Your skincare isn’t working and geography might be the answer

Yogini Jingan, an associate manager at Nykaa, didn’t expect her skincare routine to unravel when she moved from Delhi to Mumbai. But within weeks, her cult-favourite products turned on her. Serums that felt weightless in Delhi’s dry air had become sticky and suffocating in Mumbai’s humidity. Her skincare isn’t working, and not because she changed it. “It’s like my entire shelf betrayed me,” she says, half amused, half exasperated.

This isn’t just personal inconvenience. It’s a symptom of a larger flaw in Indian beauty: the refusal to acknowledge that India isn’t one market. The same product can act like a miracle in one city and a mistake in another, depending on the climate. However, the majority of brands continue to develop with a pan-Indian perspective, overlooking the importance of microclimates in favour of mass appeal.

The problem isn’t just technical; it’s also ideological. Brands build for the idea of India, not the lived reality of its people. They prioritise scalability over specificity. Tamil skin, Assamese hair, the water hardness in Bengaluru—these aren’t outliers. They’re reflections of our reality.

“You can’t formulate for Indian skin without first defining what Indian skin actually is,” says cosmetic scientist and product innovation consultant, Lipika Hegde. For instance, in a country with such a spectrum of skin tones, actives don’t behave uniformly. Melanin-rich skin is more prone to pigmentation, while lighter tones often show redness or irritation. These biological differences directly affect how ingredients perform yet most brands don’t test for them. So when consumers feel their skincare isn’t working, it is often because formulas are borrowed from Western benchmarks and applied wholesale in India. Hegde raises a critical question: “Can Indian brands, often operating with strapped capital, invest in something this niche? ”

But what if the real opportunity lies in embracing that niche?

Some brands are starting to listen. In Coimbatore, Vilvah has grown into a ₹100 crore brand by staying rooted. Founder Kruthika Kumaran didn’t rush to go national. She focused on Tamil Nadu first, testing products across water types, rejecting trends that didn’t translate and building loyalty through relevance. Dewy sunscreen? Not a thing. “People here don’t want shine; they want something that feels fresh and clean,” she says. “We didn’t follow trends. We asked what works here.” Even now, she insists there’s untapped potential in Tamil Nadu alone.