Jay Rege’s Blog

(please read the earlier blog on the ‘the Papaya Factor’ before this one)….coming back to the discussion on food in cosmetics, I think the credit for being a pioneer in this arena goes to our good old friend the ‘lemon’. I remember as a kid, when the lemon swiftly made his move from Limca to Lyril (that soap with a strong lemony fragrance). That was definitely a path breaking move. I am now told that Limca contains ‘no fruit juice or pulp’, and I wonder if the Limca guys decided to put that disclaimer after the lemon left them to shower with the dancing girl under the waterfall (remember the Lyril ads -:) ). But never mind, it doesn’t matter now. The lemon is still a hero. Some might argue that the ‘clove’ beats the ‘lemon’ in the ‘food in cosmetic’ race, as the clove was the first to feature in a toothpaste - remember the ‘Promise’ toothpaste we had back then. But frankly, for many including me, the toothpaste is still a semi-food item and not a cosmetic. It goes in your mouth and traces of it might accidentally end up in your stomach – like the chewing gum. Nevertheless I still credit the lemon as pioneer for bringing about a revolution in the ‘food in cosmetic’ industry.

For a while, the lemon was on a roll. He made his presence felt everywhere from beauty soaps, to shampoos, to shaving creams and even the talcum powder. But then somewhere down the line he lost it. The lemon’s biggest mistake, I think, was he became over ambitious and accepted offers from even the non cosmetic guys. The lemon was everywhere. You could find him in dishwashing soaps, air fresheners, and window cleaners. That’s when the cosmetic guys knew they needed a new fruit and the lemon lost his charm.

The crush of the lemon led to the rise of the orange, banana, papaya, peach, green apple, avocado, and others. The rules of the game were simple. If you needed a place in cosmetics, you need to be photogenic and you needed to sound exotic. Taste didn’t matter. Hence the jackfruit never made it. I feel sorry for the ‘chikoo’ too. But the one who undoubtedly created a sensation in the industry was ‘Aloe Vera’. The guy just rocked the cosmetic world. He was like “Wow!” I mean the guy had the looks and even had a first and last name. That’s so very hep! And most important, many people didn’t know what an Aloe Vera was (many still don’t). That gave him an added exclusivity making him even more desirable.

Hopefully Aloe doesn’t make the same mistake as the lemon did, and keeps a close eye on Jojoba. The Gillette guys already have Jojoba in one of their shave gels, and I don’t think it would take the Jojoba long to catch up in the race. But fortunately, thanks to food lovers like me, I am sure there is enough room for both the Aloe and Jojoba (and a few more are welcome too) in our shampoo bottle and our shave gels.

PS: When is Lifebuoy coming up with an Aloed version? I think the red soap is a little harsh on my delicate and sensitive skin :-)

Here’s a question to all my MBA friends “How do you sell a small piece of Papaya for Rs. 200?” (For those who are blissfully unaware of how much a papaya costs – you could buy a fairly decent sized papaya for Rs. 20). Well if you are still working out your marketing strategy to sell the piece of the Papaya for Rs. 200, then here’s the answer: Crush the piece of papaya and put it in a small plastic bottle, fill the bottle with some liquid soap and then write on the bottle ‘Facewash with Papaya Extracts’ - :) Yup, now this damn thing could easily fetch you 200 bucks or more. With minor alterations in packaging, shape of the bottle, pictures on the bottle etc, you could pass on this soapy solution as a shampoo, bodywash, handwash, or even as shaving gel. But make sure you have the words ‘With Papaya Extracts’ and a picture of the papaya on the bottle.

Strange, but somehow the humble ‘Papaya’ has made it big in the cosmetic business. Although the papaya has been into existence for many years now, until recently I never realized its true potential. I never considered it anything more than a fruit that I didn’t enjoy eating much. The papaya for me was a poor man’s fruit - nature’s gift to those who couldn’t afford the mango. Papaya juice with a lot of saccharine was traditionally used as filler to dilute mango juice (like pumpkin was used in tomato ketchup). I never knew that the papaya had any other potential, until it somehow found a break in the cosmetic industry. I should say I am really happy for the Papaya.

But the Papaya isn’t alone. If you happen to be an ardent viewer of advertisements on TV (like I am), or walk down the soap/shampoo aisle at a retail store, you will be amazed to see the amount of ‘food’ that goes into these beauty products. It’s strange, but the ad for the beauty soap with strawberry and cream looks yummier than a Baskin Robbins. These days there’s plenty of edible stuff in your beauty products right from the papaya, strawberry, peach, orange, banana, wheat, milk cream, chocolate, avocado, tea tree, green apple, almond, apricot, cucumber, watermelon, jojoba (I have no idea what the jojoba is, but whatever it is, it sound pretty exotic), to my all time favorite the ‘Aloe Vera’. And if for some reason your shampoo manufacturers decide not to add food to your shampoo, they would at least make sure it comes ‘with added vitamins A, B, D & E’, so that you don’t miss out on your daily dose of vitamins.

Well I have a lot more to write on these cosmetic foods, but the talk of food invariably makes me hungry. So I will be back after a quick ‘food’ break (and no. I don’t mean a shower and shave here. I mean a real food break). Ciao.