Skin care shift: Newly launched Lisén on India’s vast cosmeceuticals potential

Lisén is a direct-to-consumer (D2C) cosmeceutical skin care brand that launched exclusively online in December 2021.

The brand was founded by Ramandeep Singh who has a decade of experience in the beauty industry. His roots in the industry started with his family, who founded the Indian colour cosmetics company, Blue Heaven Cosmetics in 1974.

India's interest in skin care has steadily been growing over the past few years and has accelerated over the course of the pandemic.

“The market [in India] is moving towards skin care in a big way. In the last two years, there was a plethora of interest and education in skin care. It’s exploding and I see it will continue in the next five to 10 years. We thought it was the right time to venture into this space,” ​said Singh.

In particular, he said the cosmeceutical segment held untapped potential and is set to be “the future of skin care”​ in India.

“We realised the Indian market was ready for [cosmeceuticals] that that was the result of the shift in purchasing priorities, purchasing power, and the behaviour changes that have happened in India over the last two to three years primarily because of the pandemic.”​

He elaborated that the pandemic had inadvertently aligned trends in India with other more mature skin care markets.

“People had all the time to see what is going on across the world through social media. That evolution has come very fast compared to what we would have seen if we didn’t have a pandemic. It would have taken maybe three to four years.”​

Online-only exclusive

With the ongoing pandemic, the company envisions Lisén as an online-only brand for the foreseeable future.

“We’re seeing a very, very fast upward shift towards online purchasing behaviours and people are also consuming more online content. In the near future, we see ourselves as an online-only brand for the most part.”​

Aside from its official website, the company has plans to expand its online presence with leading third-party retailers in India including Purplle, Nykaa and Myntra, in the next few months.

In addition, the online channel would make it easier for the company to target the international beauty market.

As all Lisén products were formulated with Indian skin in mind, the company believes the brand would resonate with the Indian diaspora community across the globe.

For its first 12 months, the company is aiming to sell at least 100,000 units of its products. The company launched with around 12 products and is planning to expand its line-up with a few more products.

“There’s a lot of room for improvement in this space. We are looking at the trends from a global perspective and we want to develop products that aren’t necessarily very common here in India,” ​said Singh.

Among the many needs it has observed in the skin care space, Singh said it would be concentrating its efforts on multifunctional beauty products.

“We’re looking at how to simplify skin care with multi-use products. That’s where we are focusing our energy now.”​