Latest news with #PriyankaGanjoo
Graziadaily
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Graziadaily
I've Replaced My Foundation With This Cult US Concealer
A good concealer goes a long (long) way. For me, a good one will brighten under eyes, correct imperfections and lift my complexion, but a great concealer will go way beyond that. It comes equipped with a host of benefits that rights the wrongs of other traditional formulas, whether that be based on shade ranges, finish or staying power. Personally, I know I've found the right one when it slowly starts to replace my foundation day-to-day and Kulfi's Main Match Concealer, £26, has done just that. Already a bestseller in the USA, where the brand first made its debut in 2021, Kulfi's concealer sits within a line up of joyful, visually masterful products that are intent on reclaiming the beauty narrative. Rooted in South Asian culture and founder Priyanka Ganjoo's own experience of working in the corporate beauty world, Kulfi functions as a love letter to self-expression, culture and storytelling. In a world where beauty has become a homogenised image of minimal, stripped-back, clean-girl aesthetics, Kulfi offers up the colourful alternative intended for all. Sameeha using the Kulfi Main Match Concealer 'After five years in the corporate beauty world, one truth became impossible to ignore: South Asian people were still an afterthought. Shade ranges skipped us. Campaigns excluded us. And the big brands didn't see a reason to change. Growing up, make-up was frowned upon in my community - seen as vanity, rebellion, or a way to lighten our skin. But in my twenties, I began to reclaim it. Make-up became joy, play, and self-expression. Kulfi was born from that shift. From the excitement of finding the perfect shimmer. From the dream to build a space that didn't ask us to change - but celebrated us as we are,' explains Ganjoo. It's fitting then, that Space NK has marked South Asian Heritage Month by bringing an unapologetically cultured brand into the fold. That sense of celebration and affirmation is woven into the fabric of Kulfi's DNA and can be felt across all touch points, from the brand's campaign imagery to its product packaging, which have all guaranteed it cult status State-side. The Main Match Concealer is a snapshot of that success. With 21 inclusive shades all named after South Asian hallmarks (read: Paan Party and Bad Badaam), the concealer puts skin first with a cocktail of complexion-hugging ingredients like antioxidant-rich amla fruit, hydrating saffron flower, moisturising rosehip and soothing licorice root extract, so you can treat your skin while perfecting the look of it instantly. That cocktail allows for comfortable wear, a radiant-finish, and medium, buildable coverage – something key to the Kulfi community. Sameeha using the Kulfi Main Match Concealer In fact, the concealer was co-created with 300 of its members to specifically cater their needs: 'high coverage while being lightweight, shades that matched their skin tones and undertones perfectly, and colour correction and concealing in a single product,' the brand's website claims. Having finally got my hands on the well-loved concealer thanks to its exclusive UK launch with Space NK, I can confirm the Main Match Concealer certainly meets that brief. Sameeha Shaikh, beauty writer, says: 'I like to call myself a concealer loyalist, once I find the one it takes a lot to have my head turned by something new. But it certainly helps when the creator of said concealer is sat right in front of you. I recently met Priyanka Ganjoo, who embodies the feel-good energy of Kulfi, ahead of the brand's UK launch into Space NK. She was quickly able to prescribe a shade match without so much as swatching anything on my skin. Her guess was, of course, correct. Aside from the incredibly close shade match, I was taken by its comfortable feel and finish. It is light and traceless on the skin, and yet somehow manages to cover all my pesky blemishes and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, all without getting caky or intensely creasing. Its radiant finish is skin-like which is only helped by its hydrating feel, too. Having used it since Ganjoo introduced it to me during our one-to-one, it's safe to say I've well and truly had my head turned.' 1. Kulfi Main Match Concealer This concealer promises to be crease-proof, self setting, and hydrating, while boasting a radiant finish and medium, buildable coverage. It is also loaded with a host of skin hugging ingredients like antioxidant-rich amla fruit, hydrating saffron flower, moisturising rosehip and soothing licorice root extract. Sameeha Shaikh, beauty writer, says: 'Aside from being an incredibly close shade match, I was taken by this concealer's comfortable feel and finish. It is light and traceless on the skin, and yet somehow manages to cover all my pesky blemishes and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, all without getting caky or intensely creasing. It's radiant finish is skin-like which is only helped by its hydrating feel. Having used it since Ganjoo introduced it to me during our one-to-one, it's safe to say I've well and truly had my head turned.' Pros Infused with skincare Light, breathable finish Cons While well considered, other brands offer a wider shade range Sameeha Shaikh is Grazia's beauty writer, covering all categories to bring you insights on the latest trends, industry news and the products you need to know about, viral or not (most probably viral).
Refinery29
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Refinery29
Meet Kulfi, The South Asian-Inspired Beauty Brand Making Waves At Space NK
All linked products are independently selected by our editors. If you purchase any of these products, we may earn a commission. I distinctly remember the day when I was at school and a boy in my maths class slipped me a note. I opened it and staring back at me was a rudimentary caricature of me, only with big, fat caterpillars where my brows should be. I wanted to disappear. The following year, I obsessively tweezed my brows to the point where they were uneven, scrawny husks of their former selves (luckily they grew back) and began shaving my arm hair and bleaching my moustache — even though it made my skin itch like it was on fire. It was one thing to be aware of things I didn't like about myself, but it was as if my worst fear was realised when other people noticed them, too. As a mixed-race Asian-American woman, I felt like I was constantly retaliating against my body's natural tendency towards hairiness; many Japanese women I saw looked as smooth as a dolphin and it made me feel like a beast in comparison. The stigma I experienced as a woman with visible body and facial hair was even heavier with the pressure of Asian beauty standards — and I'm not alone. A similar story inspired Priyanka Ganjoo to create a beauty brand, Kulfi, that celebrates and represents her Indian heritage. One of the brand's launches, Free The Brow, particularly embodies the brand's ethos of celebrating and enhancing your natural features: In addition to defining and enhancing brows in a single sweep, it conditions them with ingredients like vitamin E and sunflower oil. (Before you ask, no: It doesn't tame brows, because spoiler alert — they don't need to be tamed in the first place.) In an interview with R29, Priyanka gets candid about embracing body hair, finding inspiration in South Asian culture and why she's on a mission to make makeup fun again. The following interview was told to Karina Hoshikawa and has been edited for length and clarity. On starting a beauty brand It's wild to me that I started a makeup brand because I didn't even wear makeup until my late 20s. I just felt like it wasn't for me — it was for a certain aesthetic or a certain type of girl that wasn't me. I didn't feel included in that conversation. I did an MBA and got into the beauty industry from a business side at Estée Lauder, and then at Ipsy. I realised that makeup can be really fun, and I started trying things by myself and went on this discovery. I wondered, Are there brands serving South Asian consumers?, both from a product perspective — their undertones, products that address their concerns — but also the community. So I decided to do it myself. I wanted to embrace the fun, playfulness and artistry of makeup. That's what we're called Kulfi. Kulfi is a South Asian ice cream dessert that's colourful, flavorful and delicious. I wanted beauty to feel like that experience, too. It's fun to put on glittery eyeshadow! [It means so much to me] for people to see a brand called Kulfi — which, again, if you're South Asian, you get it immediately — and feel seen in that. On embracing facial & body hair Growing up, I had a lot of facial hair and my brows were made fun of. If you had one piece of hair on your arm, you were teased for it. I grew up in India and it was the case there, too. Even though those were our natural features, we were aggressively trying to get rid of facial hair and have super skinny brows. It took a lot of unlearning for me to embrace my hair like that, which led to Free The Brow. It doesn't just make your brows beautiful and look laminated, but it actually supports and nourishes your brows. Hair oiling is an Indian beauty tradition, where we try to make our hair thicker, longer and more luscious — [ Free The Brow ] is inspired by that but for your brows. I'm so glad we're able to create products like that and have this beautiful campaign. I wanted someone with a unibrow for this campaign, and the model we found applied to our TikTok casting call. She was like, 'I've never touched my brows.' She just walked in so proud of her brows and the result is beautiful. It's such an emotional story to grow up wanting to get rid of all your [facial] hair, and it's kind of crazy how so many of us have had these experiences because we've been trained to think that facial hair is bad, or that thick brows are masculine — like that's inherently negative. On being inspired by South Asian culture We're inspired a lot by South Asian culture and textile art. When we launched the kajal eyeliner, the colours were inspired by saris and the colours we see in clothes: shades like teal and terracotta that we know are flattering on us when we wear [them] but hadn't been translated to makeup. We have this beautiful duochrome shadow in chartreuse with this greenish-gold shift. It's such a unique colour in makeup, but actually, there are a lot of Indian textiles and art that use that colour. Being able to take that inspiration and translate that into makeup is the artistry part of our brand. Most people want to have a black liner in their makeup kit, but what our community also told us is that they're tired of seeing the same shades every brand has to offer. There is this desire for something that helps them experience joy. This is just a starting point. I honestly feel like within the beauty industry, there was this call for diversity and inclusion when Fenty [Beauty] launched, and there was this huge momentum during the Black Lives Matter movement. There's so much work still to be done and shade inclusion is not just about foundation shades, right? It's also about how we create blushes, lipsticks and all these other products that look flattering on a diverse set of skin tones. If you have a deep skin tone, one blush shade shouldn't be the only option you have on the table. There's still so much we have to do and that's what I'm really excited for in the future, to keep kind of pushing those boundaries and keep making beauty fun for everyone. We've received messages where people are like, 'I love that you put someone who looks like me on the campaign because it makes me feel seen,' and 'I didn't see that growing up in a small town where I was the only person of colour.' We have people share stories like that, stories that are really, really powerful. On her favourite Kulfi products Oh, this is a hard one. I have a very special spot in my heart for our Zari Eyes eyeshadow because I used to be terrified of eyeshadow. Lipstick is, in some ways, easier — you just put it on. I could do that. Eyeshadow was more intimidating and I thought it didn't look good on me. That's why we [created] our formula, which is intentionally designed to apply the most beautifully if you use your fingers. It actually picks up very little product with a brush. [But when applying with fingers], literally in a minute, you can have a beautiful eye look that's really easy. I use it all the time because it made this thing that was so complex easy for me and enjoyable. It represents everything we're trying to do. Obviously, the Mehendi Moment blush. Initially, there was hesitation because purple blushes aren't as mainstream, but this has actually become our bestselling blush shade. It's a pink-toned purple that looks beautiful on olive undertones and I love that it came from our community not wanting just one mauve option for blush. We're trying to create this assortment of colours that everyone feels welcome to play with and that looks good on a variety of skin tones. Combined with our storytelling and the inspiration we get from South Asian culture, there's so much more we can do.
Buzz Feed
30-06-2025
- Business
- Buzz Feed
Priyanka Ganjoo Of Kulfi Beauty Talks Representation In The Beauty Industry
When you browse through the aisles of Sephora, you'll find popular, innovative, and beloved beauty brands. Brands like Rare Beauty, Fenty Beauty, and Rhode Beauty, to name a few, but there's one brand that's changing the game in the industry, through rich culture and inclusivity at the forefront: Kulfi Beauty. Kulfi Beauty is the very first South-Asian owned beauty brand to be carried by Sephora, and that's only one of their very impressive feats. Known for their brightly colored packaging, inclusive marketing campaigns, and popular products, Kulfi Beauty's mission is to provide cosmetics that nurture self-expression and joy. In honor of AAPI Heritage Month in May, we sat down with Kulfi Beauty's founder Priyanka Ganjoo to chat through South Asian representation in beauty, building a global beauty brand, and more. Where did your love of makeup come from? What does representation in beauty mean for you? Within the beauty industry, there are definitely improvements to be made regarding inclusion and diversity, which is why Kulfi Beauty is such an important brand in the space. And so, how do you think the industry has improved on inclusion and diversity, and what would you love to see brands do more of? Priyanka: One of the biggest things that has changed is that consumers know that they deserve better now. Growing up, we didn't have the language to say, 'We need better undertones of lipsticks.' Instead, we just said, 'Oh, I guess pale lipstick doesn't look good on me.' Now, I think consumers are more educated, and they can tell if the brand has kept diverse skin tones in mind, or have they just completely dropped the ball? I do think that's really important, because once the consumer is talking about it, companies start thinking, 'Okay, maybe we should start paying attention to this too,' and that's really promising. I remember during my corporate experiences being like, 'We need to have more diversity,' and it took a brand like Fenty Beauty for people to suddenly pay attention to the fact that we needed that. When Fenty Beauty happened, the pace to include more diversity was slow, because inherently in the corporate world, if things are going well, there's no incentive to change things. It's very hard to make that change from within, and that's part of the reason I wanted to start my own company — because making that change within companies is really hard when it has to come from the top down, right? It has to come from this goal of wanting to be better, which is why I think what Sephora is doing is really interesting, too. Obviously, we are an exclusive partner with Sephora, but they started working with us before we had even launched because they took the 15% pledge to have at least 15% of their shelf space be for brands with founders of color, and it kind of came from the top to be like, 'We really care about this.' I do think that more companies need to do that, and I do think that ultimately the consumer is going to decide. I'm really optimistic that if people keep asking, the change will happen. BuzzFeed: I definitely think there has been a shift, and people are much more vocal about calling out brands — like when a brand's shade range is not inclusive at all or really only targeted towards a very small Exactly. Like, the problem is not you, it's the brand not providing the offering. Because I think growing up, we felt like we were the problem, like it didn't look good on us, versus no, actually the brand has not designed something that's complementing you. And that's just so liberating, to be like, 'There's nothing wrong with me.' You mentioned Sephora, and of course, we have to talk about it! Kulfi Beauty disrupted the beauty industry, and you made history as the first South Asian owned beauty brand to be carried within the store. I want to congratulate you on that, and I would love to know: How does it feel to achieve such a milestone? Priyanka: It's very heartwarming to be able to walk into a Sephora and see the word "kulfi," and see a brand that's loud and proud about being South Asian in makeup. Specifically, it's also just a brand that's really talking about joy. Honestly, every time I walk in the store, I'm always pinching myself and saying, "This is amazing." But I think what's more important is our community feeling that joy and happiness. I remember receiving DMs from Indian-American customers saying how they walked into Sephora with their parents and were staring at the display for a long time in shock that there was a space in the store where they felt seen. That's why it's so important, right? It's so important to have that shelf space because we are part of the cultural narrative globally, and having that space is really special. To have it in a retailer like Sephora, which is best in class, is amazing. Do you have advice to share on building community and the importance of it? Your brand is about celebrating South Asian beauty. What does that look like? Priyanka: I think of it as both product innovation and storytelling. On the product innovation side, let's take mascara for example. Our Badi Lash Mascara is a tubing mascara, which we focused on volumizing and lifting because one of the things we found, especially with Asian lashes, is that they're generally straight. We found that the issues our community was facing with their lashes had not really been addressed with tubing mascaras in particular. And so, the product innovation was like, 'How do we service that in a formula that gives you length and gives you pigment, but it's also volumizing and lifting, but doesn't smudge through the day?' So that's where I would say we're always thinking about the product innovation based on the needs of the community. As another example, the reason our concealer has become a fan favorite when there are so many concealers out there is because we really nailed the undertones. A lot of people write to us to say things like "I have never found a shade match as good as the Kulfi concealer because I feel like you guys designed it for me." And to that, I say yes, we did design it for you because we really worked on those undertones. So, there's that product gap of how do we create products that serve the community in a way that they have not been served before?But then there's also the storytelling, which we always try to infuse our culture in. I have to give a nod to our first campaign launch, which was for the Kajal eyeliner. The campaign was called Nazar No More. Nazar is evil eye, and it's something that many of us grew up with — this concept of wearing kajal or dotting your forehead with kajal to ward off evil eye. And then, we talked about the patriarchy, and us pushing back against that by wearing colorful eyeliners. In the end, it made a really engaging story that we found relatable, and really introduces people to parts of our life that they might not have known about. That's really how I think about including and being inspired by South Asian people and our heritage. What would you tell your younger self, knowing that you've created a brand where inclusion and culture are of the utmost importance? What advice would you give to individuals who are currently struggling with loving themselves and feeling confident? Last month was AAPI Heritage Month! How do you feel we can better uplift the voices of our community and spread love and appreciation for other cultures? What made you decide to take the leap and start your own business? Priyanka: A lot of note: Priyanka said this so quickly that everyone in the call started I think it was my experience finding that joy in makeup on my own terms, and asking myself, 'Why doesn't this exist?' There are definitely other people like me who might want something like this, and just have to take that leap. I never saw myself as a founder, and when I challenged that, and thought, 'Why? Why can't I do this?" I guess you could say it was manifestation, but part of it is also questioning yourself and your limiting beliefs. I feel like questioning why I can't do things has brought me to the place where I can be like, 'Yeah, I'm gonna quit my job and launch a company. Maybe I can do it. Why do I think I wouldn't be able to make a change?" It's something that even now, I'm like, 'Oh, wow, we've come so far.' I never imagined we'd even come as far as we have, but we're just starting out, and I envision us being a global brand and bringing that South Asian storytelling globally. It hasn't been done before, but why can't we be the first? What was your family's response when you decided to start your own business? Priyanka: Overall, they were supportive. I was a little bit older too — I was 30 when I wanted to start my own company, so they had a little bit more trust in me. But my mom definitely wanted to know details, like if I had a cofounder, and if this was a crazy idea. So, my parents were definitely worried, but now they're big champions of what I do. And they're always talking about Kulfi, and my mom loves all the Kulfi products I sent her. BuzzFeed: I can just imagine your mom wearing all your products and saying, 'This is my daughter's brand,' and being the biggest marketer for Definitely! She has a lot of product pipeline suggestions, too. She's pointing out specific things that haven't been done, or a hole in the market. She has a high standard, as Asian moms do! Why 'kulfi'? What is your favorite product from Kulfi? Priyanka: I am most partial to our eyeshadows, because I used to be scared of eyeshadow. I didn't think I could wear eyeshadow, and that's why we intentionally made the eyeshadow a beautiful cream-to-powder formula that's super easy to use. You can get a dual chrome look with some of our shades with just one swipe, with just your fingers, with less than a couple of minutes. I really love how it demystifies eyeshadow, and how easy and approachable it is to have a beautiful, almost editorial look without having to spend tons of time or have skills. Not everyone's a makeup artist, and we want to make products really approachable to play with. So, the eyeshadow is definitely one of my then last year, we launched this new shade, which was Sona Sona, a gold shimmer topper. Honestly, I could bathe in that stuff because it's so pretty — sona sona actually means gold in Hindi. Again, being able to showcase this color that's so gold it goes so well with so many of our undertones, and having that color was just so Lassi Lips has been going super viral — right now, we're having trouble keeping it in stock. So that's also been really great, because the formula is really unique in the way that it is hydrating like an oil but stains. What we've been able to do is create these beautiful, wearable colors that include neutrals and pops of color. I think these unique color stories, along with the unique formula, is why that product has been so popular. What beauty trend do you think will be the next big thing? Share a message with your supporters and customers! What is a South Asian dish that you think is S-tier? Priyanka: That's really hard. I'm Kashmiri, and we have a specific meat dish called rogan josh that we make for celebration, and my mom's rogan josh is literally the best. It's my favorite thing. Editor's note: Rogan josh is a curried meat dish originating from Kashmir, a region in northern I love that, and also that it's your mom's cooking, which is always the best, right?Priyanka: It is. And especially as you grow up and you move out — you don't get access to it that often, and it becomes even more special. What is next for Kulfi Beauty? What's next for Priyanka? Check out Kulfi Beauty and be sure to follow the brand and Priyanka on Instagram and TikTok!
