From Schoolbags To Beauty Products: Keralam's Thrissur Sisters Take 'Aesthetic' Global

Thrissur: Two young sisters from Peramangalam, near here, are balancing school lessons with an unusual entrepreneurial journey, making and selling beauty products that have found customers beyond Keralam.

Kanishka, an eighth-grader, and her younger sister Ekanshka, a third-grader, have been making lip balms, solid perfumes and soaps under their brand ‘Aesthetic’ for the past two years. The sisters say they have sold more than 10,000 products, with customers in Kerala, the UAE and the UK.

“We currently make solid perfumes, lip balms and soaps in different varieties. Our lip balms come in flavours such as coffee, strawberry, beetroot and butterscotch. We have a good customer base in Dubai and the UK, and have sold more than 10,000 products so far,” Kanishka told ETV Bharat.

The idea took shape after Ekanshka suffered a serious accident at school when she was six. She suffered internal bleeding and underwent surgery to remove an organ involved in blood storage and immune function. She subsequently needed nearly two years of rest and was unable to attend school during that period.

Wanting to keep her younger sister engaged and cheerful, Kanishka came up with the idea of making solid perfumes. After completing an online perfumery course, the sisters began experimenting with perfumes and lip balms.

Their products initially found buyers among relatives and friends. Encouraged by the response, their parents, Shari and Bijish, decided to help turn the sisters’ hobby into a business.

Kanishka and younger sister Ekansha with their parents, Shari and Bijish, (ETV Bharat)

School First, Business On weekends

“Family members and friends began buying the perfumes and lip balms they made, and we started thinking: why not turn this into a business?” Shari told ETV Bharat.

Ekanshka also enjoys sharing the products with her classmates.

“I take them with me to school and often give them to friends and people who need them. I usually give out strawberry-flavoured lip balms,” she said.

The sisters study at Vidyavihar Central School in Kakkassery, Thrissur. Their studies remain their priority, while product-making and business activities are largely handled during weekends and school holidays.

A section of their family home has been converted into a small production unit. Distributors from Thrissur, Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram purchase the products in bulk and supply them to retail outlets.

The brand has also reached customers in the UAE and the UK.

“Our products are made on days off, and distributors visit to buy them in bulk. They supply retailers in Kerala, and the products are also sent to countries such as the UAE and the UK,” Shari said.

From ‘CR7’ to ‘Wild Jasmine’

The Aesthetic range includes solid perfumes with names such as CR7, Onam Mood, Candy Mist and Wild Jasmine. The sisters say the brand name ‘Aesthetic’ was chosen while they were chatting with friends at school.

Their lip balms come in flavours including beetroot, cherry, strawberry and coffee. The family says the products are made using natural ingredients.

The sisters first attracted wider attention at the Young Entrepreneurs Conclave in Kozhikode, where they met Keralam Industries and IT Minister P K Kunhalikutty. Kanishka said the minister encouraged them to continue their entrepreneurial journey.

Kanishka also received the Young Entrepreneurs’ Award from the Universal Record Forum last year.

For the sisters, however, the business remains part of a much bigger journey — one that began with helping each other through a difficult period and has now taken their little home-based brand beyond Kerala.

They continue to balance textbooks, schoolbags and business orders, growing Aesthetic one product and one school holiday at a time.

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