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Founder Vasundhara Patni on building a homegrown beauty brand around clean formulations, effortless products, consumer-led innovation and a Rs 500–600 crore FY30 ambition

 

Kiro Beauty was built around a simple observation: while Indian women wanted to wear makeup every day, concerns around ingredients, skin sensitivity and complicated routines remained barriers to regular use.

Founder Vasundhara Patni set out to address that gap with skincare-infused colour cosmetics designed for busy, everyday lives. Today, with 90–92 per cent of sales coming online, the brand is expanding into skincare, quick commerce and offline retail, while looking to build Kiro into a broader ‘house of beauty’.

In an interaction with BW Retail World, Patni discusses the brand’s evolution, its ‘proof over promise’ philosophy, consumer-led product development, omnichannel ambitions and the goal of becoming a Rs 500–600 crore brand by FY30.

Q. How do you describe Kiro Beauty’s position in India’s rapidly evolving colour cosmetics market?
Patni: When I was looking to start Kiro, I began the journey around seven years ago by researching the market. The one thing I realised was that women wanted to use makeup every day. Working women and women with busy lives want to look good, feel good and look presentable in an office, a meeting or wherever they are.

But there were concerns about what was going into makeup products. Traditionally, makeup carried a lot of negative stereotypes around ingredients and their impact on the skin. That became a barrier for women to wear makeup every day.

We spoke to around 200–300 women and realised that everybody wanted to use makeup on a day-to-day basis. Makeup had become part of everyday life, but the quality and ingredients going into the products remained a major barrier.

That is where we created our differentiation. We launched Kiro as a clean, skincare-infused makeup brand, with an emphasis on skincare and what was actually going into the formulations. We focused on making products kind to the skin and suitable for sensitive skin.

We wanted to create a brand for working women, busy women, young mothers and women who have very little time to spend on makeup. The products needed to be effortless and fit into a woman’s routine rather than requiring her to change her routine around them.

We are not creating products for makeup-obsessed women. We are creating products for women who enjoy makeup and want to look a little more polished, presentable, confident or glamorous, depending on their day, while keeping it minimal and practical.

Q. How has Kiro’s clean beauty positioning evolved as more homegrown and clean beauty brands have entered the market?
Patni: I don’t think our positioning has really changed. Luckily, we started this thought process around clean makeup and skincare-infused formulations right from the beginning.

I never thought this was a trend. It was something I believed was here to stay. The next era of beauty, skin and fashion is going to be more conscious. The consumer mindset is changing towards more conscious decision-making.

When we started, clean beauty was definitely a gap in the Indian market. Today, there are many more brands offering clean makeup, skincare and haircare, and the category is gaining traction.

Our conviction towards the idea on which we built Kiro has only grown stronger. We continue to put a lot of emphasis on formulation, testing and consumer feedback.

We are one of the few brands that test makeup the way you would test skincare. Skincare is generally considered more serious in terms of third-party testing, laboratory testing, consumer testing and instrumental testing. We do that with our makeup as well.

We test all our claims, and that helps us stay true to ourselves and maintain the quality of our formulations. We believe in ‘proof over promise’. If we make a promise or claim on a product, we need to have proof to back it up.

Q. How important is consumer feedback in your product development?
Patni: It is extremely important. We speak to consumers regularly and conduct anonymous surveys. Every year, we invest in getting honest feedback on what consumers like, what they do not like, what competitors have that we do not, and which of our products they think are outstanding.

We are constantly changing. We are happy to take feedback and adapt, and that agility is something we want to keep alive within the organisation.

There is also personal testing. The team has to test everything. That is the first layer of testing, after which we take products to laboratories.

For example, when we launched our mascara, my head of NPD and I tested it ourselves, along with the testing we conducted in Italy and India. I slept in it and wore it for four and a half days, while she wore it for seven days.

One has to be very true to yourself and true to the customer.

Q. What have been the key growth drivers for Kiro over the past two to three years?
Patni: We are predominantly an online brand. Around 90–92 per cent of our sales are online, while only around 5–8 per cent comes from offline channels.

Typically, around 40 per cent comes from D2C and another 40 per cent from marketplaces, although the mix varies by month. Quick commerce has also started contributing, while offline accounts for another 5–10 per cent.

We believe there is still a very large opportunity for us to grow across D2C and online marketplaces. Nykaa is the biggest contributor from an online marketplace perspective. They have a fantastic audience and are a major beauty platform.

Quick commerce is also pushing through. We were surprised by how many people wanted products such as lipsticks delivered in under 20 minutes.

When we first onboarded on Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart, we were not sure whether consumers would buy beauty products through these platforms because the mindset seemed to be centred around grocery and food. But it has worked.

The product mix has to be very discerning and limited because otherwise it is not profitable or feasible to be onboarded by these channels. Essential products such as eyeliner pens and kajal do particularly well on quick commerce.

Q. You have recently entered skincare after building Kiro around colour cosmetics. What drove this expansion?
Patni: It was a very natural extension. ‘Skincare-infused makeup’ has been our tagline since we launched. Skincare, good-quality products that care for the skin and are kind to the skin have always been central to our thinking.

Our makeup philosophy started with skincare first. It has always been about conscious, minimal products that enhance rather than mask, and that leave you feeling better while also leaving your skin feeling better.

As we grew and saw the beauty space from inside, we realised that makeup and beauty also start with good skin. Skincare did not seem like a completely new category because these conversations were already happening within our teams around ingredients, testing and efficacy.

Consumers were also thinking more about their skin health alongside how their skin looks, and the two go hand in hand.

We took the same philosophy of effortless, multitasking products for busy women into skincare. Our makeup category already has multi-routine products and multi-sticks, where one product can serve multiple purposes.

Q. What is the philosophy behind Kiro Skin?
Patni: Data, numbers and proof have always been important to us. When we were thinking about skincare, we went back to the drawing board and asked what we would never compromise on. It came down to quality, data, testing and being real and honest with our customers.

The skincare line is based on extensive efficacy testing. We have done in-vitro, in-vivo, consumer and instrumental testing.

From a value perspective, we wanted multifunctional products. We wanted a single product that could help consumers move away from four-step or six-step routines.

K-beauty has popularised the concept of glass skin through extensive routines, but most people do not have the time for 10 or 15 steps. Women have busy lives and many other things to worry about. Their skincare and makeup should not be one of them.

Our day cream, for example, is called Own the Day. It is multifunctional, with SPF 50 using new-age UV filters, moisturisation and brightening ingredients. In a way, it does three things in one product.

That is the kind of easy, effortless product we want to create for the customer.

Q. What are your expansion plans over the next three to five years?
Patni: We are looking at much more aggressive omnichannel growth, with a heavy focus on online. Offline will also grow, but there will be a lot more focus on online channels because we have managed to build a strong audience there and believe there is significant scope.

We are looking at independent kiosk-type retail outlets, as well as more shop-in-shop formats with lifestyle shoppers and Reliance. We are already present there and will be growing that reach.

We are also looking at different categories. Our first step has been moving from makeup into skincare. The future is not limited to makeup or skincare. We will look at categories such as fragrances as and when they come.

The larger vision is to build Kiro as a house of beauty that explores different categories.

Q. How do you see the role of offline retail as Kiro expands?
Patni: Ultimately, the objective is to meet the consumer where they are. We are seeing a great response in our shop-in-shops, MBOs and multi-brand outlets, so we are looking to expand there.

We are already present in most metros and are also looking at Tier 1 cities. Even from a D2C and online perspective, we want to push Tier 1 more aggressively.

There is a lot of scope to grow there. Consumers are changing, mindsets are changing and disposable income is much higher than it has been, so we see a lot of opportunity.

Q. What are your key business priorities as Kiro scales, and what is the ambition for FY30?
Patni: Realistically, by FY30, we are hoping to be a Rs 500–600 crore brand.

When it comes to future growth, the one thing I would put above everything else is high-quality and innovative products.

To build a brand, you need repeat customers. Lifetime value is key in today’s market because the gaps are high. The only way to create a sustainable brand and expect profitable growth is to have a good repeat rate.

And how does that happen? It happens with high-quality products.

If a customer makes a first purchase and the product does not fulfil their requirements or pass their test, they will not come back. So, our long-term priority is product and quality first.

Marketing and distribution are important, but the core of the business is product and product quality. That is something I am not willing to compromise on.

Q. How important will distribution be as you scale?
Patni: Distribution is extremely important. We need to be where the customer is. If we do not exist there, we have lost out on a sale.

The customer today is comfortable shopping across so many different channels. It is no longer a funnel approach.

Earlier, you would go to a shop, ask the shopkeeper and buy a product. Today, I think it is one big zigzag maze. You see an ad, see something on Instagram, check it out on Facebook, visit the website, go to Nykaa, look at reviews and then go to Amazon to understand discounts.

So, we have to be available everywhere. That is a given.

But growth will happen with the product at its core. Otherwise, I do not think we will be able to build a brand for India that sustains itself in the market.

Q. What do you ultimately want Kiro to represent as a homegrown brand?
Patni: I do not want Kiro to just be known as an Indian makeup brand. I want it to be a successful, high-quality Indian brand.

I do not want people to simply say that Kiro is doing well or growing well. I want people to actually be proud that it is a homegrown Indian brand and proud of the quality of the products coming from it.

The idea is that we want to build a brand made for women and their everyday lives. It has to become part of their everyday lives.

Those are the values we will stick by as we continue to grow the brand.