Designing data for ‘fair’ game

“In college, I loved participating in extracurricular activities such as drama, literary clubs and debates and organizing college fests. The most enjoyable part of all this for me was that it gave me the chance to go to different places and meet a lot of people. I’m the kind of person who thrives on such interactions and, therefore, I didn’t want a job in which I would spend the day sitting in one place and doing more or less the same thing all day. I wanted something that would involve my technical expertise but would also engage my spirit. I wanted something that would get me out of the office and allow me to meet people from different fields. I got all that and more at MCaffeine.

I loved the concept behind MCaffeine. Let’s face it – all women use some sort of skincare and hair care products. The problem I had was that no product was a ‘four season’ product for me. Something that would work great in summer wouldn’t work so well in winter and vice versa. I soon came to realize that there are many people like me – not just women but men who face this problem.

I come from Punjab. The people in my hometown are very conscious of appearances and it is generally agreed that a girl can be considered good-looking if she is fair. This made such an impact on me that up to two years ago I didn’t have any light colored clothing in my wardrobe. There were no peaches or whites for fear that I would appear dark.

When the ‘burn the shade card’ discussion started, I realized that there is no such thing as fair and dark. This consciousness had come to me from the people around me, who I had grown up with – my family and friends. They don’t mean to put you down but they compare you to people who are fairer. When relatives would come over, they would offer suggestions about products I could use to become ‘fairer’. I would act upon these suggestions.

After the discussion, I’ve come to realize that your skin color is what it is. It can’t be changed and any product that promises such a change is only doing so to sell more. I’ve become much more comfortable with myself. I’ve never told anyone in the team, but I’m very grateful to MCaffeine for changing my perspective and how I look at myself.

 In addition, I knew that the FMCG sector is growing by leaps and bounds. Introducing this concept of caffeine in skin and hair care was great because of all the benefits that caffeine has. More importantly, people like me who need different choices at different times would now have that. This was a big part of the motivation to join the company.”

Vaishali Gupta,

Core Team Member, MCaffeine