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Welcome to The Quality Makers, an interview series highlighting pioneers in the direct-to-consumer space. Join us as we get an inside look at the world of digital shopping through the eyes of the individuals shaping it…
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Originally from India but currently based in Nashville, Priyanka Ganjoo is the founder of Kulfi Beauty: a brand focused on creating space for joy, fun and self-expression in beauty through high-performance products. Formerly at Estee Lauder and Ipsy, Ganjoo moved from India to Singapore for a bit and then stayed in the US after making her way here for school. Through all these global living experiences Priyanka still never saw herself represented in beauty in a way in which she felt included. And thus, Kulfi was born. Read our interview below.
Tell me about Kulfi Beauty and what led you to the name.
Kulfi is about centering joy and celebrating South Asian beauty. I never felt that I belonged in the beauty industry, it always came with all this judgment. Especially in my community, wearing makeup was about attracting the male gaze or about making my nose look smaller – it definitely wasn’t associated with making me feel good about myself. That shifted for me personally only in my late 20s, when I started working in the beauty industry. I began playing around with eyeshadow and glitter and it was fun! I realized that beauty can be all about self expression, about enjoying the moment and practicing that ritual of putting on a loved beauty product. When that shift happened, it led me to Kulfi, because I wanted to create something that's playful and approachable, where people feel included regardless of who they are and what their relationship with makeup is.
In terms of the name, ‘kulfi’ is a South Asian dessert, similar to ice cream. It's colorful, it has this beautiful texture and flavor, and we eat it at celebrations like weddings. As I was thinking about what to name my brand, I thought back to all my favorite memories growing up, and those were eating kulfi on a hot summer's day.
My vision for Kulfi has always been that it is a global brand because there's a global need for it. In fact, when I first left my job, I visited India and did interviews over there because I believe South Asians should be given more space in the beauty industry. Eurocentric beauty standards are the norm in most of the world and I want Kulfi to be there for everyone, on a global scale, so we can challenge that together.
Your brand is about celebrating South Asian beauty. What does that look like?
We’re always thinking about how we can best amplify those of the culture that are doing this work already. There isn't a single definition of South Asian beauty. There’s no standard or one aesthetic or monolithic way of being. Having to conform to anything in order to be considered a part of South Asian beauty goes against everything we stand for. For example, we just launched our Brow Gel ($26), which is really inspired by hair oiling and celebrating body and facial hair. We found the model for our campaign, this beautiful girl named Tanya, through a community casting we did on TikTok. She has a unibrow that is beautiful and when we asked her not to cut her eyebrows before she came in for the shoot, she couldn’t believe it. I was so impressed by how comfortable she felt owning her look, owning her unibrow and I just wish I could be her when I grow up! Being able to give anyone like Tania a platform to shine on, is how we celebrate South Asian beauty at our best.
What do you have to say about the link between makeup and self care?
We launched with our Kajal liners which came in Black, our Nazar No More ($20) shade, but also in a variety of other colors. The key was really about taking that frame of the patriarchy and the Eurocentric gaze and shifting it back to self expression, using makeup to express yourself with color. Something that has stood out to me from the testimonials we’ve gotten, is that when putting on makeup, many feel it’s their moment to really take care of themselves. Especially being an immigrant, woman of color, there's an expectation, and something we’re culturally accustomed to, to not put yourself or your own self care first. Those 10 minutes you take to put on your makeup, do your skincare routine or wash your hair, become your moment and ritual of self care, of prioritizing yourself. I’m so glad we’ve been told that our products make a difference in that ritual.
We’re bringing back the Nazar No More campaign in May, which is going to be tied to giving back to mental health organizations. When we launched the brand in 2021, our Nazar No More campaign spoke to our community’s desire to push back against the toxic beauty standards that we grew up with, and to use beauty and makeup as a way to express ourselves. In the past 3 years, it's been an honor to hear how people’s relationship with beauty is related to their mental health. Some of the ways we see this relationship everyday is by feeling empowered to set boundaries online and in real life when wearing makeup, without worrying about “what people will say”; not feeling guilty about spending time and money on beauty when it makes you feel good – even though in some immigrant households it could be considered wasteful or selfish; or wearing a colorful Kulfi kajal eyeliner for the first time and feeling like an absolute baddie!
Self-expression is closely tied to mental health. That’s why we are committed to partnering with organizations to provide greater access to mental health services. 5% of proceeds from all Kajal Eyeliner sales will be donated to Sad Girls Club, in support of their mission to champion young women of color through various mental health initiatives. We’re also partnering with Samar Haron, LMFT & Clinical Director of @TherapyinColour. Samar will be creating exclusive mental health forward content that spotlights the South Asian community.
What’s your creation process like? Tell me about your hero product.
When I first started working on the brand, I was just DMing people on the internet to meet me in coffee shops in New York, so I could ask them about their beauty routines. I heard a lot of South Asian women say: “I used to wear a lot of Kajal but it was my mom’s” or “I used to wear it but I’m not feeling drawn to it anymore.” That was my ‘aha’ moment because this is such a staple in South Asian culture and I haven’t seen anyone reimagine it for us. That’s why Kajal was our first product and has become our hero product.
How do you celebrate diversity at Kulfi Beauty?
From the start, we’ve had a blog called Kulfi Bites, where we showcase different, up and coming writers with different perspectives. It was always important for me to share different and intersectional points of view. That’s evolved into more short form video content, from the creators we partner with, to the models we cast for our campaigns. In terms of product development, we make sure we have a diverse range of people across all ages, genders, backgrounds, etc. The people who we choose to work with, both in front of and behind the camera, are how we're really celebrating diversity.
What differentiates you from other brands in the industry?
Many of our products were inspired by commentary on how we always find amazing trade matches, whether it's for our Concealer ($26) or our purple blush called Lucky Lotus ($28), that looks so beautiful on all kinds of undertones. Finding those shades that really work for this large group of people who feel underrepresented in the beauty industry is what makes us stand out. The reason we're able to come up with those is because we're doing focus groups, we're doing interviews, we're really building a lot of this with our community.
One thing that definitely comes to mind is our color stories, which are in many ways inspired by South Asian textiles and art. If you look at our Kajal colors, we have the beautiful Jungle Gems (Green) $20, or for our eyeshadows, we have this stunning chartreuse, called Chammak Challo (Chartreuse Duo Chrome) $30. Our eyeshadow is called Zari Eyes, and Zari is the silver and gold threads in a lot of South Asian garments. That’s what sparked the idea of having those shimmers for the eyes. There’s a lot of storytelling behind our themes.
What do you hope people will take away from your brand when engaging with it?
I definitely come back to this feeling of joy. Putting on makeup is an intimate and personal thing. Adding joy to that experience is really all I hope for. I want to remind people that makeup should never be about conforming to a certain standard or looking a certain way. I want people to be able to express themselves authentically.
Even just reflecting on how far we've come since we first started, I am so proud and I hope people notice that. As I think about the future, there really is a global need for this kind of dialogue, not just with us, but with many brands who are pushing for inclusion, and making an underrepresented population feel seen. I would love for Kulfi to go global and continue to grow and build in color. I’ve been thinking of other areas in which we could serve our community better. There's limitless opportunities for us to take our brand vision further and bring our brand story to more people.
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