Pooja Nagaraj started May Six in 2023 as a hobby first, and eventually, turned it into her profession. She makes artisanal soaps, handmade in small batches, using clean, fresh ingredients.
Pooja explains the brand’s name, May Six, as a culmination of her family’s birthdays. Her and her husband’s birthdays are in May, and their son’s birthday is on the 6th of November. Together, it became May Six, a little ode to the love she holds for them. “I started May Six on a whim, post-delivery. I wanted to stay home, take care of things, and keep myself occupied with some kind of business. I was doomscrolling one day and found posts about businesses women can run from home, which inspired me to start. I was immediately fascinated by soap-making, so I learnt about it and did an online course from Delhi,” Pooja says.
She handles the making, packing, and shipping herself, and has one person handling the social media. When she started the brand, she realised soon that having an online presence was essential for something like soap-making, where there were a lot of small businesses in the space. To set herself apart and create a niche for May Six, it was challenging to find the right professionals to learn from, consistently source good-quality raw materials, figure out the formulation, and find a USP for the brand. She mentions how taking a turn from being a fashion designer to making soaps wasn’t easy to explain to her friends and family, and she was met with criticism and scepticism, but she persisted.
Pooja talks about the market for artisanal products and how only a small percentage of people who know about the value of conscious, sustainable brands are willing to spend a premium and invest in them. However, some customers see her handcrafted soaps in real life at pop-ups, hear about the benefits, and are convinced to try them out. When they realise that what they see on the packaging is exactly what is in the product, and nothing else, they are willing to give it a shot.
For the next few years, she wants to focus her efforts on retaining her loyal customers, who can keep her afloat, while reaping the benefits of the soaps that they’re using. Her soaps stand out from other brands by using buttermilk as their base. Her signature soap is made with 100% buttermilk, coconut oil, olive oil, castor oil, shea butter.
She caters to a variety of skin types as well. “For oily skin, I have an activated charcoal and calamine powder soap. Generally, when you use charcoal powder, it dries out your skin, so I add calamine to balance it out. For dry skin, I have a ghee, saffron, and sandalwood soap, in which I use saffron-infused buttermilk and sandalwood essential oil. I also offer a soap called Ocean Mist, which feels like a spa experience. Along with soaps, I introduced a cold-processed shampoo bar, which is made of buttermilk and herbs like neem, rosemary, and moringa infused in the coconut oil. Recently, I added body butters and sugar scrubs to the catalogue,” Pooja says.
Charcoal and calamine soaps, Ghee, saffron, and sandalwood soaps, Ocean Mist soaps
The biggest lesson she has learnt over the three years of running May Six, she describes, is understanding social media. “My husband insisted that I hire an individual to help with digital marketing. If I make 100 soaps now in a week, I can make 500 if I hit the right audience. To show people that you can do it, you have to put in some effort to post about it, he kept saying. It’s too overwhelming to manage the production, admin work, delivery, and marketing myself, so I hired someone.”
She talks about a recent olive oil and cocoa butter shortage, with a sharp increase in soapmaking. “I had to reformulate the products that used those ingredients. It’s a continuous learning curve. In the next three years, we might not have shea butter, so that will call for another reformulation. You need to keep yourself updated and upgrade your skills to keep up. Adaptability is one of the most important characteristics a business owner must have.”
The initial formulation took about 6-7 months for Pooja to test the soaps and see how they function in Indian weather. “Using ingredients like cocoa butter in India is, first of all, very expensive, and second, it makes the soaps soggy. Since we have a difference in water, some places are hard, some are soft; it becomes a challenge to formulate soaps that work for both.”
When asked about standing out, she replies, “Being distinguishable is not an easy thing when there are so many talented soapmakers out there. I believe I’m one of the few brands making buttermilk soaps, whether in liquid form or powder form, when required. I also have my own custom-sized mould and design. My soaps are skinny and tall, and have a gold design on top. After all, I am a designer by heart,” she laughs. “Only if the soap looks good will people even bother to look at the ingredients and benefits.”
Speaking of people’s reactions to her soaps, Pooja describes a recent pop-up at Anna University, where students came up to her, telling her how much they appreciated her products and how much they helped them and their families. Some teachers from the university buy 10-15 soaps every 3 months and truly support the brand. “It’s so motivating to see that your products are making a difference in people’s lives, no matter how small. The packaging on my soaps says 125 grams, but there’s always 130 or 140 in there. Those excess trimmings will go to waste, so might as well give them to the customers who can use them for an extra day or two!” she smiles.
What really drives her to keep going is her customers. “There are days or weeks that go by without a single order. On those days, I wonder if what I’m doing is worth it, but one message from a customer is all I need to push through. It’s like, out of nowhere, every time I want to quit, a voice tells me to keep up the good work,” she chuckles. “My goal here isn’t to make a ton of money; it’s to keep myself occupied, gain financial independence, and help people by providing value-added products.”
She adds that, in most families, they say women support women, but in hers, the men support her more than anyone else. Her husband, son, father, and father-in-law are her main support systems. Her husband accompanies her to all her pop-ups, her father tells her to invest in things she believes in but is uncertain about, her father-in-law brings her new ingredients from his hometown, and her 7-year-old son helps her pack orders! They encourage her to grow her business and stay busy. “What more could I need?” Pooja concludes.
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