00:01Two young sisters from Peramangalam in Thrisur in Keralam are balancing school
00:06lessons with an unusual entrepreneurial journey, making and selling beauty
00:10products that have found customers beyond Keralam. Class 8 student Kanishka and
00:16her younger sister Ikanksha, a class 3 student, have been making lip balms, solid
00:21perfumes and soaps under their brand Aesthetic for the past two years. The
00:27sisters say they have sold more than 10,000 products with customers in Kerala,
00:31the UAE and the UK. We currently make solid perfumes, lip balms and soaps in
00:38different varieties. Our lip balms come in flavours such as coffee, strawberry, beetroot
00:43and butterscotch. We have a good customer base in Dubai and the UK and have sold
00:48more than 10,000 products so far. The idea took shape after Ikanksha suffered a
00:54serious accident at school when she was six. She underwent a surgery to remove an
00:59organ involved in blood storage and immune function. She subsequently needed nearly
01:04two years of rest and was unable to attend school during that period. Wanting to
01:09keep her younger sister engaged and cheerful, Kanishka came up with the idea
01:13of making solid perfumes. Their products initially found buyers among relatives and
01:19friends. Encouraged by the response, their parents, Shadi and Vijish, decided to help
01:24turn the sisters hobby into a business.
01:29Family members and friends began buying the perfumes and lip balms they made and we started
01:34thinking, why not turn this into a business? A section of their family home has been converted
01:39into a small production unit. Distributors from Thrisur, Ayrnakulam and Thiruvananthpuram
01:45purchase the products in bulk and supply them to retail outlets. Ikanksha also enjoys sharing
01:51the products with her classmates.
01:53The lip balms. I take them with me to school and often give them to friends and people who
01:59need them. I usually give out strawberry flavoured lip balms. The aesthetic range includes solid
02:06perfumes with names such as CR7, Onam Mood, Candy Mist and Wild Jasmine. The sisters say
02:13the brand name aesthetic was chosen while they were chatting with friends at school. They
02:18continue to balance textbooks, school bags and business orders, growing aesthetic one product
02:22and one school holiday at a time.
