Ruby's Herbal

Ruby's herbal is an uprising business of hand-made natural cosmetics based in Pondicherry. Launched in 2007 by Ruby Pricylla, the range of products is now developing. Located at 100 km from Bangalore in Kolar district, Ruby's Botanical Garden is composed by 30 different species of medicinal herbs, plants and trees. The farming is purely organic, as only natural pesticide and fertilizer are used, and the whole process, from the harvest to the bottling, is hand made.

Further, Ruby's herbal aim is also to create as much jobs as possible (favouring the women work in particular) and to develop concrete projects along with the farmers around to improve the value of their cultivation and lands.

ActuPondy met Ruby Pricylla and her partner Mathieu, both working for the growing of the business.

What types of products do you have, and when did you start your business?
Our flagship product -the first that we have launched- is our “herbal hair oil”. It is a very concentrated oil made out of fifteen plants and a mix of varied oils. There is no chemical products inside. It is very relaxing for the skull and nourishing for the hair... We also make shampoo, three types of soaps (aloe vera, neem, papaya), incense sticks and then a little gift pack that contains everything in a small quantity.

We started the business in March 2007, but I have started to make the oil much before that -maybe ten years back. I was not selling it, just making it at home; it was a passion, a good way of occupation. I decided to open a business because I got quite a few responses for this oil and needed to make a living from it. At the beginning, it was the only product we had... We went to shops to present it but people used to tease me that way : “oh my god, you are going to survive with only one oil! Do you know the market?!”. It was true that we did not know the market very well, because we were not really in business... But we did realize that we needed to add some more products if we wanted to find distributors and make a real living out of it. From 2010, we started to extend the range of our products with soaps, shampoo, incense, etc...

Where do you make all the cosmetics? Do you have your own laboratory?
We are making the hair oil in Karnataka, in our farm that is 100 km away from Bangalore. This is about 10 acres of land, and we have taken a very little part of it where we are growing all of our herbs. This place comes from my parents, they have given it to me. When we arrived there, everything was ruined and neighbors had stolen all that could be stolen -my parents had left the place for seven years. But it was the only thing I had. It took us about two years to rebuild the house, remove brambles that grew up in the garden, re-create a new space for all the herbs, build a small laboratory for making the oil, etc... At this time, we had no electricity, no drinking water, no roads, etc... It was a tough work, as we had no budget and no support to do so. Everything was made small because we did not have much money. But thanks to this land, we created the basis of our company.

Regarding the shampoo and the soaps, they are made here, in Pondicherry. We are in touch with makers -small manufacturers- who are making it for us, with our formulas. Maybe in some years we will also make them ourselves, but right now we are working with these people, whom share our methods of work and our ideals.

How did you learn to make this hair oil?
My great grandmother was already doing this oil! My grandmother and mom made it too, and they had very good hair! Actually, it was a traditional Indian way of applying on the hair for a natural care, but as time went on people forgot it, lost it and just started to buy it directly from shops. Our main idea was to bring back what our great grand mothers were making, to restore it.

Part of the knowledge -properties of the herbs, etc...- was inherited from my mother. Then, I learnt with exerimentations. Some of the herbs are just known to be very good for the hair. So I tried to study on that ones, and also on new plants, which can be included. My mother was already making it, but she was not using all the fifteen herbs and all the eight oils we are mixing now.

So what is the process for making the oil?
Early in the morning, we go to our garden and collect our herbs for the mixing. We use about fifteen herbs : gota kola, hibiscus, aloe vera, rose, etc... Each herb will have minimum one property, some herbs having several. The oil is made to relax the mind, promote hair growth, stop hair fall, etc... so we have to make a combination of different herbs.

Once the fifteen herbs are mixed -we have a little mixer-, we put them in coconut oil and boil it with firewood. It takes about five-six hours to slowly cook. When it has cooked, we extract the herbs so that only the oil is left. Then, this concentrate oil is mixed with eight other oils : almond oil, castor oil, olive oil, essential oils, etc... And once the mixing is done, then we immediately bottle it.

The process is not too complicated but it takes a full day : we start early morning and bottle the oil late evening. It is processed in one day, without chemicals.

You also give a nice hair massage with this oil, coming directly to people's place, playing music and lighting some incense  : where did you learn that?
The real massage started when I took a “Reiki”1 from my master, Mr Paolo. He gave me three days “reiki”. I have received this universal energy through him and I can now give it through massages. But you never know how people will react to this energy.  Some of them will be very emotionally touched during the massage -starting to cry and to release everything-, others will feel less. Actually, the massage can really work only if the person is basically opened to these kind of energies. I am trying to open the door for them to feel something. And in this massage, I am nothing special -the ego should never be in the middle of this-, just a straw, a rope or a channel between the universe and the person to whom I give massage.

So at the beginning, I had just learn the technical part of massaging – I used to have fifteen successive steps and my mind was just fixed on those steps. After receiving the Reiki, my approach was totally changed. I started to give real massages, where I could feel the energy of others and use the energy I received -it became more about feeling and intuition. Before doing the massage, I use to practice little meditation inside me, it helps to gather my thoughts and be concentrate on energies. It is a kind of exchange, and I never give the same massage to several persons, it really depends on what one will need.

In what directions do you want to develop your business today?
We will try to extend again the range of our products -for example with a skin cream that we do not have yet-, and to increase our distributors as well. Right now, we have distributors in Goa, Bangalore and Tamil Nadu. We do it ourselves in Pondicherry. We have also sent some of our products in Germany, France, Australia, England, Malta, US, Canada... but only through people taking them away for gifts or selling, nothing is shops, because it is cosmetics and there are very strict rules to sell those products abroad, the market being dominated by huge companies as L'Oreal. It requires specific certifications. 

So in coming years, we would like to create more products and to grow, we also need to develop the farm, the laboratory  and the garden. But we are not supported by any organisation, our project has to develop with full autonomy. So things are going slowly, right now we are just trying to survive. We would like to get an organic certification but this is a real long way with the government... It is expensive and there is a lot of things to do.

We also want to work more with women. The village where our farm is located is very traditional and poor : there is no hospital, no proper schools... Women work very hard and salary is very less than men. So our dream is also to give a better work to these women. I want to give rights to women, there are so many who have talent inside them but who can not use it. Today, we have only one woman working as a gardener with us. In the evening, we are teaching her how to read and write, because she never learnt it. This is also one of our projects to work in interaction with these people, insofar as we can...