Skincare tips from Dr Renita Rajan whose brand Chosen turns five

Dr Renita Rajan
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Sunscreen. Sunscreen. Sunscreen. Dr Renita Rajan cannot emphasise enough on the importance of this simple cream/lotion/gel that often gets overlooked in lieu of more fancy treatments and creams.

“Sun protection has to be in place. What is the cause of pigmentation and most problems we face? Sun contributes to 80-90% of these,” says Dr Renita of Chennai’s Render clinic. She says, when she began practising as a dermatologist 16 years ago, she noticed many people found it difficult to wear sunscreen in this humid climate. So, she started counselling them. “I used to put out a basket of sunscreen, and clients would choose from it,” she says.

Dr Renita just celebrated the fifth anniversary of Chosen by Dermatology, her derma-cosmetic brand that focusses on the requirements and concerns of skin of colour. Headquartered in Chennai, Chosen was launched in January 2020. By March that year, they had to shut down because of the pandemic and subsequently, the online store, Chosen.in was born in April.

A product by Chosen

“We started with four products. Sunscreen is the biggest portfolio, followed by collagen, hair care, and face serums,” she says.

The variety of products continue to grow after intense R&D. Dr Renita says that the sunscreens took them over 700-800 trials to perfect because they were working on a specific brief. “We are making them for skin of colour, and we needed UVA coverage as well. We did not want to do sunscreen that had endocrine disrupting properties. Then we had to choose between zinc and titanium. Zinc is known to be absorbed well but it can be ecologically damaging. So we went with nano zinc,” explains the 44-year-old.

“We needed product to stay on skin, so we went with six to eight hours of immersion testing,” adds Dr Renita, while speaking about how long it takes to comes up with a product. The team at Chosen — with plants in Chennai and Puducherry — is now also working on hair colour, slated to be available in two years.

While creating products, Dr Renita, who is an alumna of Christian Medical College, Vellore and Government Kilpauk Medical College, says she looks at problems that dermatologists face, and identifies specific areas to deal with them head on.

The products had to be safe, effective and those wearing them had to feel good when they had it on. “We were listening to people all the time and taking their inputs. For example, using retinol makes the skin dry, and we had to tinker with it to find a solution,” she explains.

Earlier the most rampant problem she noticed was people with topical steroid damaged face. Skin lightening products that they used would cause pigmentation, sensitivity etc. She is happy to note that the obsession with light skin is now dying down. However, skin sensitivity is still a concern. “People use 10-15 products on their face. Especially when layering multiple brands on the face, they don’t even know the product compatibility,” she says, adding, “Bad skincare is a calamity.”

Lately, there is a strong desire for youthful looking skin. We see it earlier in women and later in men, but we see it in both genders, she says. Most of her clients are in the 29 to 45 age bracket and are from the southern states with a smattering from the other metros.

Entrepreneurship is challenging, she laughs. “I was trained to be a doctor. As a doctor I am always reading you, assessing you, making quick decisions… With entrepreneurship, there is endless listening and taking everybody’s viewpoints into mind.”

With a following of 223K on Instagram, Dr Renita has built quite a community. A community that she says helps a lot in terms of feedback be it packaging, packet sizes, or flavours of collagen… While there are complimentary messages and comments, there are also messages that say the product is not up to the mark just a week after a launch. “These help guide us,” she says.