AVYA co-founder, Deepika Vyas, on AVYA’s origins and award-winning Nourishing Hand Treatment

Our Nourishing Hand Treatment just won the Allure Best in Beauty award for 2021! We are extremely excited to say the least, so in celebration, we sat down with AVYA co-founder, Deepika Vyas, to give you the lowdown on how this extremely hydrating product was created. 

Can you tell us a little bit about how and why you founded AVYA?

AVYA Skincare really came about first and foremost to fulfill a personal need. For decades, I felt frustrated not being able to find a line that was suited for my skin conditions and needs. As a woman of color with sensitive skin, other products fell flat in checking all of the boxes. So I decided to create products that would support skin’s precious melanin while also improving skin beyond the surface.

AVYA’s products are formulated with a unique balance of molecular science and Ayurveda. Can you tell us how that came to be?

I’d spent my entire life using natural Ayurvedic recipes passed down through generations of my family for everything from diet, to hair care and skincare. Ayurveda is about balancing the inner and outer world and practices like mindfulness and meditation have shaped the way I live my life. I wanted to incorporate those traditions into the products I was creating because I’d experienced the benefits of using certain ingredients and methods firsthand and I wanted everyone to feel the transformative power of Ayurveda. That’s when I reached out to my nephew, Dr. Tanuj Nakra, because I knew from discussions we’d had over the years that he also had a passion for skincare. Tanuj is a double board-certified cosmetic surgeon with an extensive understanding of molecular science and I knew he was interested in developing products for his patients. 

Together, we combined our  knowledge and experience to found AVYA, a brand that is dedicated to creating skincare that balances the healing and nourishing properties of Ayurvedic botanicals with the latest advances in molecular science to make products that protect skin from the inside out. 

What led to the development of AVYA’s Nourishing Hand Treatment?

After years of research and development in launching our high performance skincare products, I started to think about other parts of our bodies, most especially our hands. During a pandemic with such a great need to wash and sanitize our hands throughout the day, my own hands were becoming extremely dry. I started to think about the importance of caring for our body as we would our face. That’s when a light bulb went on.

We were in the process of developing a medical grade face cream with Citrus Stem Cell Technology, which our team was all really excited to launch. But after weeks of constant hand washing and using creams that just left my hands wanting so much more, I called for an impromptu meeting with our product development team and right then and there the decision was made to change this face cream to a hand treatment instead. I didn’t care about the cost or listening to other people’s doubts to invest so many resources into a hand product. It’s what my hands craved for and I knew it’s what our customers needed too.

How do you feel about winning the Allure Best in Beauty award?

Today, I am so thrilled, humbled and honored that Allure has awarded our Nourishing Hand Treatment as a Best of Beauty winner. After months of rigorous testing, Allure has selected our treatment to be the best hand cream you can buy, and we could not agree more. This award is not only a reflection of our product development team’s tireless efforts in creating exceptional products, but a reminder that as entrepreneurs sometimes we need to listen to our own intuition when making decisions. Being an entrepreneur is certainly a roller coaster ride at times, but the ability to make quick decisions, be flexible, and anticipate and respond to the needs of our customers is what makes being a founder-led brand so incredibly rewarding. Here’s to giving our hands a little TLC everyday. Enjoy!