Making Cruelty Free Beauty Popular
Sargam Dhawan Bhayana, Director, Tressmart Marketing, recently acquired a Dutch vegan and cruelty-free skincare brand to cater to this demand. As a winner of BW Disrupt’s YEA 2021, she talks about her journey and the road ahead.
What is Tressmart’s core competency?
Tressmart started as a distribution house. We import beauty products from different countries such as the UK, Israel and USA. We are exclusive distributors of DAFNI in India which includes their make up eraser and style ideas. We now have two e-commerce platforms as well where one is specifically for hair products and the other, ‘Glow by Tressmart’, is for skincare products.
How would you describe your journey as an entrepreneur? What pushed you towards it?
My journey has been filled with a lot of learnings and challenges but it has been an exciting one. It feels nice when you get acknowledged for the work you are doing, it pushes you to work harder. My father and grandfather have been an inspiration for me. I learnt the art of hard work from them and their values and outlook towards life inspired me to start something of my own and that is how Tressmart was conceptualised and eventually became a reality.
How has the Covid phase been for Tressmart and the beauty industry? What were some positives that you took from this phase?
Covid has been very difficult for Tressmart and the beauty industry in general as well. There was a lot of hesitancy among consumers to buy beauty products without actually trying or testing them. At the same time salons and beauty stores were shut for a long time. Due to this the industry had to make a shift to online platforms. Even we launched our e-commerce platform in June 2020. In the long term though, I think that stakeholders will be benefited due to their presence across offline and online platforms.
You recently acquired a Dutch vegan and cruelty-free skincare company, Paul Penders. What specific trends did you pick in the Indian market that pushed you to acquire it?
I realised that there is a growing awareness among people regarding adopting a vegan lifestyle in India. They are now more conscious of what they are consuming and this consciousness got a boost after Covid as people started giving more time to their wellbeing and health. So, I thought that it was the best time to acquire a vegan and cruelty-free brand. People now check before purchasing whether a brand is cruelty-free or not.
How would you describe your experience at BW Disrupt’s YEA 2021?
What BW Disrupt has done is absolutely phenomenal, we got to meet entrepreneurs from different sectors and it is always inspiring to learn from their journeys. You get that encouragement to scale up your venture. It also helps in networking with fellow entrepreneurs who are doing well. Lastly, as one gets recognised, they get the motivation to work harder and innovate further.
