SATLIVA FOUNDERS ON ALL-NATURAL WELLNESS PRODUCTS

There is an ongoing revolution when it comes to bath, skin, and wellness products in India and abroad – the adoption of natural ingredients for the best and cleanest results. To this effect, the rise of Hemp Seed Oil as a preferred plant-based ingredient, is perhaps the most noteworthy. Harshaavardhan Redi Sirupa, and his wife Namrata Reddy Sirupa, the founders of Namrata Hemp Company (NHempCO), which is the parent company of popular skincare brand Satliva, join the Sunday Guardian to answer your questions about their revolutionary products. Excerpts from an edited interview:
Q. Why did you choose to enter this field?
A. Namrata Reddy Sirupa (NRS): Harshaavardhan studied engineering in India, and eventually moved to the USA for his MBA at the Dowling College, New York, where he specialised in Global Business Strategy. Then he returned to India, to start his career as a freelance strategic consultant. This enabled him to work with a multitude of start-ups, guiding them to new heights with his experience and knowledge. He further went on to start his own company, KnowPro Solutions Pvt. Ltd. a KPO that specialised in retail solutions and cancer therapies based on stem cell research. All this gave him the unique expertise required for us to build our own business together.
Our mission at Satliva is built on the belief that ‘nature provides the best nurture.’ Since its inception in 2017, providing widespread access to the benefits of 100 percent natural, chemical, and additive-free Hemp Seed Oil products has been our primary focus. By harnessing the natural goodness of Himalayan Hemp Seed Oil, we aim to contribute toward the betterment of the sustainable self-care industry in India. Additionally, we employ measures like ethically sourcing raw materials and using biodegradable or recyclable packaging, to ensure our practices not only preserve the delicate ecosystem but improve it too.
Q. What was your vision for this brand?
A. Harshaavardhan Redi Sirupa (HRS): I had been studying and researching Hemp Seed Oil to understand how it could help our one-and-a-half-year-old son’s eczema; we had tried every other solution available to us, but none seemed to work for our son. When Hemp Seed Oil began to work almost miraculously, we knew our findings held great promise. We were certain Hemp Seed Oil would be the future of the personal-care industry, and we continue to do our best to harness its benefits and make it accessible throughout the country.
We are based out of India’s IT Hub Bengaluru, but through our website, we deliver our products pan-India and globally.
Q. What products do you manufacture? How are your products different from others on the market?
A. HRS: We manufacture a range of environmentally and personally sustainable products that are highly beneficial for you and for the environment. Our list of products includes but is not limited to – face creams, soap bars, body butters, body and face oils, shampoo bars, hair creams, hair oils, and lip balms. Each one of these holistically crafted eco-conscious products are infused with the countless benefits of Hemp Seed Oil. What differentiates our products from the rest of the market is the fact that all our products are created in-house. Even the cold-pressed Hemp Seed Oil that we use in our products is extracted fresh every morning, using a patented cold-press machine that our ingenious team of engineers has designed in order to extract exclusively high-grade Hemp Seed Oil. Additionally, we follow a “minimal ingredients, maximum benefits,” concept, meaning we use only 100 percent natural, and organic ingredients. For this reason, we keep no inventory, and our freshly made creams, oils, and bars have a short-lived shelf-life of 4-6 months but are packed with the most natural nutrient-dense punch.
Q. Which is your most popular product and why?
A. NRS: With regards to Namrata Hemp Company’s subsidiary Satliva, our top selling products are the Mango Lavender Face Cream, Hemp with Moringa Face and Body Oil and all our soap and shampoo bars.
Q. What challenges have you faced in your journey so far? How have you overcome them?
A. HRS: We are among the first to launch hemp-based products in India, hence, acquiring the appropriate licences and educating the authorities regarding the use of Hemp Seed Oil has been one of our greatest challenges. It took consistent persuading, education, and diligent follow-ups with the officials in-charge to acquire the results you see today. At the outset, the authorities even refused to accept our applications, our consistent efforts, spread over three years, is what finally led to where we are today.
Q. What is the story of the brand name?
A. NRS: We spent several months brainstorming, trying to envision a term that would encompass the essence of our brand. This led to the realisation that we use Hemp Seed Oil from the cannabis variety called ‘Sativa,’ which led us to the phrase “Live life on sativa,” referring to this we decided to do a little wordplay and eventually came up with the word Satliva.
Q. What have been your biggest rewards so far?
A. HRS: We are grateful for the countless forms of rewards we have received over the years, but what leaves us overjoyed is to see our customers truly satisfied, and the love they express and share regarding our brands. We have a whopping 80 percent customer return rate, which shows us that our efforts are actually helping someone, and that we are on the right trajectory.
Q. What’s next on the cards for your company?
A. NRS: We have a few things planned for the future of Namrata Hemp Company, and its subsidiary Satliva, but our focus presently is on our ambition to launch internationally, and take our products, values, and virtues global.
HRS: For quite a while, we have been contemplating opening a physical store and our very own cannabis experience centre. Hopefully this will happen soon. We would like everyone to experience first-hand how beneficial this plant can be, and how much value it can add into their lives.
NRS: I believe it is extremely important for everyone to do their research, which an experience centre will surely help with first-hand. However, till then there is something on the technical front of things that I would like everyone to know about hemp. Apart from its other beneficial uses, hemp can be of great utility to the rural economy as it has phytoremediation properties, which means it can make unfertile soil fertile again, enabling farmers to turn barren land into fertile agricultural land by using hemp as a rotational crop.
Noor Anand Chawla pens lifestyle articles for various publications and her blog www.nooranandchawla.com.