Jersey City entrepreneur reinvents South Asian beauty rituals

For Shubhangini Prakash, the beauty industry’s problem isn’t just narrow definitions of beauty or misleading labels; it’s personal. When she was 12, a store-bought face wash gave her a severe reaction, leaving her face “on fire” for over a week and affecting her self-esteem as she struggled to find a solution. The only remedy that worked was sandalwood powder, which her mother kept in a repurposed jam jar.

Prakash, a Jersey City resident, said that experience taught her that the personal care industry fails to address the whole person because it compartmentalizes skin issues. To challenge that approach, she launched Feather & Bone in 2015 with the mission of putting the “person back in personal care.”

Feather & Bone offers modern and ethical plant-based skincare products inspired by South Asian beauty rituals. Drawing from the traditional sandalwood remedy her mother provided Prakash as a child, the brand offers 100% waterless, minimalist products that challenge the beauty industry by reducing water waste and pollution. In a time when South Asian-owned beauty brands are on the rise, the Jersey entrepreneur demonstrates how traditional ingredients can be adapted to build a transparent and trusted brand.

After her mother introduced her to sandalwood, Prakash began making her own products, handing out powdered face wash samples at Union Square in New York City. In doing so, she realized that a powder face wash wasn’t appealing to Western customers. While attending business school, she developed the concept for a face wash tablet.

Feather & Bone merges Ayurvedic principles of balance with a sustainable mindset, offering three-ingredient products. Prakash created this format not just for simplicity, but for the planet, challenging consumers to reflect on what happens when they wash off their skincare. She points out that since water makes up the bulk of most products, eliminating it reduces the strain on a natural resource.

“At waste cleaning facilities, water isn’t treated for skincare ingredients,” Prakash notes, citing the microbead crisis as a clear example. “Harmful ingredients make their way into our water systems and impact the environment.”

Prakash’s commitment to formulating ethical products has gained recognition. In 2016, a United Nations employee praised Prakash at a trade show for her thoughtfulness in ensuring the ingredients were not causing harm to the natural environment.

Despite this early validation, bootstrapping a business in today’s environment is fraught with challenges. With social media, influencers, and AI saturating beauty marketing, it’s made it harder for smaller brands like Feather & Bone to stand out. Another challenge Prakash faces is being lumped in with companies that greenwash, or use marketing to appear sustainable. 

“There’s currently no entity that monitors these words,” she says, adding that it can be frustrating for an ethical consumer to discern which products to trust.

Despite these hurdles, Prakash’s success lies in her ability to be nimble, try new things out, and use her personal experiences to build deep connections with consumers. This flexibility led to a pivotal shift for the brand when she became a parent during COVID-19.

Prakash noticed that baby-product ingredients were often worse than what you find in everyday skincare. She started meeting a lot of parents, especially first-time mothers who instantly understood the ethos behind Feather & Bone’s minimal products. 

“Baby skin is sensitive, and as a parent your approach to products changes,” Prakash said. The focus on baby products created a stronger sense of direction for her brand.

Prakash celebrates the positive impact the products have made — from clearing acne to becoming a trusted brand. 

Paula Reeves, a certified yoga therapist, has been using Feather & Bone products for nearly a decade. She said she appreciates the intentional approach to skincare and often recommends the products to others.

“As a person diagnosed with an autoimmune skin condition as a child, I can’t afford to take risks with skincare,” Reeves said. “Most skincare products entice us with pretty packaging and false claims. It’s insulting to me.”

Reflecting on the brand’s growth, Prakash brings it back to the personal. 

“We eat with our hands, use products with our hands. These are forms of giving yourself love,” she said. 

She said she hopes her brand encourages others to “embrace their inner weirdo,” and understand that all good skincare starts with a relationship to yourself, being comfortable with who you are and not putting on a persona.

Ifrah Akhtar is the associate editor of Central Desi.

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