it was already happening. Um, were you ever like doubtful or like, you know, did you ever have moments where you were like, I don't know about the scaling and I don't know what I'm going to do from the business side with, you know, growing this brand the way I want. I mean, what was that like for you as a young entrepreneur? I mean, of course, there's a lot of self-doubt, I think, especially when you're building something that doesn't exist and people may not really understand it.

17:12And I also think that Procti has grown so much, like even from this initial idea, not knowing like what the products were going to be like, there was no framework like we talked about. And so it's just this like voice in your head that's like, you can do this, you've got this. Like, cause when you're onto something, like you have a gut feeling, right. And you have to learn how to trust yourself. And so it took me, I think a lot of back and forth, but then I got to a point where I really trusted myself. I trusted my judgment and knowing that I really wanted to do this because otherwise, you know, I was, I mean, I've been in the industry since I was 17 as a model.

17:50Like I studied financial economics. I was supposed to go work at a bank. Like I, you know, there were just, my parents still think that I should still go for that. Yeah. They're like, you know, I actually think he'd be great over there. Like, guys, come on now we've been down this road enough. Like I'm not going to do that. But yeah, I think I just knew in my heart that this was exactly what I was meant to do. And it took, it took a lot of, you know, a lot of like, Like, I feel like courage to be like, this is what I want to do. And then afterwards, you just put everything you've got into it. And it wasn't easy.

18:29I mean, it's so hard to give up when you have a road bump and like a bump in the road. And like, it's just so, no, did I say it's so hard? It's so easy to just be like, oh, something wrong happened. Like, I, this isn't for me. You know, this is not going to work out. Or like the first issue that we came across, like, you know, it really tears you up inside because as a founder, it's like directly, you know, it's directly like back to you. But you just have to know that that voice in your head and the gut feeling that you have, you have to keep going. And yeah, I mean, it's challenging. I can't say I haven't cried many nights, you know, when things have happened.

19:07But I just knew that it was what I was meant to do. And so I just, you know, I never gave up on that idea and that feeling of just I'm going to do it. I love that. Yeah, I love that. It's, I mean, it's not easy. And I think that's a really, really important message to put out as well, because I think these days we have, there's so much going on, I think, with the economy that everybody wants to go into entrepreneurship, which is a beautiful thing. I think the more we create, the more we learn and we grow, but there is a real slope here. And I mean, there is a real like learning curve and you exactly how you said so beautifully, Like you can't, it's so easy to give up and it's so easy to be like, this is hard and, you know, but you have to keep going.

19:49So, I mean, just going off of that, what were some of the moments? I mean, maybe walk us through some of your worst stories, you know, what were some of the moments where you felt like, you know, this is tough or this is something that I didn't really plan for? You know, were there any moments like that? Yeah. And I think you only have more and more of those moments, like where it just, because there's like new problems that you never faced. And, you know, you think that in the beginning you get to a point where you're like, oh, yeah, like now I've seen it all. I can I get it all. But it's always evolving.

20:20And I think you have to be able to adapt so quickly. So especially in the beginning, like I didn't have any experience like as a chemist or developing products or even building relationships with different manufacturing labs. And like, I had this idea, you know, of our formulas, not only being these Ayurvedic botanicals, but these like act like advanced actives and having this like idea of balance. And then with the sensory experience brought in, I mean, I can tell you a lot of those conversations with like the, you know, the heads of these labs. They were like, I like, I don't understand this.

20:54I don't, we don't have these Ayurvedic ingredients, like just, you know, like there were so many no's and so many experiences that I had where I'm like, oh my gosh, like what if I can't create these types of products because there's just no existing, you know, structure for them. Yeah, like even I couldn't, like I had to buy so many of the ingredients in our products, like up front, you know, with capital that I didn't have. But even to make the, you know, the different iterations of the product, like not even to launch the product yet. It was just to, you know, try to make it happen. And I think that was really hard because I just felt like, OK, I know that this is going to be really important because we can't ever forget about, you know, including like the adaptogens, the anti-inflammatories.

21:40Like, I mean, for example, like, rhodiola rosea was not something I could just get. Like, I just bring up that as like an example of like, we couldn't just like source that. Like it took a lot to even incorporate that into our, you know, cleanser. And yeah, that was pretty hard because I was like, after talking to a couple labs, I was like, what if I can't actually create products like this? Like the whole idea, you know, this whole idea, but then, then you have enough conversations and you find the right person that understands you, that understands your unique philosophy behind each product and the idea that I want them to have mood boosting aromas because there is a really important experience.

22:19The smell of the product is very important. It can energize or it can calm you. There's a lot of those parts of the product formulation process that really, I think, aged me 10 years. But, you know, I after those, I think I realized like you find the right person and then you just go and you're like, OK, now now you can do this. But that was like one of those times where I was like, oh, my gosh, like if I can't do this, like maybe this isn't the right thing. Maybe it's not possible. And that was probably one of the harder moments at the beginning. Yeah, it makes sense. I mean, especially because you're bringing like a whole like cultural thing over.

22:59That's not it's just harder to source these ingredients. I totally get that. You know, and one of the biggest questions I've had, and I don't know, I mean, how comfortable you're speaking to this, but like clean beauty has been big for a long time, right? You've seen it. So many clean brands. And it was a cool movement there for a while. But I feel like Ayurveda gets lumped up in clean beauty. And I don't like that because I'm like, Ayurveda is a science. There is a science in everything, as you know. And there is a reason why everything is documented the way it is in Ayurvedic literature. And so what were, I mean, did you run into that at all where like maybe retailers or somebody looking at the brand trying to lump it up with clean beauty?

23:38I mean. Yeah. Yeah. I do think that, you know, especially when you have this like unique identity or like product philosophy, like people want to put you in a category. Right. And there is no already existing category, you know, but there's like the clean beauty conversation where Ayurveda is also clean beauty. to in a sense, right? Like we use natural botanical ingredients, like everything from like homemade masks and, and hair oils. Like it is like, that's as clean as you can get. Right. And that's always been a part of what Ayurveda is, but, um, I are Ayurveda is not what I mean is clean beauty is a part of Ayurveda, but Ayurveda is not clean beauty.

24:21And so it's important to be able to communicate and educate on what your brand is saying, right? Like what you want your products to be interpreted as. And yeah, I mean, for sure, like when there are say like clean beauty editorials from retailers that we work with, like I love that Proc is included because that's true. I mean, we are like the cleanest, our clean, like, and I wouldn't even say like credo clean, like EWG, like, you know, there's so many different ways to even talk about clean. But from the beginning, we made sure that we had done all of that. I mean, forget about just clinical testing.

24:58Like it's like the safety, stability, the ocular. I mean, there's just so many things that you want to really focus on in the beginning. And I just think that you shouldn't have to fit into category. And it's hard because people will always try to put you in the category. but really communicating who you are, why the products are different, you know, that's, that's what's important. I agree. That's, that's awesome. I love that. And I, yeah, I like that you pointed that out that Ayurveda is clean. It is clean beauty. It's just, it's, there's also science, you know, like it just happens to be incredibly science backed.