Estée Lauder and Nykaa announce the second edition of BEAUTY&YOU

The programme's mission is to discover and help the next generation of Indian beauty brands scale up

Published: Jun 9, 2023 05:01:47 PM IST

Updated: Jun 9, 2023 05:06:39 PM IST

The first edition of BEAUTY&YOU, saw some great response from new and emerging brands—close to 300 entries across 50 Indian cities, across categories such as skin care, hair care, fragrance and colour cosmetics.

The Estée Lauder Companies’ New Incubation Ventures in partnership with beauty and lifestyle retailer Nykaa has announced the second edition of BEAUTY&YOU. The programme hopes to continue its mission to find the next generation of Indian beauty brands, through a competitive application process.

The first edition, in 2022, saw some great response from new and emerging brands—close to 300 entries across 50 Indian cities, across categories such as skin care, hair care, fragrance and colour cosmetics.

“Building on the success of last year’s programme, we expanded the scope and scale by increasing the award categories to invite a broader group of founders, creators and innovators to join us. In addition, we commissioned a study to spotlight the biggest trends and most interesting insights to help entrepreneurs innovate for the future,” said Shana Randhava, senior vice president, New Incubation Ventures, ELC.

This year, the number of awards has also increased from two to four: ‘Imagine’, for pre-launch beauty concepts; ‘Grow’, for in-market beauty concepts; ‘Breakthrough’ for innovation in active ingredients and ‘Create’, for the next generation of creative talent, such as photographers and filmmakers. This means that in addition to beauty entrepreneurs, scientists and labs, photographers, and filmmakers can also apply.

Also read: Entrepreneur at 49, billionaire at 58: How Falguni Nayar built success with Nykaa

According to Anchit Nayar, executive director & CEO, Nykaa Beauty, this programme gives both Nykaa and The Estée Lauder Companies and opportunity to give back to the vibrant Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem. He adds, “The real value for the winners is far beyond just the grant money that they receive. It is about learning best practices and getting access to the best experts and resources at both Nykaa and Estée Lauder. We have worked closely with our past winners and opened up all our resources to helping them solve problems as they scale their brands.”

This year BEAUTY&YOU in partnership with a Delhi-based tech-enabled business research and analytics firm, 1Lattice, has also published a report titled ‘Decoding the India Beauty Landscape’. Below are some key findings, that have helped not only applicants and award winners but also existing beauty players both in the Indian and global markets.