At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring meaningful and inspiring stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of this endeavour, we invited Himani Jain for an exclusive interview with us. Himani is an Entrepreneur and Founder at Cosmolyst. Let’s learn more about her inspiring journey, teaching philosophy, and valuable insights.
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Himani:
You started experimenting with skincare and haircare products as early as 9th grade. What was it about formulations and ingredients that fascinated you, and how did that early curiosity shape the career you eventually built?
My interest in skincare and haircare started quite organically when I was in 9th grade. I was constantly experimenting with DIYs at home; my kitchen was essentially my laboratory at the time! But I wasn’t experimenting just for the sake of it. I became genuinely curious about why certain ingredients worked for particular skin or hair concerns.
I would research which ingredients could help with a specific problem, try them myself, observe the results and, if I saw even the slightest improvement, I would start recommending them to people around me.
That curiosity gradually pushed me beyond DIYs. I wanted to understand what actually happens when you take an ingredient and work with it through science and formulation. At that time, the Indian skincare and beauty market was also evolving, and many of the brands and products that are commonplace today were relatively new.
I started spending hours researching ingredients, understanding their benefits and limitations, studying skin concerns and looking at different brands to understand what they were claiming and how they positioned their products.
I became what I would probably call a complete skincare junkie!
It wasn’t something I consciously planned as a career at that point. It was simply something I was genuinely obsessed with learning about. That curiosity eventually influenced my decision to pursue Pharmacy because I wanted to understand formulations more deeply and learn the science behind how products are actually developed.
During my course, I naturally gravitated towards skin and hair and also worked on academic projects around these areas.
So, in many ways, my career was built backwards. I didn’t first decide that I wanted to work in beauty and then develop an interest in formulations. I first became fascinated by the products, then the ingredients, then the science behind them, and that eventually led me into formulation, R&D and product development as a career.
Even today, when I look at a product, my first instinct is to understand what’s inside it, what problem it is solving, whether the formulation supports the claim and, ultimately, whether it makes sense for the consumer.
That habit of questioning and learning is probably the biggest thing I carried from that 9th-grade curiosity into what I do today.
You’ve worked across R&D, procurement, manufacturing, packaging, branding and sales, and have developed more than 100 products. What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned about taking a beauty product from a laboratory concept to something consumers actually want to buy?
Working across R&D, procurement, manufacturing, packaging, branding and sales has taught me that creating a successful beauty product isn’t just about developing a good formulation.
A product can be scientifically excellent, but if it doesn’t solve a real consumer problem, isn’t easy to use or doesn’t make commercial sense, it can still struggle.
One of my biggest learnings has been to start with the consumer problem, not the ingredient.
There are so many trending ingredients and technologies today, but the question I always ask is: What problem are we actually solving, and will the consumer feel the difference?
The other big lesson is that consumers don’t buy ingredients; they buy outcomes and trust.
You can have the most sophisticated actives in a formula, but if the story isn’t communicated in a way that a real person shopping on their phone can understand in two minutes, the product won’t move.
Having developed more than 100 products across categories, the pattern I keep seeing is that the products that win are the ones where formulation, packaging and messaging are designed together from day one.
They can’t be treated as separate departments where one team develops the product, another figures out the packaging and another comes in later to sell it. It has to work as one product from the beginning.
I’ve also learned that every decision in product development is interconnected. A change in formulation can affect manufacturing, cost, packaging compatibility or stability. Packaging can completely change the consumer experience. And what looks perfect in a laboratory doesn’t always translate into something people actually want to use and repurchase.
That realisation was actually one of the reasons I started Cosmolyst. I got tired of watching good science get lost because the teams building the product and the teams selling it weren’t in the same room.
For me, product development is ultimately about bringing together science, consumer understanding, design and commercial thinking to create something that isn’t just technically good, but something people understand, trust, want to use and ultimately want to buy again.
You identified a gap between formulation, branding, manufacturing and marketing that often leaves founders trying to connect the dots themselves. What made you believe this gap was significant enough to build Cosmolyst around it?
The gap became significant to me because I experienced it from the inside.
While working across different parts of the beauty industry, I realised that the problem was rarely that people didn’t know what they were doing. There were good formulators, manufacturers, packaging teams, branding agencies and marketers.
The problem was that they were often working separately.
A founder might have a very clear product vision, but then have to coordinate with one person for formulation, another for manufacturing, someone else for packaging, another agency for branding and another team for marketing.
Somewhere between all those handovers, the original vision could get diluted.
I saw situations where a product was technically good, but the packaging hadn’t been considered early enough. Or the product was developed first, and the brand story was figured out later. Or a brand had a beautiful product and strong positioning but no clear go-to-market plan.
By the time everyone came together, there were compromises, delays and sometimes products that simply didn’t make commercial sense.
That made me realise something important: in beauty, these aren’t separate problems. They’re all parts of the same problem.
You can’t develop a product in isolation and then think about how to sell it afterwards. The consumer promise, formulation, packaging, pricing, manufacturing feasibility, compliance, branding and go-to-market strategy all influence one another.
I also realised that founders shouldn’t have to become project managers between five or ten different vendors just to bring one product to market.
That was the real motivation behind Cosmolyst. I wanted to create the kind of partner I felt was missing one that could look at the entire journey rather than just one piece of it.
A partner that could sit with a founder at the idea stage and think about the formulation, consumer, packaging, brand, manufacturing, compliance and commercialisation together.
For me, Cosmolyst isn’t simply about offering multiple services under one roof. It’s about connecting the dots early enough that good ideas don’t get lost in execution.
Our philosophy is simple: start with the end consumer and work backwards.
The goal isn’t just to successfully manufacture a product. It’s to build something that is relevant, compliant, well-positioned and commercially viable and ultimately something consumers want to buy.
Today, beauty consumers are increasingly ingredient-conscious and skeptical of marketing claims. In your view, what separates a genuinely effective beauty product from one that is simply well marketed?
I think the biggest difference is whether the product is actually solving a problem or simply selling a story.
I’ve always been very ingredient- and science-oriented, so when I look at a beauty product, I don’t get convinced simply because it has a long ingredient list or an impressive claim.
I want to understand what the formulation is designed to do, whether the ingredients are present at meaningful levels, whether they work well together, whether the product is stable and safe, and most importantly, whether the consumer can actually experience the promised result.
But I don’t think genuinely effective products and good marketing are mutually exclusive.
A great product still needs to be communicated well.
Consumers today are more informed, but they’re also overwhelmed. They don’t have the time to decode a formulation every time they shop for a serum or moisturiser.
So, for me, the sweet spot is science + consumer understanding + honest communication.
A genuinely effective product should have a clear purpose, a well-designed formulation and a meaningful consumer benefit. The claims should be backed by what the product can realistically deliver, not simply by whatever ingredient happens to be trending.
There’s another important lesson I’ve learned through developing products: the consumer doesn’t experience your INCI list; they experience the product.
They experience the texture, application, fragrance, finish, packaging and, ultimately, the results over time. All of those details contribute to whether they trust the product enough to use it consistently and buy it again.
That’s why I believe the strongest beauty products aren’t built around a marketing claim and then formulated backwards to support it.
They’re built around a genuine consumer need, with the science, product experience and communication all working together.
Good marketing can get someone to try a product. But only a genuinely good product can make them stay.
For a founder launching a skincare, haircare or personal-care brand today, what are the biggest mistakes they should avoid when it comes to formulation, product positioning, pricing and commercialisation?
There are several mistakes I see founders make repeatedly.
First, starting with an ingredient instead of a consumer problem. Just because an ingredient is trending doesn’t mean your product needs it. Start with the concern you’re solving and then build the formulation around it.
Second, over-formulating just to sound impressive. More actives don’t automatically mean a better product. Too many ingredients can create compatibility, stability, sensory and cost challenges. A focused, well-designed formula is often much stronger.
Third, treating formulation, packaging and branding as separate steps. These decisions need to happen together. Packaging, texture, dispensing mechanism, claims, price point and brand positioning all influence each other.
Fourth, trying to be everything to everyone. A new brand doesn’t need 10 products or 15 claims at launch. A strong hero product with a very clear consumer proposition can create much stronger recall.
Fifth, copying competitors instead of finding a point of difference. Benchmarking is important, but your product shouldn’t become a slightly cheaper or slightly different version of what’s already in the market. Ask yourself: Why should someone choose this product?
Sixth, pricing based only on cost. Your price cannot simply be COGS plus margin. You need to consider positioning, packaging, channel margins, marketing costs, consumer willingness to pay and the economics of scaling.
Seventh, underestimating commercialisation. Developing the product is only one part of the journey. Manufacturing capacity, MOQ, lead times, packaging availability, regulatory requirements, inventory and cash flow all need to be considered before launch.
Eighth, spending too much on the product and too little on the consumer experience. A brilliant formulation sitting in confusing packaging with unclear communication will struggle. Consumers need to understand what the product does, why it is relevant to them and why they should trust it.
Ninth, launching before validating. Founders sometimes fall in love with their product before allowing consumers to challenge it. Testing the product, claims, pricing, texture, packaging and communication early can save a lot of money later.
And most importantly, don’t confuse launching with building a brand.
A successful launch can create initial sales, but repeat purchases come from the product actually delivering on its promise.
I always believe that the product has to earn the second purchase.
You’ve helped build and scale more than 100 products and worked with emerging and established brands. What patterns have you noticed among beauty brands that successfully move from their first product to ₹1 crore in revenue?
From working on more than 100 products across different categories and brands, I’ve noticed that the brands that successfully move from their first product to ₹1 crore in revenue tend to have a few things in common.
They solve one problem really well. They don’t try to build an entire beauty empire from day one. They usually start with a clear consumer problem and build a strong product around it.
They have a hero product. There is usually one product that becomes the entry point for the brand. Instead of spreading attention across 10–15 SKUs, they focus on making that one product memorable and commercially strong.
They understand their consumer deeply. They know who they’re selling to, what that consumer struggles with, what they’re willing to pay and what makes them choose one product over another.
They don’t confuse trends with demand. A trending ingredient, format or category can create attention, but sustainable growth comes from solving a genuine consumer need.
They focus heavily on repeat purchase. The first sale can come from an influencer, an advertisement or curiosity. ₹1 crore becomes much more achievable when the product itself starts driving the second and third purchase.
They build the brand and product together. The strongest brands have consistency between their formulation, packaging, positioning, content and consumer experience. Nothing feels like an afterthought.
They understand their numbers early. They know their COGS, margins, CAC, channel margins, contribution margin and inventory requirements. Revenue without healthy unit economics can become a very expensive vanity metric.
They test before they scale. Instead of putting a huge amount of money behind an unvalidated product, they use smaller launches, consumer feedback and performance data to understand what’s actually working.
They know when to expand. Once the first product has demonstrated demand, they expand around the same consumer and problem rather than randomly adding products because the market has another trend.
And finally, they’re obsessed with execution. At some point, the difference is no longer just the idea. It comes down to inventory planning, manufacturing, content, customer service, distribution, performance marketing and how quickly the team learns and adapts.
For me, the biggest pattern is this:
The brands that reach ₹1 crore aren’t necessarily the ones with the most products or the biggest launch budgets. They’re the ones that find something people genuinely want, build trust around it and then create a repeatable system to sell it.
Cosmolyst brings formulation, manufacturing, packaging, branding, e-commerce and performance marketing under one ecosystem. How do you balance scientific product excellence with creativity, consumer psychology and commercial growth?
I don’t really see science, creativity and commercial thinking as three separate things. In beauty, they have to work together.
Science tells us what is possible. The formulation has to be effective, safe, stable and technically sound. That’s non-negotiable.
Consumer psychology tells us what matters. A consumer doesn’t necessarily care about the technical complexity of a formula. They care about the problem it solves, how it feels, how quickly they understand it and whether they believe it will work for them.
Creativity tells us how to make that value memorable. This comes through texture, packaging, visual identity, claims, storytelling and the overall product experience. Good science needs good communication to reach the consumer.
Commercial thinking makes sure the product can actually become a business. We have to think about the target price, COGS, margins, packaging feasibility, manufacturing, MOQ, channel economics, customer acquisition and scalability right from the beginning.
But the most important part is when these conversations happen.
I don’t believe in developing the formulation completely in isolation and then bringing in packaging, branding and marketing at the end. At Cosmolyst, we try to bring these perspectives into the conversation much earlier.
For example, a formulation may be technically brilliant, but if it’s too expensive for the intended consumer, difficult to manufacture at scale, incompatible with the chosen packaging or impossible to communicate simply, then we haven’t really built a successful product yet.
That’s why I believe in commercially intelligent product development.
We don’t compromise the science to make something commercial, and we don’t ignore commercial reality in pursuit of perfect science.
The goal is to find the intersection where the formulation delivers, the consumer understands it, the brand makes them want it and the business can sustainably sell it.
That balance is really what Cosmolyst is built around.
What is your larger vision for Cosmolyst, and what do you ultimately want the company to change about the way beauty brands are built in India?
My larger vision for Cosmolyst is to make beauty product development more integrated, more scientific and more commercially intelligent.
I want founders to be able to come to us with an idea and not have to spend months figuring out which formulator, manufacturer, packaging vendor, branding agency or marketing partner they should work with.
More importantly, I want those decisions to be made together rather than sequentially.
I believe India has incredible potential in beauty and personal care. We have access to strong scientific talent, manufacturing capabilities, traditional knowledge, a huge consumer base and an increasingly sophisticated digital ecosystem.
What we need is better integration between all of these capabilities.
For me, Cosmolyst is about building that bridge from idea to formulation, formulation to product, product to brand and brand to business.
Ultimately, I don’t want Cosmolyst to simply be known as a company that helps brands manufacture products.
I want it to be known as the partner that helps founders build better beauty businesses from the ground up with science at the core, the consumer at the centre and commercial sustainability built into the process from day one.
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