What roles do beauty and wellness play to shape our identities?

At the Power Panel held at AjioLuxe Wkend in Mumbai last month, a few experts shared some useful hacks

Since the last decade or so, wellness has become a very loaded word. We decided it meant more than just medical care. There was some talk about mental health in the same breath as yoni eggs, and before we could say ‘Om’, the wellness industry* exploded. According to the Global Wellness Institute it’s now poised to be worth US$ 7 trillion by 2025. 

 It was the starting point of The Established x 360OneWealth Power Panel at the AjioLuxe Wkend in Mumbai in February 2023, in association with Chivas Regal. With beauty and wellness, organically, there is a lens on identity, and can be both empowering and exploitative. Wellness is today increasingly linked to feeling good about yourself, extending to positivity, confidence and contentment. And when beauty is added into the mix—whether through a practice or a product—the cocktail can either be a powerful elixir or a lethal poison, depending on who’s consuming it. 

Revenue in the Beauty And Personal Care market is expected to reach US$571.10bn in 2023, with the market expected to grow annually by 3.8 per cent. That’s serious bucks, and a lot of it is tied into self-worth, value and identity—perhaps an uncomfortable notion considering these are now monetised commodities. To delve deeper, the panelists shared their insights, each contributing to a specific aspect of the multi-faceted space of wellness. The panel included Mira Kapoor, celebrity content creator and angel investor; Anshuka Parwani, yoga and holistic wellness expert; Dr Jaishree Sharad, dermatologist and author; Vasudha Rai, beauty columnist, author and podcaster; Akash Mehta, co-founder and CEO, Fable & Mane; Sandhya Shekhar, celebrity make-up artist; and Mohit Dhanjal, Chief Revenue Officer, Retail, Reliance Beauty. 

 An individual’s values affect their personal wellness activities, be it a disciplined yoga practice, a champi massage, putting on moisturiser at night, a red lipstick every morning, or getting regular facials at their dermatologist. These seemingly innocuous habits create personal balance or harmony. At times, a ‘beauty’ practice might connect you with someone you love. For instance, you use coconut oil in your hair because it reminds you of winter mornings when your grandmother applied it. 

The panel discussion examined these aspects through the lens of social media influence, product, science, journalism, make-up and health, drawing some lessons that can be easily applied for a slightly more elevated way of living your life. 

1. Find your version of balance

Mira Kapoor has almost four and a half million followers on Instagram. According to her, there is a holistic approach that most people aspire towards, but cannot always manage. “Wellness is a way of life,” says Kapoor. “And I don’t think I can say that I’ve managed, but I’m always trying, and I think it is essential to never stop trying. I think that balance that comes with being aware [of yourself] is something you strive for when you’re trying to learn more.” 

2. Figure out your mind-body-soul connect

Celebrity yoga instructor Anshuka Parwani keeps the original tenets of yoga intact while making it incredibly reel-friendly, showing modifications of difficult asanas as well as explaining what each asana does for us, both physically and mentally. She introduces flow and movement as a gentle, everyday practice. “With yoga, there’s so much tuning in, and we forget that it is the union of the mind, body and soul,” says Parwani. “So to see that change, you attach your identity with who you are, how you value certain things and automatically, you start feeling good. Let’s not forget the role our hormones play. I’ve never had a student leaving my class unhappy and that makes me happy.” 

3. Don’t underestimate the power of colour

There is no denying how empowering make-up can be, even when arguments can be made for how patriarchy enforces us to ‘look a certain way’. Colour, however, has the ability to express and empower, and when linked to identity, it plays into a sense of wellbeing. “When I was 6-7 years old, I realised the power of colour on myself, using a beetroot stain on my lip,” explains Sandhya Shekhar. I realised that make-up, or just colour, is so powerful. Later, I wanted to give that sense of power to the women I’m working with. It could be as simple as a red lipstick or mascara, but it really shifts something within you; it’s confidence. Over the last few years, as somebody who largely advocates that confidence and an emotional connect with yourself doesn’t just stem from make-up, I strongly feel you need to have a 360-degree approach towards balance. It’s a mind-body-soul connection. Make-up can work by itself, but in the long run, it cannot work in isolation. 

4. Find your own story of wellbeing

Sometimes, wellness is about a connection to one’s roots. For Akash Mehta, it was the driving force behind his brand Fable & Mane, where hair care is informed by Ayurveda and his grandmother’s champi massages, but adapted to suit modern-day needs. They recently had a pop-up hair oil bar at Selfridges, inviting painstakingly coiffed women to destroy their updos for a champi massage. “I think people lose traditions because of the time and effort required to make these oils and the inaccessibility in local stores,” says Mehta. “They also usually smell so contrary to their effects. I’m not necessarily modernising our own lifestyle, but I want the world to enjoy the benefits of Ayurveda. The challenge lay in how to find that balance between education and storytelling.” Without getting into the multi-fold therapeutic benefits of a head massage, it’s the storytelling around a beauty product here that’s impactful, not to mention, the grounding that following a simple ritual can bring about. 

5. Empower yourself in a way that comforts you

How can we consider holistic wellness from a dermatologist’s point of view? Professional skin treatments that weren’t addressing serious medical issues were once looked at as an inability to deal with personal insecurities. But today, it's also about empowerment. Thanks to social media, skincare is everybody’s playground, where overinformed or ill-advised play time causes serious damage. “That's where we as dermatologists stop you from crossing the line,” says Dr Jaishree Sharad. “Medication is not crossing the line. Ten per cent of Indians suffer from leukoderma, and it's still a taboo. Hats off to Winnie Harlow, but in India, in tier-two or tier-three cities or villages, there are distraught people who suffer. Inherent or outer skin conditions can be mental challenges, lowering one’s self-esteem. Furthermore, stress affects your skin, too. You can buy skincare, but you can't buy good skin. You need to learn how to deal with it through a holistic process,” adds Sharad.   

6. Figure out what works for you yourself

The best part about author and columnist Vasudha Rai’s Instagram feed is the ease with which she says, “hey I might have endorsed this for myself a while ago, but it’s not working for me any more”—an act of bravery in the very restrictive world of social media. After all, how dare an influencer have nuance? But Rai’s years of being a journalist has taught her the value of having a voice and, more importantly, the research that goes behind it.

With wellbeing, you need to have personal responsibility for what you’re reading and using, especially during times when influencer marketing reigns supreme. “I’m no expert,” says Rai. “But when someone reads my post, they need to consider multiple perspectives. You need to figure out what's going to work for you, and that means doing your own research.” 

7. Choose from the democratised market around you

The power of choice can further cement our sense of self. This includes products that cater to specific needs, customised products or information that’s personalised to your needs. While trying to address an audience as diverse as ours in India, Mohit Dhanjal talks about access, specifically to information, that helps democratise beauty. “It’s both exciting and challenging,” he says. “To cater to this large population, we have over 1,300 beauty brands and a range of maybe over 85,000 products. It's diverse, and that's the beauty of the country. The challenge is educating the consumers by democratising  beauty through technology, knowledge and social media platforms, thereby reaching a larger India.”

Perhaps these learnings mean we can move on from defining beauty as a way to merely ‘improve one’s appearance’. It’s clear that the storytelling around skincare and make-up has expanded to include physical and mental wellness, the power of choice and the ability to voice your opinions. Beauty, today, is about doing whatever feels good for yourself, and that is what informs our identity, whether we are aware of it or not. 

*The wellness industry includes personal care and beauty, healthy eating, nutrition and weight loss,  physical activity, wellness tourism, traditional and complementary medicine, public health, preventive care, personalised medicine, wellness real estate, mental wellness, spas, workplace wellness, and thermal/mineral springs. 

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