Sunscreen. Sunscreen. Sunscreen. Dr Renita Rajan can’t emphasise sufficient on the significance of this straightforward cream/lotion/gel that usually will get missed in lieu of extra fancy therapies and lotions.
“Sun protection has to be in place. What is the cause of pigmentation and most problems we face? Sun contributes to 80-90% of these,” says Dr Renita of Chennai’s Render clinic. She says, when she started practising as a dermatologist 16 years in the past, she observed many individuals discovered it troublesome to put on sunscreen on this humid local weather. So, she began counselling them. “I used to put out a basket of sunscreen, and clients would choose from it,” she says.
Dr Renita simply celebrated the fifth anniversary of Chosen by Dermatology, her derma-cosmetic brand that focusses on the necessities and issues of pores and skin of color. Headquartered in Chennai, Chosen was launched in January 2020. By March that yr, they needed to shut down due to the pandemic and subsequently, the web retailer, Chosen.in was born in April.
A product by Chosen
“We started with four products. Sunscreen is the biggest portfolio, followed by collagen, hair care, and face serums,” she says.
The number of merchandise proceed to develop after intense R&D. Dr Renita says that the sunscreens took them over 700-800 trials to good as a result of they had been engaged on a selected transient. “We are making them for skin of colour, and we needed UVA coverage as well. We did not want to do sunscreen that had endocrine disrupting properties. Then we had to choose between zinc and titanium. Zinc is known to be absorbed well but it can be ecologically damaging. So we went with nano zinc,” explains the 44-year-old.
“We needed product to stay on skin, so we went with six to eight hours of immersion testing,” provides Dr Renita, whereas talking about how lengthy it takes to comes up with a product. The crew at Chosen — with crops in Chennai and Puducherry — is now additionally engaged on hair color, slated to be out there in two years.
While creating merchandise, Dr Renita, who’s an alumna of Christian Medical College, Vellore and Government Kilpauk Medical College, says she seems at issues that dermatologists face, and identifies particular areas to take care of them head on.
The merchandise needed to be secure, efficient and people sporting them needed to really feel good after they had it on. “We were listening to people all the time and taking their inputs. For example, using retinol makes the skin dry, and we had to tinker with it to find a solution,” she explains.
Earlier probably the most rampant downside she observed was individuals with topical steroid broken face. Skin lightening merchandise that they used would trigger pigmentation, sensitivity and many others. She is joyful to notice that the obsession with gentle pores and skin is now dying down. However, pores and skin sensitivity remains to be a priority. “People use 10-15 products on their face. Especially when layering multiple brands on the face, they don’t even know the product compatibility,” she says, including, “Bad skincare is a calamity.”
Lately, there’s a sturdy need for youthful wanting pores and skin. We see it earlier in girls and later in males, however we see it in each genders, she says. Most of her shoppers are within the 29 to 45 age bracket and are from the southern states with a smattering from the opposite metros.
Entrepreneurship is difficult, she laughs. “I was trained to be a doctor. As a doctor I am always reading you, assessing you, making quick decisions… With entrepreneurship, there is endless listening and taking everybody’s viewpoints into mind.”
With a following of 223K on Instagram, Dr Renita has constructed fairly a group. A group that she says helps rather a lot by way of suggestions be it packaging, packet sizes, or flavours of collagen… While there are complimentary messages and feedback, there are additionally messages that say the product shouldn’t be on top of things only a week after a launch. “These help guide us,” she says.
Published – February 26, 2025 11:53 am IST
