Walk into any of her clinics and a refreshing sight greets you — a colourful assortment of fresh almond paste, beetroot juice, grated cucumber, milk and honey in glass bowls arranged on a bright green banana leaf. All good enough to eat, sure… but these pastes and mixes are used as skin treatment.
Nirmala Shetty says she believes in treating skin and hair with the best, purest and natural ingredients. During a herbal manicure, for instance, you soak your hands in rosewater containing neem leaves, followed by scrubbing with a loofah and husk; lemon wedges are used to clean nails — no acetone, please — and the pack made of dry fruits and lentils is washed off with milk! “I am strongly against bleaching and colouring as it damages skin and hair,” she says.
What began for her as an experiment 20 years ago has resulted in a popular brand name for hair- and skincare. The founder of Nirmal Herbal is also a panellist on former beauty queen and actor Sushmita Sen’s ‘I am She’ training programme for beauty pageants.
“As a young girl I was always experimenting with natural ingredients to improve skin blemishes and other problems. I used to read up and began making my own potions. I started practising with turmeric and gram flour, as these two ingredients are very good for the skin.”
When she shared her potions with friends, the positive response encouraged her some more. However, after graduation she began working at a petroleum company. After close to 18 years, she left to set up a venture of her own.
Her home-made potions sold briskly through a form of chain marketing. This spurred her to learn more and increase her product portfolio. “I enrolled for courses in herbal cosmetics, read books and even did a course in Naturopathy. Besides all this, my own research was continuous.”
Her husband, Jay, was actively involved too. “Without his support I would not be able to manage. In spite of all the financial upheavals and growing children, we put our nose to the grindstone and succeeded.”
Despite the absence of the security of a fixed monthly income, the couple persevered in the business with confidence and optimism. And it paid off.
“We began with, and still have, a fixed routine… only the quantity of ingredients may vary. We collect about 400 five-petal hibiscuses for the hair products, order the best almonds for skin products, and buy the best papayas and saffron for our products,” she says.
Her husband is in charge of shopping for the ingredients. The almonds, papaya, saffron and wheat grass are soaked overnight. The next morning, Nirmala takes over the mixing and grinding for the various potions.
During the initial stages of the business, the only equipment they needed was a mixer-grinder. Later, they needed to store the products for an entire day without the use of chemical preservatives. While the juices are stored in thermos containers other products are refrigerated.
What Nirmala doesn’t promise are quick results. “If you have been damaging your skin for years with soap or chemical products, changing over to herbal and natural methods will not change your skin and hair overnight. It will take time and effort on your part.”
Today, she knows many of her clients on a first-name basis; she doesn’t sell her products over the counter. “I prefer to know my clients and their skin. Though I have a demand for mass production, I will not get into it.”
Nirmala’s skincare musts
Avoid using soap as far as possible.
Use fruits, lentils as scrubs.
Combine green gram and almond for a good scrub.
Clean face with curd/ buttermilk.
Apply tomato pulp and grated cucumber for a glowing skin.