Shaily Kataruka
Ever since my school days, I was torn between two ambitions: becoming an entrepreneur and being a creative person. It was hard to choose between the two.
Trying to strike a balance, I completed a course in Fashion Design and Information Technology from NIFT, New Delhi. My first job after that was as a lead designer with an Ahmedabad-based firm that designed Christmas décor. However, I let it go when I married into a business family from Kolkata.
My new family owned a cosmetic manufacturing company that was chiefly into exports.
While my family became my priority at that time, I remained determined to follow through with my ambitions some day. My husband and father-in-law played huge roles, eventually, for me to pave my way. With their profound experience in the cosmetics industry, they looked for a range of products that would not only fill in a prominent need gap in the market, but also evolve into a brand that offered the best quality to customers.
This would lead to the birth of a unique brand of premium hair products: The Earth Collective.
Why hair care?
I have always had good hair and have always experimented with it. I have tried chemical treatments, haircuts, hairstyles, haircare routines — a host of things to keep it shiny and healthy. After having children, especially my daughter, I began to take care of their hair right away. My husband Ashish, on the other hand, was never much into hair care and ended up suffering significant hair loss. Amongst my family and friends, I came across many who faced various issues regarding hair care and nourishment.
Ashish, based on his personal experience and industry insights, told me that there were some deficiencies in the Indian haircare sector. While people kept searching for good hair products, they hardly ever focussed on scalp care. We wanted to make everyone appreciate that taking care of the scalp was essential for healthy, lustrous locks. The truth is, only proper nourishment of the scalp can ensure beautiful hair.
Coming into being
Our solid background in the cosmetics industry — complete with technical knowhow, an efficient R&D team and a certified manufacturing unit — helped us plunge headlong into years of research and development before launching The Earth Collective.
We began with the intention of launching an all-natural range and studied natural regimens popular across the globe. However, it soon struck me that scientific innovations can immediately enhance this natural goodness to lead to high-quality hair solutions.
We focused primarily on quality, stayed away from harmful chemicals and sourced the best ingredients to make result-oriented effective products. Over the years, our knowledge in cosmetics blossomed as we gathered practical experience in the benefits of the constituents of each product. With time we even understood that every hair type is different and deserves products suited it its concern. And so, we worked on a range of products catering to almost all hair concerns, so that there is something for everyone.
The finishing touches
The products were ready. Now it was time to represent the brand’s essential spirit through right packaging and creative communication. This is where my professional training in design came in handy. This painstaking process finally stamped our vision on every package that housed our products.
Along the way, we were lucky to have come across people and companies who understood and shared my vision for the brand. With their help, I got the opportunity to not only take my family’s legacy forward, but turn it into my own.
Featured in
