Jinelle D’Lima, founder of Jin Jin Made With Love
Mumbai-based Jinellle D’Lima, with a Master’s in Psychology, is an event planner by day and makes organic beauty products as a hobby, some of them edible! The free-spirited founder of Jin Jin, Made with Love, talks to The Goodwill Project about her passion project, which includes Chocolate Vanilla and Lemon Honey foot soaks, Coffee Almond body scrubs, Peppermint face scrubs, Lavender Vanilla body soufflés, among several others.
What prompted the brand?
I am an event planner by profession, hence work is seasonal. In my free time, I like travelling and love visiting new places, experiencing their culture and trying new cuisines. I am also a DIY enthusiast, constantly engaging myself with some project around the house. My creativity is an outlet to showcase my personality so writing, sketching, basically doing anything new! Jin Jin, Made with <3 is just that! I believe this brand is an extension of me, my hobbies, passions and my spin on the world we live in. Also, blessed with sensitive skin myself, I wanted to understand what goes into beauty products so that they do not cause any damage. After researching and experimenting for quite some time, I thought I’d make them myself since they are natural alternatives that I will personally oversee and will never have to worry about the harmful side-effects of synthetically manufactured products ever again. By combining my hobbies with my interests, the brand was born.
What were you doing before venturing into this?
Jin Jin, Made with <3 is a hobby that evolved out of my passion for personalized gifting. At the moment, I only make the products in my spare time and for gifting purposes.
When did you first start experimenting with creating beauty products?
I absolutely love making people feel cherished and valued, since childhood. In boarding school, the only form of communication was snail mail, thus my parents received handcrafted weekly letters and my relatives, personalized cards and gifts for every occasion. From there, my fascination with customized gifting grew, as I experimented with candle-making, chocolate making, crafting boxes to place each gift in, calligraphy, fabric painting and the like. It was then that I started these handmade, authentic beauty products too.
What was the first product you made?
Over the weekend, I love pampering myself. So body scrubs were the first product with ingredients from the kitchen itself. It was much later, after a lot of research, that I formulated a process that works for me. It starts off with the usual adding of ingredients followed by blending, with a lot of love!
Is there a lot of trial and error? Who did you try these on?
Oh, most definitely! When you are making products at home, there is always scope for improvement. So, I would not call it trial and error, but experimenting to understand which ingredients go well with different skin types. Initially, I used to try everything on myself because I have sensitive skin, so if they worked for me, they would most definitely be good for others too. Later, I made samples to test on friends and family, so I had a larger canvas and varying degree of opinions and feedback to improvise from.
What are the ingredients you use? How do you pick them? How are these sourced?
The ingredients are all natural and organic. I spent a lot of time and effort figuring out ingredients that were most beneficial. Since I make everything personally, I’m always overseeing all ingredients/raw material sourced from only certified, premium quality vendors.
Why edible products?
Actually, only the face scrubs are edible. Personally, I used to get very annoyed when I washed my face every morning and ended up tasting and spitting out some amount of product! I wanted to put an end to this issue permanently. Hence, the edible face scrubs, so no one has to go through this daunting task ever again. In fact, the base is brown sugar, so if you have a sweet tooth you are in for an early morning treat!
You also do customized orders. How does that work? Give us some examples?
If anyone has a whim and wants to make a signature body scrub that is not available in the market, it’s possible. I source the ingredients and after some samples, the final product is ready. Or if there is a party and someone wants personalized favors that guests can use, they can be customized from the fragrances to the packaging. For instance, there was one client who was having a baby shower and wanted giveaways that would be good for other expecting moms too. The body souffles were packaged with a special thank you note and an extra punch of Vitamin E as it prevents stretch marks while expecting.
Why is organic better?
To me, nature is the best source of inspiration. Anything that nature has to offer, you know for a fact is pure. From the ingredients, designing and even packaging, everything is all organic. Clients usually appreciate the ribbon with name tags and wooden spatula in each fully recyclable bottle as they are aware that there is not a single toxic substance that goes into the making of the entire range. I believe anything manufactured artificially is not as healthy as its organically made alternative.
Any visible effects on the skin? What can one expect?
Yes, totally! As soon as you use any scrub, you instantly feel the difference; your skin is more supple, smooth and visibly glowing! So, I always do this when clients are skeptical; they try any product of choice on one hand, feel their skin and this persuades them to pick more as there is an instant notable contrast between their hands.
What are your future plans for the brand?
As of now, it is still in a hobby phase, but I do plan to take it forward slowly. At first, I want to start selling on various e-commerce sites, so that the general public is more aware of the brand and its benefits. In this day and age, most people want a more natural alternative to personal beauty products as they are more conscious of the ingredients and processes that go into the manufacturing. Hence, I believe Jin Jin, Made with <3 will have a much bigger market in the years to come.
To order, visit www.facebook.com/jinelle.jinjin
