The Rise of Mirchi Beauty: How South Asian Brands Are Challenging K-Beauty

Mirchi beauty is rising fast. Discover how South Asian brands, Ayurveda, and diaspora influence are challenging K-beauty in the global beauty industry.

Mini beauty trends occur like we sneeze but with the prominence of South Asian beauty brands both from the west and South Asia, I am calling it now–we will enter the age of Mirchi Beauty sooner rather than later.

Mirchi Beauty Defined

Mirchi Beauty is the term I use to describe the group of beauty practises and products which can trace their inspiration to South Asian cultures.  I use the latter term in the plural because South Asians within Asia come from India, Pakistan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Afghanistan, and each country has its own special history.  Additionally South Asians are found around the world, in regions like the Americas, Oceania, Africa and Europe, and each group has its own twist on what it means to be South Asian, and they are all important.

The golden thread that unites these diverse South Asian cultures is that they feature strong, brown beauties who thrive regardless of the culture, and we are always appreciated for our beauty and intelligence.  We are a mirchi lot, not a vat of plain of yoghurt!

Origin Story – The Nineties and Early Aughts

I trace the seeds of Mirchi Beauty to the mid-nineties when the world discovered the beauty and talent of Aishwarya Rai.  She won Miss World in 1994 and has kept our collective hearts and admiration since then.

Around the same time, Miss World 1997, Diana Hayden, became an ambassador for L’Oreal, and walked the Cannes red carpet in the late nineties, thus widening red carpet for subsequent South Asian beauties.

When Rai attended the Cannes film festival in 2002 to promote Devdas, the world was enraptured, and when she was appointed a L’Oreal ambassador in 2003, we understood that we are worth it.  Rai pushed the notion of South Asian beauty, as her face appeared in pharmacies and magazines around the world, and people in the west associated India with Rai’s beauty.

In 1999, on the product front, Canadian founders Gargi, Priti Patel, Pinki Gosal, and Monal Patel founded Vasanti Cosmetics, the first ever beauty line founded in Canada that directly answered the beauty needs and fulfilled the beauty aspirations of South Asian Canadians. Vasanti’s concealers and exfoliators were addressing the issue of discolouration and unevenness before we had developed a common vocabulary for such issues.

Origin Story – Picking up Steam in the 2010’s

The South Asian beauty story in the west was revved up by the ethereal talent and beauty of Freida Pinto, who broke through with Slumdog Millionaire and became a L’Oreal spokesperson. Pinto’s presence in pharmacies and magazines around the world helped make South Asian beauty girl-next-door beauty, not something to be exoticised.

In 2018, Estée Lauder again reminded of South Asian beauty by naming Diana Penty as its first ever Indian ambassador.  Penty, a talented actress, demonstrated in countless commercial ads, that brown beauty is breathtaking, and further familiarised the west with our allure.

On the product development front, Ayurveda was beginning to be recognised by mainstream in the west as a legitimate body of science and a great source of beauty ideas.  Michelle Ranavat founded her eponymous line in 2014, and she was breaking new ground.  Ayurveda went from little potions concocted by our mothers and grandmothers into beautiful, glamorous products that delivered results.  Ravnavat is one the earliest ambassadors of South Asian beauty wisdom in the modern Mirchi Beauty times.

On the cosmetics front, in 2015, a second South Asian founded beauty line entered the market in the west: Wander Beauty.  American entrepreneur, Divya Gugnani, and her business partner Lindsay Ellinson developed practical products that were designed to be used for travel.  The innovative, lightweight packaging pushed the envelope on the issue of packaging and the brand’s legendary eye patches effectively diminished the appearance of dark circles–a common beauty bane for many South Asian beauties.

Origin Story – Blast off during the Pandemic

There was something in the ether in the late 2010’s because the number of South Asian success stories in the beauty space was breathtaking.

Priyanka Chopra continued to break barriers by becoming the ambassador for Max Factor in 2021, which familiarised western consumers with another exemplary example of South Asian beauty.  Our beauty was again being normalised in mass marketing, which helped young South Asians feel like they belong.

Manushi Chhillar carried the mantle from Diana Penty, having been named the second ever brand ambassador from India for Estée Lauder and her visage is seen worldwide.

In terms of brand launches, innovation and practicality were two adjectives that describe Live Tinted, founded in 2018, and Ready Jet Set Beauty, founded in 2019.  The former pushed the discussion of dark circles while the latter’s focus on creating products that can withstand extremes in weather conditions, now ensures that we have makeup that will not disintegrate when we arrive in South Asia!

Interestingly, in 2019, Bollywood actress, Katrina Kaif, entered into a partnership with Nykaa, the biggest beauty retailer in India, to launch Kay Beauty.  This brand targeted India’s beauty market for a high-performance, accessibly priced makeup line.  Kaif explained when her brand launched, “I’ve often done my own makeup for films that demanded both versatility and authenticity. That gave me a deep understanding of what high-performance makeup really needs: long wear, comfort and care.”

Origin Story – Mirch Masala!

Since 2025, the term Indian baddie has become popular in social media sites such as Tik Tok. The terms refers to a confident, stylish, and independent South Asian woman who merges traditional heritage with modern fashion and attitude.  It is an empowered view of South Asian beauty, and one that is the fruit of the strength of women who have embraced themselves and were presented by trailblazing actresses and models who introduced the world to our beauty through their work.

The tradition of South Asian beauty product development continued with 2026 launch of Rosemin Beauty. Developed and designed for warmer skin tones, Rosemin Beauty is the ultimate makeup edit for women who know what they want—everyday elegance without the need for a glam squad, mix-and-match routines, or complex techniques. The line will undoubtedly find enthusiastic audiences around the world, appealing not only to South Asian consumers but also to beauty lovers across cultures.

In terms of business, two major headlines caught my eye.  In June 2025, Space NK, the venerable British beauty retailer, announced that it would carry Kay Beauty in several of their stores as of September 3, 2025 (Oxford Circus, Westfield White City, Leicester and Birmingham Bullring).  Kay Beauty marks the first time that an Indian cosmetics brand has been included in the stores.  This is Kay Beauty’s first expansion outside of India, and marks the first time that an Indian cosmetics brand, based on Indian needs and aspirations, is being sold to consumers in the west.

A second major headline was that Estée Lauder has acquired the remaining shares in Forest Essentials, a respected Indian, Ayurveda-driven brand founded by visionary entrepreneur Mira Kulkarni.  Estee Lauder first engaged with the brand in 2008 by becoming a minority investor, and then increasing its stake to 49% ownership in 2020.  Now it is the owner and will continue to work with Kulkarni and gain a greater foothold in terms of prestige beauty share in one of the most dynamic beauty markets in the world, India.  Through this partnership with The Estée Lauder Companies, Forest Essentials will leverage global brand-building capabilities, a prestige distribution network, and operational expertise to drive long-term, sustainable growth while preserving the brand’s distinctive Luxurious Ayurvedic DNA and Indian heritage. The collaboration is a strategic investment in Forest Essentials’ future, as it will access Estee Lauder’s scalable platform that will broaden consumer reach and bring modern Luxurious Ayurveda to new audiences all over the world.

The fact that brands are investing millions of dollars outside of their traditional geographic territories, and the movement is now both ways, is what made me sit up and speculate if the omnipresent K-Beauty trend will be replaced by Mirchi Beauty.  These investment decisions are not made in a vacuum, there is forecasting, asset evaluation, debt review and lots of lawyers’ fees that factor into such decisions.  Major players are positioning themselves to access the wonders of South Asian beauty to be sold in the free market. At some point K-Beauty consumption, no matter how well made, will saturate the market and consumers will yearn for something different and as effective as K-Beauty formulae.

Given that South Asians and their beauty brands have been germinating and slowing growing for the past 30 years, and there is already a trend on social media, suggests that Mirchi Beauty is coming sooner rather than later.

Mirchi Thoughts

The movement of beauty brands going west to east and east to west, made me chuckle, as I could not help but wonder how George Khan, in the classic film East is East, would react.  I am curious to see if my prediction comes to fruition, and if so, I will be delighted to share it with my mother, who did not have any beauty choices when she came to Canada in 1972.  I think that there is room for all beauty traditions but our consumption is based on trends, and influencers and algorithms need hashtags and bait to survive, and I will be ready to observe!

Suggested Readings: 
From Vedas To Vanity: How Ayurveda Is Redefining Beauty
Beauty Beyond Earth: This South Asian Founder Is Taking Skincare Into Space