24-YO Delhi Woman Takes Rs 80 Lakh From Family, Starts An Indian Skincare-First Makeup Brand - Clocks Rs 15 Lakh Revenue Within 4 Months

Gen Z is obsessed with wellness, and rightly so. More and more people have started flipping over their food and skincare products to check the labels.

Companies like Trustified have sprung up to check the label accuracy, conduct third-party lab tests, and reveal the findings in an unbiased manner.

For Tanisha Rathi, someone who identifies as a science geek, life has always been about checking, re-checking, and then checking everything one more time that she puts inside her body and on her skin.

“I have always been a nerd like that. I need to be aware of exactly what I am consuming, food and skincare-wise. That’s why when I was in London, I was naturally drawn towards makeup products that were skincare-first. I loved the combination, and these products became my go-to makeup items for years. In India, however, I didn’t see many brands follow the skincare-first route while making products. So I built Tintessa to do exactly that,” Tanisha Rathi, founder of Tintessa, tells Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview.

Founded in 2025, Tintessa is a New Delhi-based skin-first makeup brand that sells products infused with 100% non-toxic, vegan, and non-comedogenic ingredients. In January 2026, it clocked a monthly revenue of Rs 8 lakh.

THE BACKGROUND

Born and raised in New Delhi, Tanisha Rathi comes from a family that has a business background. Her father has multiple decades of experience in the realms of real estate and manufacturing.

For her graduation, Tanisha attended Amity University to pursue a bachelor's degree in science and biotechnology.

Next, she went to the University of Warwick in London to pursue her master's in biotechnology and a minor in business management.

“From 2022 to the end of 2024, I worked in a healthcare marketing job where I was in charge of looking into medicines that weren't yet approved and speaking to various stakeholders in the process,” Tanisha tells Startup Pedia.

It was in London that she developed an affinity towards make-up products that were skincare-first. Every product that she would buy and use would have more skincare ingredients than make-up ingredients.

By January 2025, Tanisha felt very homesick and decided to come back to India and stay with her family.

“Since I come from a business background, the entrepreneurial spark has always been there. So I was on the lookout to do something of my own,” she says.

In India, she quickly started running out of the makeup products that she had bought from London. Buying them again was resulting in a surge of 50-100% in the prices.

“Imported makeup products have duties attached to them. I started looking for Indian makeup that had skincare built-in, but couldn't find many options. To my surprise, I even discovered that numerous brands here use certain ingredients that are literally banned in the United Kingdom and European Union,” Tanisha Rathi explains to Startup Pedia.

Seeing these gaps, the now 24-year-old (soon to be 25) decided to build a makeup brand that is skincare-first.

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JOURNEY AND CHALLENGES

In February 2025, Tanisha Rathi founded Tintessa with a bootstrapped amount of Rs 80 lakh.

This money came from her family's savings.

From February 2025 to September 2025, the small business founder spent every day and night working to get the brand set-up, products, and packaging right.

• The month of February was all about brainstorming names for the brand, finalizing legalities, getting trademarks, and obtaining GST certificates.

• By March, Tanisha started looking to crack the product and packaging for Tintessa.

“Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find premium packaging options in India. I decided to source it internationally,” Tanisha says.

For the products, she knew that she didn't have the kind of money to establish an in-house manufacturing unit. So she began reaching out to makeup and skincare manufacturers and explained to them her clear, non-negotiable requirements for the formulation: non-comedogenic, skin-safe, and no banned ingredients.

• By April, Tanisha had two products in mind: a Lip Butter and a Lip Tint. She gave the manufacturer an exact ingredient brief, and alongside, started exploring more packaging options. At the time, she got about 500 packaging samples delivered to her place in New Delhi.

• By late April and early May, the young entrepreneur received the product samples. While they were good enough, the “oomph” factor was missing.

“I didn't want to just launch my brand with a product I wasn't 101% convinced with. My father connected me to specialists in the Korean skincare industry. It was a week-long trip to Korea, and I took all my product samples with me. They were kind enough to give me detailed feedback on how I could make the formulations better and enhance the skin-first USP that I was going for. On coming back to India, I passed all the learning to my manufacturer,” Tanisha Rathi shares with Startup Pedia. 

• In the first week of June, the revised product samples arrived. The small business founder describes them as “chef’s kiss.” 

“I was finally convinced. The formula was perfect. Around the same time, I gave the packaging manufacturer a bulk order which would require 50-60 days,” she says. 

• Throughout June, July, and August, Tanisha Rathi worked with her product manufacturer to get the shades of the Lip Butter and Lip Tint right. They added multiple undertones and made it perfect to suit every Indian skin tone.

Meanwhile, Tanisha absorbed the technicalities of website development, SEO, and Shopify. She also designed the brand elements such as stickers and cartons herself.

“Freelancers were a bit expensive for me. So I decided to build the website myself. During that time, I would sleep for just 4 hours.These months were very brutal,” the young entrepreneur laughs. 

• By the last week of August and the beginning of September, Tanisha received the bulk products as well as the packaging. But…a major setback followed.

“I had paid Rs 2 lakh to the packaging vendor. I had given a very specific brief to attach inner holdings inside each mono carton.These inner holdings hold the product together. They messed it up and sent me faulty mono cartons that didn't align with the brief I had sent them. When I asked them to revise everything and send me a fresh batch, they blocked my number. I lost Rs 2 lakh. I initially planned to launch Tintessa by September, but because of this issue, that got delayed as well,” Tanisha Rathi opens up.

“Eventually, I switched manufacturers and gave them Rs 2 lakh again,” she adds.

By the first week of October, Tanisha finally had everything in place.

Except for the product photos. Within three days, she sourced models, got photoshoots done, and officially launched Tintessa on 7th October 2025.

“I also hired an intern as well as a social media manager to begin looking into things,” she says. 

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BREAKDOWN OF THE BOOTSTRAPPED AMOUNT 

Speaking to Startup Pedia, Tanisha Rathi revealed the exact breakdown of Tintessa’s bootstrapped amount of Rs 80 lakh crore:

• Rs 30 lakh was spent on packaging, which was shipped from an international location to India.

“I was thinking long-term and hence got packaging in bulk. This includes 40,000+ bottles as well as branded pouches,” she says. 

• Rs 1.5 lakh went into setting up the Shopify website, buying a theme, and getting other automated systems to run the brand's operations 

• The product manufacturing cost came to Rs 25 lakh.

• As mentioned above, there was a Rs 2 lakh loss because of a misalignment in the mono cartons. Then, an additional Rs 2 lakh was spent in getting it right. 

• Rs 6 lakh was spent on getting 20,000 outer shipping boxes.

• Rs 2 lakh went into getting branding elements such as stickers, paper, and other accessories.

“Some of the amount has also gone into the salaries of my two team members - the intern and the social media manager. I am now also paying my father's account to manage Tintessa’s finances. The rest is being used as working capital,” Tanisha Rathi mentions. 

TINTESSA: INDIA’S SKINCARE-FIRST MAKEUP BRAND

Today, Tintessa operates as an Indian skincare-first makeup brand. It uses clinically proven actives, the same ones that are used in luxury skincare products.

The brand’s hero ingredients are:

• Squalane and Hyaluronic Acid, offering long-lasting hydration and barrier repair

• Ceramides and Peptide, making the skin strong, smooth, plump

• Niacinamide and Kojic Acid, responsible for brightening and making the skin tone even

• Vitamin E, natural oils, and UV filters, offering antioxidant protection as well as a strong defence against environmental stressors

Currently, Tintessa offers only two products: Skincare Supercharged Lip Butter and the Multiuse Whipped Mousse Tint.

“90% of people have bought the Lip Butter. I've already found my hero product. My repeat rate has also become strong owing to this product,” Tanisha Rathi smiles.

“We have made our lip products in a way that they actually enter the pores of the lips and unleash an ingredient-level benefit,” she adds.

While the Lip Butter sells for Rs 799, the Lip Tint sells for Rs 749. The brand also runs two-three discounts on its website.

The current average order value of Tintessa is Rs 1,110.

“The unit economics breakup of Rs 1,110 is simple: Rs 500 is our profit, and the rest goes into the product, branding, shipping, and other variables,” the young entrepreneur mentions.

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TINTESSA’S STEADY GROWTH

In October 2025, when the skincare-first makeup brand had just launched, it received 110 customers and clocked a monthly

revenue of approximately Rs 75,000.

“Out of these, 30 customers were my friends and family members,” Tanisha beams.

In November, Tintessa fulfilled 250+ orders and closed the month at Rs 1,82,000.

In December, the brand catered to 350+ orders and clocked a monthly revenue of Rs 4.5 lakh.

“In January 2026, we saw weekly sales of upto Rs 2 lakh,” Tanisha tells Startup Pedia.

For January 2026, Tintessa closed the month at approximately Rs 8 lakh.

“I am supremely grateful for having started Tintessa. I know what I am building here is adding genuine value to the lives of people. We have been getting superb feedback every single day, and I want to keep living up to it. Everything that I put in, in terms of money, effort, and relentless dedication to the right ingredients, finally makes sense,” Tanisha Rathi signs off. 

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