Adam Torres and Nikita Charuza discuss Squigs beauty.
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Show Notes:
Squigs is the first South Asian-owned and inspired brand to be on shelves in Urban Outfitters. It was also awarded the Allure Best of Beauty Award for the Best Hair Oil under the clean category. In this episode, Adam Torres and Nikita Charuza, Founder & CEO of Squigs Beauty, explore the Squigs journey and how Nikita went from fashion and beauty editor to launching Squigs.
About Nikita Charuza
Nikita, the founder of Squigs, had spent over a decade working as a beauty and fashion editor for various top media outlets. Throughout her career, she had tested an innumerable array of beauty products. During this time, she developed a deep appreciation for Ayurvedic ingredients that proved to be effective, while simultaneously growing increasingly frustrated with products that could potentially cause irritation, such as those containing certain synthetic fragrances and dyes.
Drawing inspiration from traditional Indian hair oiling practices and the DIY products that were a significant part of her childhood, Nikita envisioned creating an Ayurvedic brand. Her goal was to develop over-the-counter formulations that were not only effective but also fun and enjoyable to use.
About Squigs Beauty
Squigs is a fun and effective brand rooted in South Asian heritage, whose mission of “Happy Headcare” was created to put you in a good mood. Headcare is our comprehensive approach to caring for the skin on your face *and* scalp, because both are equally important.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to apply. All right, so today’s guest is Nikita Charuza, who’s founder and CEO over at Squigs Beauty.
Nikita, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you for having me. Alright, so I’m excited to learn more about Squigs Beauty and to bring that also to my audience. I understand, Squigs is the first South Asian owned and inspired brand in the shelves at Urban Outfitters. Congratulations, huge brand. I mean that, that’s a big deal.
Chris, thank you. Yeah, super exciting. We’ve only been around for two years now, so Wow. Obviously to be picked up by Urban Outfitter is just one year in, was super exciting for us. , and then winning awards too. The allure. Best of beauty award for best hair oil. Under the clean category. Come on. Like, this is amazing.
This is great. Thank you. Yeah, I totally cried. I felt like I won an Oscar because it’s basically considered like the Oscars of the beauty industry. So super excited that we also won that. You know, just a year and a half and we are a small bootstrap business. So obviously for us winning that award, especially under the clean category was just monumental for us.
Yeah, well again, congrats there and let’s kind of go back in time a little bit here So, first off your background and beauty like where’d all that begin for you even before squigs? Like like, how did all that start? Yeah, so I started out as an entrepreneurship and finance major and during that time I had a bunch of Editorial and pr internships that place.
Hold on you went you went to school to be an entrepreneur You Yeah, that was actually my major at Drexel University in Philly. Nobody warned you? They weren’t like, it’s hard, it’s painful enough. No, I come from like a family of entrepreneurs. My dad was an entrepreneur as well, so it’s just kind of like in my blood.
I just never knew what Yeah, essentially like during my time, In college, I had a bunch of internships at places like MetaPortrait, Lacoste, Eli Tahari, Elle, and different publications. And then from there, I kind of ventured more into the editorial realm and ended up being a fashion and beauty editor for the past 10 years.
And that’s kind of like when My love for beauty really like exploded besides like obviously being like personally in love with beauty yeah, that’s kind of like how it all began like was it a progression or was there a moment in time? Like when you were like, okay, this is where not only am I going to be Part of the, you know, obviously the beauty side of things.
But like, I want to be an entrepreneur in this space. Cause they’re different, right? Being an editor working for somebody else versus like jumping off the ledge and going out there and doing your own thing. Like they’re different. Like, was that like a progression or was there a moment like an epiphany?
Like, like how did, how did you get sucked in? Yeah, it was a little bit of both. To be completely honest, like, I think I got the amazing opportunity to interview amazing celebrities ranging from Jennifer Lopez to Kardashian. And I also at the same time got to interview all of these amazing founders as well.
And I found myself being more drawn towards the founder story and like learning how they were able to, you know, share a bit of themselves. versus obviously like still live interviews and things like that as well. And that’s kind of when I kept going back to the idea of, wow, I am so in love with Ayurvedic ingredients that I grew up with.
I moved a lot growing up. So I’ve lived in places ranging from Dubai, Bombay, New Jersey, Philly. Now I’m in LA. So like I’ve moved a lot growing up. And the way I kind of made friends was my love for fashion and beauty. And most of the times I’d be like, okay. Hey guys, like come on over. Like, let me show you how we make this hair oil that, you know, my great grandmother taught me.
Wow. So I think the more I heard about these amazing founder stories, the more I kept going back to just, you know, thinking about my roots as well. And I think also at the same time, I have like super sensitive skin. So when I’d be testing. Got all these thousands of products for work, I’d end up causing my husband or my sister allergic reactions because they have eczema.
So sometimes I get really excited to show them these amazing products that are, you know, quote unquote, safer, sensitive skin, but, you know, some of them aren’t. So I found myself going back to these Ayurvedic ingredients to rectify and remedy those. Allergic reactions and those situations. And that’s kind of when I had like my aha moment of, wow, I have the best at my fingertips and I’m still going back to these ingredients that have been around for, you know, over 5,000 years.
There must be something here. And that’s kind of, the ethos behind squigs of like, how it all kind of began. And so it was kind of, I would say a culmination of both things kind of happening at the same time of me kind of getting a little bit burnt out from the editorial world. And then at the same time, kind of having that epiphany when I was testing out so many products and going back to these, you know, DIY products that we’d make in our household as a South Asian family.
Hmm. so now you have this idea, you’re getting, it’s getting clearer and clearer, this vision, and obviously there’s some steps along the way to your launch. Like, what, what was that like? Like, when you were finally, like, getting, getting ready to launch and getting everything together and product and all that, like, like, talk to me about that piece.
Yeah, that was definitely a journey. And I think that’s a little bit what you I’ve heard so many things on that one, like the actual product. Oh, I’ve heard some horror stories. I don’t wish these on you. I’m not protecting that. But oh, my God. Yeah, no, no, it’s so true. It’s like it was such a wild journey.
I’ve kind of been working on it, like in the background for like five years before actually like jumping into it. But I actually never thought it would become a thing because in my head, I’m just like, Oh, who would want to buy this? Like, why would anyone want to listen to me? But I think the more like confident I got with it and the more I kind of like.
Tested it out with like my editor friends or just my friends and my family. I’m like, no, there’s something here. Like I should just take the shot and do it. I love to say Google is your best friend. Honestly, like you just, there’s so many times, even when I was starting out, when I remember when someone was like, Oh yeah, like send me a PO.
And I was like, a what? Like, what is that? I’m like, oh, a purchase order. Duh, I should have known that. But like, I think when you’re in that moment of you’re just learning and you’re in the beginning stages, everything just feels so new. And it kind of feels like they’re speaking a different language to you.
So it was definitely like a learning curve, but for us, at least what was a little bit easier was at least from the product side, everything, our gooseberry delight hair oil, and our double shot face serum were both products that I used to make when I was younger with my family, but I wanted to modernize them and also just make them feel more like effective and fun.
So I had a starting point. Of what I was taking and where I wanted it to be. Versus I think sometimes if you’re just like, Oh, I want to start a beauty brand. Oh, I want to create like a lipstick. Like, how do you do that? What do you do? So that was like a little bit, I think, harder. So luckily for me, I’ve had products already in my hand where I’m like, Oh, I just need to make a statement.
I know I could get it out there to the public and a really like fun and different way. So definitely a learning curve for sure. It took five years to launch. Like our hair oil took three years to formulate because I wanted to make sure. It was the best around, especially just, being an editor for so long too, I didn’t, I know how saturated the market is, so I never wanted to just come out with something just for the sake of it.
I’m like, unless there’s like a true differentiating factor, which for us is that we have no synthetic fragrances and dyes in any of our products. It’s all natural and it’s really safe for sensitive skin. I didn’t really see the purpose of launching it. So until that vision kind of became very clear and concrete for me.
I didn’t take the leap until that time. Yeah, love it. It’s a great story. And I’m laughing because I’m like, when you say what, why would people want to listen to me? I’m like, Oh, you just described my whole podcasting career. Thank you, Nikita. Yeah. But unlike you, I just launched. I didn’t, it didn’t take that long.
And I was like, Oh, people were listening. We’ll see. It obviously is a different scenario, but like, and I love your approach better, but I do actually like it. But it’s kind of funny to me to think, cause I see. All these different entrepreneurs and ideas and way to go to the market and thankfully you had your formulas and like you had the roots in what you wanted your product to be in the first place or at least a percentage of what you knew so that you didn’t have to go through some of that other part where people are like looking and finding their way, which isn’t a bad thing.
I mean, all entrepreneurs have their own journey, not judging, but sure you had your own things that came your way and that’s just the way it is. Right. But I guess this leads me to like your mission side of this. So because you had, I feel like for some entrepreneurs there, cause they don’t have necessarily, especially in this space, they might not have this, product down and may not have those other things, but you were a little bit further along that.
And it lets you kind of like zero in on your mission a little bit more and spend some time on that. I mean, maybe talk about that a little bit more, like your mission overall with the brand. Yeah. So our mission is happy head care. And that’s basically our Overall comprehensive approach for taking care of the skin on your face and your scalp, because both are equally as important.
A lot of people don’t realize this, but Ayurveda is all about living your happiest and healthiest self. And that was basically the guiding force behind our mission of happy head care, because I truly want you to think of your head completely in a different light, which is why we launched with a hair oil and a face mask.
Face serum because so many amazing ingredients that are so potent and so clinically effective can not only be used in skin care, but also hair care. So, I really wanted that to come through with our products and because of our beliefs and happy head care, a percentage of proceeds get donated to mental health charities each year.
Because if you don’t take care of what’s inside your head, what’s the point? So, Basically, like the ethos of like what Ayurveda actually is, is what helped us define our mission of happy head care. And like I said, I think I just got very jaded from being within the editorial space and being pretty much like one of the only brown people there for a very long time.
So I kind of always felt like, oh, am I supposed to be here? Like I’d be at these really Like fashion shows, like I’ll never forget, like literally sitting at my first, like Oscar de la Renta fashion show and like seeing Bella Hadid walk and like looking around and being like, Oh my God, this is such a cool moment.
But then like feeling a little bit like an outsider for a second. Cause I’m like looking around, seeing no one who looks like me. And I’m just like, am I actually supposed to be here? Like what, you know, what’s going on? Like, it didn’t feel like. You know, diverse of an environment as, you know, as a person of color, like, we’d want it to feel like so I think just being jaded from the whole editorial realm for, you know, after being in there for so long, I’d feel remiss if we were.
Launching products that didn’t give back in an impactful way. And like, obviously, I hope that as we continue to grow, we’re doing more with our mission of happy head care versus just, you know, donating a percentage of our proceeds monetarily. I want it to be its own thing. Like, I really want to 1 day a fund.
I want to have many more like, IRL moments where we can just go on and celebrate and talk more about how mental health and beauty are so connected in so many different ways. That’s amazing. So big entrepreneur community listened to this show and many of our shows on our site and on our network.
Let’s dream for a moment. Like, , what’s your vision? What’s your vision for Squiggs? If we can like, you know, plan out into the future, like what’s the wildest dream here? Like, like talk to me about the vision. Yeah, I think just making Squiggs feel more accessible and whether that’s just having it be more readily available like all across the United States and like hopefully one day globally.
I think a lot of people like associate squigs with me just because of my career so far, but I truly want it to be its own thing where, you know, 50 years from now people associate squigs with like our mission of happy headcan. They’re like, yes, that’s the brand who donates a percentage of proceeds and they do all of these amazing events and they truly are doing more for the mental health community versus just, you know, saying it and just, you know, actually acting on it.
My ideal dream would not only Be like, continue to grow with our retail presence, but also just find more IRL activations that we can do. Like, we’ve been doing so many fun things with our community. Like, we just had an amazing pop up for, like, 5 week for 5 days, actually in New York. And we had like Linage and Innisfree sponsor us, and we just have lines going out the door each and every day.
Wow. It’s just truly a moment I’ll like never forget. And I honestly How much fun was that? How much fun was that? We got to celebrate that a little bit longer. That’s a big deal. How much fun was that? It was so fun. I was terrified in the beginning, for sure, because it’s obviously like, oh my god, what if no one shows up?
Oh, isn’t that the thing? Whenever you throw anything, it’s like, you know, especially when it’s for your business, you make all this fuss, and you’re like, what if nobody comes? I know, literally. It feels like a birthday party when you’re a kid, too. Like, oh my god, what if my friends don’t show up? I’m feeling anxiety over here thinking about it.
Go, go ahead. Yeah, no, so. It was such a great experience. I think it’s truly like a week I’ll never forget because we really got to kick off AAPI in like such a meaningful way. Cause like AAPI month is something that matters to me for obvious reasons being South Asian. So being able to team up with all of these amazing brands, I teamed up with one of my friends, notate jewelry as well.
And. We’re coming out with a collab pieces later this week that were such a success from the pop up because like so many of our customers were like, Oh my God, we need to buy this actually. And we’re not in New York. Can you do something? So it was truly such an incredible experience. And I get joy out of that.
Like we actually had one customer. Who has cancer who showed up and she is in remission now and she showed me her hair growth from our hair oil and she was telling me how it was the only product that’s like really worked for her. And I literally just burst into tears because she’s. Like always commenting on all of our stuff.
She’s so supportive and just meeting people like that in your life and like having those like ride or die customers for you, where you actually see like the impact that like your products are having in their lives is just something I’ll never take for granted, especially as a small business. I think that was definitely like the highlight of.
The experience overall with the pop up, just like meeting everybody and getting to talk to them and like hearing their stories and also just meeting so many new people too, and just learning more about them, what they’re looking for in products, how, what we can come out with next and just, you know, continue to evolve and grow.
That’s a great story. One that I’m on that I am happy to bring to my audience. Well, I just have to say Nikita, this has been so much fun. Thank you for coming on and sharing your journey, your story, your vision for squigs going forward. And I’m glad to say that many of my audiences may be the first time they’ve heard of squigs.
So I would definitely want everybody to go in and check out the product, check out your social media and everything else. How do people connect? How do people connect with the product? Yeah, so we’re at Squiggs Beauty, which is S Q U I G S Beauty across all social platforms like Instagram, TikTok, all the good stuff and our website is just squiggsbeauty.
com. We’re also available not only on our website, but Amazon. We actually just sold out on anthropology. com. There you go. Congrats. I love it. That’s amazing. so much. That’s great. And for everybody listening, we’ll definitely put the link in the show notes so that you can just click on the links and go check out.
Squigsbeauty. com and they have a great page there. It talks about their story. It looks like, there’s also a little discount there, 10 percent off. I see, at least right now, let me not say that because it might not be there when you go. But as of May 16th, I see a little box there. So 2024, so hurry up and go over there before that box is gone.
And Nikita again, thank you so much for coming to the show. It’s been a lot of fun. Of course. Thank you. Same here.