Estée Lauder Companies and Nykaa celebrated the next generation of beauty entrepreneurs as they announced the winners of the second edition of ‘Beauty & You India’. The awards ceremony took place at Snowball Studios in Mumbai with 27 finalists and a number of celebrities and names in the Indian beauty industry. 

“This year’s winners represent an exciting mix of entrepreneurs, creative visionaries, innovative scientists, and impact-focused founders- a true representation of the larger beauty ecosystem with the qualities required for long-term success,” said Estée Lauder Companies’ New Incubation Ventures’ senior vice president Shana Randhava in a press release. “We are excited about the opportunity to mentor and provide support to the winners so they can share their vision with a broader, more global community.”
 
This season, the jury included Bollywood celebrity and Kay Beauty founder Katrina Kaif, actress and UNDP ambassador Bhumi Pednekar, and designer and entrepreneur Masaba Gupta among others. The winners of the $50,000 ‘Breakthrough Category’ prize for ‘Innovation in Active Ingredients that Address Key Areas for the Indian Consumer’ were Biome Laboratories, founded by Rhea Goenka and Keva Fragrances, led by CEO Kedar Vaze and chief scientific officer Avani Mainkar. 

The $50,000 ‘Create Category’ prize was won by director Priya Minhas for her film concept named ‘Honey and Mud’. Other prizes included a ‘Community Prize’ for engagement and support and a ‘Grow Prize’ for in-market business.
 
“This year’s Beauty & You award winners represent the best in innovative, consumer-first thinking that India has to offer, and we are thrilled to support the founders on their journey of building high quality brands for the Indian consumer,” said Nykaa’s executive director and CEO Anchit Nayar. “At Nykaa, incubating the next generation of beauty entrepreneurs is central to our mission of democratising access to beauty for all and we are proud to have a partner like The Estée Lauder Companies with whom to achieve this objective.”
 
Beauty & You launched as an awards program in July 2022 to discover and elevate the next generation of beauty entrepreneurs. The initiative was created by Estée Lauder Companies’ New Incubation Ventures and Nykaa and saw over 600 entries from 150 cities this year.