This Mom-Daughter Duo From Satara Is Making Personal Care Clean & Conscious

When Surabhi Jaju stepped on stage to collect her Digital Women Award in Hyderabad, she carried with her the pride of a small-city dream turned big, the aspirations of numerous women counting on her, and the determination to build something that creates lasting change.

Her Satara-born personal care brand, Rustic Art, co-founded alongside her mother Sunita Jaju, has become a household name for homegrown, handmade, and sustainable products.

Rustic Art is known for their waterless concentrated products like soaps, shampoos, and skincare using traditional ingredients, modern technology, and sustainable practices.

While Sunita is the chief formulator of the products, Surabhi focuses on growth strategy, digital expansion, and business development.

The mother-daughter duo exemplifies the spirit of women-led innovation, community, and success that the SheThePeople Digital Women Awards aims to foster. 

Accepting her award, Surabhi shared, "While I may be standing here, this award belongs to our entire team, which has about 90% women. My mom started this business in her 40s, and I am so happy to be a part of it."

Surabhi continued, "Our team is from Satara, which is a Tier 3 city. They are learning on the job, through YouTube, using AI, and I am so happy that this Digital Women Award is actually for them."

Surabhi & Sunita Jaju: Digital Women Awards 2025

STP: What is Rustic Art and the vision behind it?

Surabhi: Rustic Art is a pioneering personal care brand co-founded by me and my mother, Sunita Jaju. We create waterless concentrated products using traditional ingredients, modern technology and sustainable practices. 

While Sunita, our chief formulator, develops our innovative waterless formulations using her expertise in natural ingredients, I focus on growth strategy, digital expansion, and business development.

Unlike conventional natural brands, our innovative waterless formulations are environmentally superior; they don't pollute waterways, require minimal packaging, and significantly reduce carbon footprint through concentrated formats.

We specialise in handmade soaps, skincare, haircare, household care and wellness products made from pure, natural ingredients sourced ethically.

What sets us apart is our commitment to women's empowerment; over 90% of our workforce comprises women, creating meaningful employment opportunities and fostering financial independence. 

Through our website and e-commerce marketplaces, we've democratized access to premium waterless products, reaching conscious consumers across India and internationally.

STP: What is your business model?

Surabhi: Rustic Art operates a tech-enabled direct-to-consumer (D2C) business model, co-founded by mother-daughter duo, primarily selling beauty, personal care & household care products through its own e-commerce platform and marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa, etc., and retail partnerships in India and internationally. 

We manufacture in-house at our Satara facility with proprietary technology and custom machine design specifically developed for our unique waterless formulations and manufacturing processes.

Our revenue streams include B2C sales (70%), B2B wholesale to retailers & exports (30%). The waterless concentrated format allows for optimised cost, reduced packaging, shipping costs, and longer shelf life.

We leverage AI tools for digital marketing optimisation, customer insights, and internal operations, complemented by our in-house warehouse management technology.

Our competitive advantage lies in proprietary manufacturing technology that enables our unique waterless formulations - a combination of innovative machinery design and specialised processes that competitors cannot easily replicate.

The tier-3 city location provides cost advantages while our 85% women workforce creates authentic brand storytelling.

We reinvest profits into R&D, technology advancement, expanding our women-led team, and scaling our proprietary manufacturing capabilities.

STP: What kind of funding did you start with?

Surabhi: We started with ₹10 lakhs of bootstrapped funding from personal and family savings, later supplemented with bank loans and government schemes for women entrepreneurs to support expansion.

STP: What are your plans and opportunities for growing your business?

Surabhi: The global waterless beauty market is projected to reach USD18.6 billion by 2030, growing at an 8.4% CAGR, driven by sustainability concerns and water scarcity awareness. 

India's personal care market is valued at USD13.8 billion & is experiencing a 15% annual shift toward natural & sustainable products, creating massive opportunities for Rustic Art.

Our strategic expansion plans include:

• Market Penetration: Launch on quick commerce platforms as key sales channels by mid-2026, revolutionising instant delivery of waterless products.
• Product Innovation: Develop breakthrough anti-dandruff and anti-acne ranges, plus organic lipsticks made with vegetable colours - creating the market's safest lipsticks (currently under R&D, launching end-2026).
• Manufacturing Scale: Establish a new manufacturing unit by the end of 2027 to support exponential growth.
• Women Empowerment: Expand our women-led workforce to 150+ employees by 2027.
• Revenue Growth: Achieve ₹50 crore revenue by 2026.
• International Markets: Enter Middle East markets, tapping into the USD8.2 billion regional beauty sector

With increasing regulatory pressure on conventional beauty brands, rising environmental consciousness, and government support for women entrepreneurs, Rustic Art is positioned to capture significant market share.

Our waterless technology addresses critical water conservation needs while our women-centric approach aligns with social impact goals.

STP: In what ways do technology and digital tools contribute to the growth, efficiency, and overall success of your business?

Surabhi: Technology is the backbone of Rustic Art's operations, enabling us to compete with larger brands while maintaining our values and efficiency. As a small business operating from a tier-3 city, digital tools have been transformational in scaling our business.

• Artificial Intelligence Integration: We've extensively adopted AI across our operations. Our team is trained to leverage AI tools for content creation, marketing campaigns, product photography, and website development.
  This has dramatically reduced our marketing costs while improving quality and speed. AI helps us generate compelling product descriptions, social media content, and even assists in advanced formulation research.
• Proprietary Software Solutions: We've developed our own ERP and warehouse management software tailored to our unique manufacturing processes & operations.
  This custom technology streamlines inventory management, order processing, and production planning. The system is designed to be intuitive, allowing us to hire employees with basic computer skills and quickly integrate them into our operations, crucial for hiring since we cannot find experienced professionals.
• Operational Efficiency: Our in-house technology stack includes automated customer support systems, digital marketing optimisation tools, and data analytics platforms.
  These tools provide real-time insights into customer behaviour, inventory levels, and sales trends, enabling data-driven decision-making.
• Manufacturing Innovation: Custom machine design and technology specifically developed for our waterless formulations give us a significant competitive advantage. This proprietary manufacturing technology ensures consistent quality while optimising production efficiency.
• Scalability and Training: We've created user-friendly systems that democratize technology access within our organisation. By teaching AI skills to our staff, we've empowered our team to contribute to marketing, operations, and customer engagement, multiplying our capabilities without proportional cost increases.
• Digital-First Approach: Technology enables us to compete globally from a small city, manage complex supply chains, maintain quality standards, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

Our digital tools have transformed us from a local manufacturer into a tech-enabled beauty brand ready for national and international expansion.

STP: What were some key challenges you faced while building your business?

Surabhi: Building Rustic Art presented unique challenges that tested our resilience and innovation. Operating from a tier-3 city meant limited access to skilled talent, suppliers, and infrastructure compared to metro cities. We had to invest heavily in training and creating systems that could work with locally available resources.

Developing waterless concentrated formulations required extensive R&D without established industry precedents. Creating proprietary manufacturing technology and custom machinery demanded significant time and financial investment with uncertain outcomes.

Building consumer trust for a new category - waterless beauty products - proved challenging. Educating customers about concentrated formulations and their environmental benefits required persistent digital marketing efforts and authentic storytelling.

Financial constraints meant bootstrapping growth while competing with well-funded brands. Maintaining quality standards with limited resources, especially while scaling our women workforce from diverse educational backgrounds, required innovative training approaches. 

The biggest challenge was proving that a tier-3 city brand could create premium, tech-enabled products that compete nationally while staying true to our values of sustainability and women's empowerment. 

STP: As an entrepreneur, what's the one motto you live by? \

Surabhi: "Dream big, learn continuously, work relentlessly - not just for personal growth, but for every employee's success." I believe that as our business grows, our people must grow too.

True entrepreneurship means creating opportunities where individual achievements fuel collective progress, ensuring that Rustic Art's journey becomes a pathway for our entire team's professional and personal development.