shantae story
I’ve been blessed with good skin through my mother’s genes, along the way I started taking it for granted and never did much to ensure it was being taken care of. But as I’ve grown older, so has my skin. It tends to be affected quite drastically through the seasons and there didn’t seem to be a simple solution to address the confusion it constantly seemed to go through.
I tried a variety of products ranging from well-known brands, to lesser-known ones, ones that looked nice, to ones that smelt nice – but nothing seemed to really work.
Shantae was born out of an experiment in my kitchen. One crazy afternoon of mixing and blending different ingredients, led me to create a body scrub with ingredients right out of my cabinets.
Archana Bhaskar
Founder, Shantae
When this experiment led to the creation of a product that addressed the confusion my skin was going through, I was thrilled. The crazy baker in me morphed into a self-taught formulator and experimented endlessly, using family and friends as (willing) guinea pigs till I got it right.
Handmade is a concept that has been an intrinsic part of my upbringing. Ever since my childhood, I’ve seen everything from jams, pickles and complex curries to elaborate desserts being brought to life right at home. Even quilts and pillows were sown and stuffed by hand from the cotton trees at my ancestral house in Kerala.
The vivid memories of the conversations, laughter, heavenly fragrances and the sheer joy that constitute the art of creating by hand have always stayed with me. These memories, and the skills I picked up along the way gave me the confidence to be bold when experimenting – whether it was with cakes and exotic desserts or now, with handmade skin care products.
