Have you ever looked at what goes into your detergents or soaps? It’s more than likely that the claims on the label do not match the ingredients’ effects. Vibhooshana Lakshmanan sought to make a difference.
Vibhooshana, now 25, has been running Daily Daily for about 3 years. She has dabbled in multiple businesses since she turned 18, but nothing stuck until this one. She had a gifting brand called Frames and Finish, which she had to shut down during COVID. That didn’t stop her, though; she went right into home baking, which she also had to shut down when she pursued her MBA. That’s when she realised that if she wanted to be in the service industry, she had to be present at all times, but if she got into the product market, she could handle the backend and have people work with her.
Through market research, she found a dearth of detergents and soaps, specifically those safe for babies, that truly delivered on their label claims. She started a brand called Magic Bubble, delivering up to 12,000 kgs of detergent powder monthly through self-help groups, but had to stop because of logistical difficulties. She joined Yamaha’s HR department and thought the corporate experience would allow her to develop the skills necessary to run a proper business. For about two years, she worked the role before getting married and moving to Coimbatore. That’s where the story of Daily Daily begins.
Vibhooshana wanted to dip into the detergent market, but by making a difference. Every product sold by Daily Daily is plant-based, baby-safe, colour-free, and certified. She noticed that her dishes, when washed, had that specific green tint that everyone can identify. “I felt like I was eating chemicals along with my food, and that really bothered me. Daily Daily rose out of a personal need as well as what the market needed. It took us one-and-a-half years to test and perfect our products, and another one-and-a-half years to settle into the market. We have dishwashing liquid, floor, toilet, kitchen, glass cleaners, and laundry pods, among other products,” Vibhooshana says.
A professor and a student from IIT Kharagpur formulate the products and help her do it too! She describes the process and their values, “They trained me for six months, and we all worked together to develop the products. We sent the products to NABL-accredited labs for testing before officially launching in 2025. We wanted to ensure that our products were as clean and safe as possible. Research says that added fragrance is like second-hand smoke, so we don’t use it at all. Our thought process was making products that are good for the family and the planet.”
Daily Daily makes plant-based, baby-safe, colour- and fragrance-free products to enhance your everyday life
Vibhooshana mentions how, even though they had safe products that were good for everybody, the team didn’t want to go the mainstream way and relied on pop-ups to gain traction in the beginning. With social media promoting novelty and overconsumption, she wanted to stick to her roots and go about marketing her brand the traditional way. “We showed mothers samples of our products at pop-ups, so if they liked it, they bought it and spread the word. That’s how we built a retention rate of 60%. Eventually, we realised that we had to start advertising on social media, but we still didn’t do it the commercial way by saying ‘This product will save you’. Instead, we simply say it like it is—this is what we offer; if you like what you see, try it out,” she smiles.
Packaging and shipping took a long time to perfect. “Since it’s a liquid, and everything was in 1 litre packs, it was hard to figure out what material to use that was both sustainable and courier-safe. This is why it took us one-and-a-half years! Paper is a gimmick, because inevitably, the inner layer is going to be plastic anyway, but likely the cheap kind that can’t be recycled. Aluminium was the other option, but it takes decades to decompose, so we didn’t want that. After a lot of trial and error, we settled with recyclable plastic bottles,” she explains.
When asked about the future of Daily Daily, Vibhooshana brings up mothers today, “They’re more concerned about the products they’re using for their babies. They don’t blindly believe what brands claim anymore. During our market research phase, we checked the labels of several baby products. It’s alarming how most of their labels don’t list all the ingredients used. Unfortunately, in India, there is no need for that, so a lot of brands simply omit them. We wanted to be 100% transparent and let the customers know exactly what they’re using, especially to check if their babies might be allergic to any of the ingredients.”
What started as a one-woman show in a 100-square-foot space now has a team—4 full-time and 6 freelancers—in a 1,000-square-foot space. They wanted all their production to be in-house after failed attempts at outsourcing. “We used to give our formulations to other factories and get our product samples, but what they claimed to put in and what we got tested were two very different things. We realised that if we wanted to fortify our claims, we had to take things into our own hands. We got our manufacturing license, and now everything is made in our own space. We can now say that what we claim is really what you get,” she smiles proudly.
Vibhooshana talks about the biggest lessons she has learnt over the years: “I used to think that doing something for 2-3 months would make you famous. I understood the hard way how wrong I was!” she laughs. “I learnt to be consistent and patient in the process. That’s how I got here after 3 years. People are patient with us, so I think it taught me how to be patient as well.”
On the topic of customer stories and how they drive her every day, she says, “There are mothers from the US or Australia who come here to give birth and use our products in their mother’s house. They end up ordering 4-5 litres and taking them back home, even with luggage constraints. Every time a mother tells me how they trust our product or how safe they feel the baby is while using the product makes me keep going.”
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