25 year old Aahan Chaterjee’s Qaafi is 4 months young. The story of this enterprise has all the elements which make it an entrepreneurial success. Aahan has conceptualized the products, ingredients, packaging, and also the brand’s visual language, marketing strategies and finer details. While there is a design team to realize his ideas, the genesis of it all rests with him. He credits his family’s experience in the FMCG sector along with his own observation of the rise of D2C brands to have propelled him into starting something of his own. On Qaafi’s Instagram page you find their famous hair serum and hand-cream in amber recyclable PET bottles. Grays and deep greens dominate the palette. These two products were launched to target areas in body care which Aahan felt remained neglected most often. The aesthetic is retro, with lots of sepia, and men and women in traditional clothes make frequent appearances. The products are unisex and the carefully curated art on and around them reflects that. The close-ups of the bottles draw the eye to the natural ingredients within the formulas. Such symbolic placement of people and objects evoke the ‘edgy’ in 90’s India. The distinct personality being carved by Aahan is unmissable. It is the world of a few yet solid products, which build trust in an increasingly confusing, trend based market. Aahan’s ‘Design-Led’ approach has yielded results. The brand made it to the first list of Kyoorius Design Awards 2024.
Skincare is more than a routine — it’s a shared experience, rooted in tradition and intention.
25 year old Aahan Chaterjee’s Qaafi is 4 months young. The story of this enterprise has all the elements which make it an entrepreneurial success. Aahan has conceptualized the products, ingredients, packaging, and also the brand’s visual language, marketing strategies and finer details. While there is a design team to realize his ideas, the genesis of it all rests with him. He credits his family’s experience in the FMCG sector along with his own observation of the rise of D2C brands to have propelled him into starting something of his own. On Qaafi’s Instagram page you find their famous hair serum and hand-cream in amber recyclable PET bottles. Grays and deep greens dominate the palette. These two products were launched to target areas in body care which Aahan felt remained neglected most often. The aesthetic is retro, with lots of sepia, and men and women in traditional clothes make frequent appearances. The products are unisex and the carefully curated art on and around them reflects that. The close-ups of the bottles draw the eye to the natural ingredients within the formulas. Such symbolic placement of people and objects evoke the ‘edgy’ in 90’s India. The distinct personality being carved by Aahan is unmissable. It is the world of a few yet solid products, which build trust in an increasingly confusing, trend based market. Aahan’s ‘Design-Led’ approach has yielded results. The brand made it to the first list of Kyoorius Design Awards 2024.
The hand-cream is aromatic with ingredients like sea buckthorn oil and sea weed extract, which add to its effectiveness while also pointing to India’s rich biodiversity. He sources it from Ladakh. This seemingly simplistic yet delicate balance between functionality and indulgence reaffirms his honest admission that the brand is a mix of organic, locally grown and chemical ingredients. There is no claim to being purely Ayurvedic or organic. The mixture of everything ‘nice’ captures the Indian essence of ‘what works, works’. Manufacturing and packaging is divided between Pune and Bangalore in small scale facilities since that allows him greater control over quality.
Thoughtfully crafted, effortlessly absorbed, and designed to nourish with every touch.
Aahan is grateful for the positive attention the brand is getting. In such a short time it has been covered by publications like Elle and attracts partnerships with like-minded brands, like the suma soaps done with Satsuma on Diwali. Qaafi, from the colloquial ‘kaafi’ (enough), is building an elevated Indian niche in skincare by removing the excess which has come to define modern body care routines. Here there are no rows upon rows of products, but single formulas packed with elemental goodness. The Devanagri script is another link in its chain of Indian references.
Apart from design Qaafi also does fun and interesting things like putting in coupon codes in their list of ingredients. Since he takes pride in the authenticity of his products, he wants the customer to know exactly what they are using. The attachment must be as personal for us as it is for the founder. We feel the chaotic yet open energy from the brand and its founder, the kind which is forever learning and growing; and this growth is not arithmetic but geometric.
Words by Ayesha Suhail.
Picture courtesy Project Qaafi.
