Fragrance is the last unregulated category in personal care. No ingredient disclosure. No safety certification requirements. Consumers have no idea what they're spraying on their skin.

That is changing. The clean beauty revolution that shaped skincare brands like Mamaearth, Plum and Minimalist is now entering fragrance.

We are excited to announce our investment in Secret Alchemist, India's first clean perfume brand, founded by Ankita Thadani, Akash Valia, and Samantha Ruth Prabhu. Full ingredient transparency. IFRA-certified formulations. Every batch tested and published. The brand is not selling 'clean' as a marketing claim, it is building the infrastructure of trust that the category lacks.

What’s in your perfume? Most brands won’t say.

Clean beauty is a core investment theme at DSGCP. We have seen the growing demand for transparent, ingredient-led products across categories. Within fragrance, consumers are increasingly demanding what they already expect from skincare: full ingredient disclosure, safety certifications, and formulations free from harmful chemicals.

According to our proprietary consumer research, 78% of shoppers now consider "clean, cruelty-free" as table-stakes credentials, with 34% willing to switch brands that lack transparency. This shift mirrors what we witnessed in skincare a decade ago, - and fragrance is next.

India's overall fragrance market is valued at INR 100,000 million (USD 1.2 billion),with perfumes constituting INR 45,000 million. The mass-premium segment - Secret Alchemist's target market is projected to deliver 18% CAGR through 2030, supported by rising disposable incomes, daily-wear adoption, and premiumisation trends.

The global clean fragrance market was USD 12.5 billion in 2024 and projected to reach USD 33.4 billion by 2035, growing at9.4% CAGR versus 6.2% for the overall fragrance market. India has no scaled player in this space. Yet.

From INR 300 to INR 8,000, the Indian fragrance market skips the space where aspiration is formed

The Indian fragrance market is polarised – and we have seen this pattern before.

Skincare had the same market structure a decade ago: mass brands with opaque formulations on one side, expensive imports on the other. Brands like Mamaearth, Plum, Minimalist captured outsized growth by owning “clean” and “transparent” positioning strategies. Consumer education around harmful ingredients shifted purchase criteria. Premium pricing was justified through ingredient storytelling. By the time incumbent brands scrambled to reformulate, the early movers had locked in brand trust.

Fragrance is following the same trajectory. The market today segments into four tiers:

Mass deodorants (INR 150-300): Axe, Fogg, Engage, Wild Stone. These are functional, synthetic-heavy products. Functional, synthetic-heavy, with minimal fragrance sophistication and opaque ingredient labels.

Mass perfumes (INR 499-999): Bella Vita, Villain. These are designer-inspired scents for first-time perfume buyers. They too have synthetic formulations and have opaque ingredient labels.

Mass premium bridge (INR 999-2,999): The Opportunity. Skinn by Titan and Ajmal play here, but this segment lacks scaled insurgent brands. Consumers want quality and transparency and will pay for it. The price point is flexible enough for healthy margins and accessible enough for consumer trial.

Niche Perfumes & Luxury imports (INR 3,000+): Dior, Tom Ford, Gucci, Jo Malone, Chanel. Brands here occupy a prestige position characterized by high price points and limited accessibility.

No scaled brand has successfully bridged the transparency-accessibility divide in the mass-premium segment. This is precisely the whitespace Secret Alchemist occupies, offering fully transparent formulations with IFRA-certified ingredients, at accessible price points (INR 999-2,999).

Most clean perfumes lie. They fade.

The hardest problem in clean fragrances is longevity.

Conventional perfumes achieve 8–12-hour wear through synthetic fixatives: phthalates, synthetic musks, and petrochemical compounds that slow evaporation and bind scent molecules to skin. These are precisely the ingredients that clean brands eliminate. Remove them, and most clean formulations fade within an hour. A perfume that vanishes by lunchtime is an expensive disappointment.

This is why the clean fragrance category has struggled to scale. Consumers will pay a premium for clean credentials, but not if the product doesn't perform.

Secret Alchemist has solved this through concentration. Their EDPs contain 25% aromatic oil concentration versus the industry standard 15-20%. Higher concentration means more scent molecules on skin, compensating for the absence of synthetic fixatives. The result: 6-8-hour longevity without compromising on clean credentials.

This formulation depth comes from two sources. First, Ankita's background: she spent years developing aromatherapy formulations alongside her mother Sumi Thadani, a certified clinical aromatherapist. The brand leverages 35 years of aromatherapy expertise in its therapeutic-grade fragrances.

Second, a strategic partnership with a 40-year-old fragrance house with R&D operations in Grasse, France (the global capital of perfumery). The partnership delivers competitive ingredient sourcing, supply chain control, and access to world-class perfumery expertise.

The brand publishes full IFRA certificates, GC-MS batch reports, and safety data sheets for every product. In an industry built on "proprietary blends" and hidden formulations, this transparency is both a trust signal and a competitive advantage. Once you educate consumers to ask questions, they don't go back to brands that don't answer them!

Consumer. Investor. Co-Founder. In that order!

Celebrity beauty endorsements have saturated the market. The traditional model: contract, launch-day post, silence, no longer builds long-term brand equity. Consumers recognise transactional relationships.

Samantha Ruth Prabhu's first interaction with Secret Alchemist was as a consumer, not a celebrity.

Her autoimmune condition, myositis, rules out most fragrances as synthetic chemicals trigger adverse reactions. Secret Alchemist worked where others failed. She contacted the founders directly. Not through management. Not for a campaign. Because the product solved a problem no one else had. As Samantha notes:

"I've always believed that the truest form of beauty is effortless. It flows from authenticity and intention. Secret Alchemist is my way of capturing that essence-clean, conscious, and deeply personal."

This is not a celebrity lending her image for a fee; it is a co-founder with genuine skin in the game. When she engages her audience of 37 million, she isn't delivering a scripted advertisement - she is sharing a lifestyle she physically requires. This level of authentic advocacy is rare in the modern D2C beauty landscape.

Global Clean Fragrance Case Studies

Phlur (USD 150+ million revenue): Founded in 2015 as a clean D2C brand, Phlur transformed when influencer Chriselle Lim joined as Creative Director and co-owner. Their "Missing Person" fragrance became a TikTok phenomenon, and Phlur is now among Sephora's top 10 fastest-growing brands.

Byredo (EUR 1 billion exit): Founded in 2006 by Ben Gorham, Byredo built a cult following through narrative-driven fragrances like Gypsy Water and Mojave Ghost, expanding from Stockholm niche to global luxury platform. Puig acquired the brand in 2022 at an 8.2x EV/Revenue multiple on USD 130 million+ sales.

The 7 Virtues: Clean fragrance pioneer since 2010. Solved longevity through double oil concentration and organic sugarcane alcohol. First B Corp fragrance brand at Sephora, now in 18 countries. Achieved 80% YoY revenue growth in 2023 and attracted investment from Unilever Ventures and True Beauty Ventures.

What we love about Secret Alchemist

Mission-driven founders with complementary expertise. Ankita brings deep formulation knowledge from her aromatherapy heritage. Akash contributes e-commerce scaling experience from his time at PharmEasy. Samantha provides authentic brand advocacy and massive consumer reach. This is a founding team built for the challenge of creating a category-defining brand.

First-mover advantage in a large, underpenetrated market. India's fragrance penetration remains low compared to developed markets, with per-capita spend of ~USD 12/year versus USD 24 in China and USD 45+ in the US.

As the market expands, Secret Alchemist is positioned to capture the clean segment before traditional brands can reformulate and reposition.

Best-in-class clean positioning at accessible prices. Secret Alchemist's scents deliver on the dual promise of clean formulation and sensory excellence with 6-8-hourlongevity. At INR 999-2,999 for 100ml, they sit in the "mass-premium" sweet spot.

Channel alignment with market evolution. The mass-premium fragrance segment represents a INR 24,000 million opportunity, with 42% of sales occurring online, a INR 10,000+ million addressable market through digital channels alone. Secret Alchemist generates 66% of revenue through D2C and has established presence on quick commerce platforms (Blinkit, Zepto), positioning the brand to capture growth where the target consumer is already transacting.

Clear product-market fit with explosive growth. The June 2025 perfume launch transformed the business within weeks. Perfumes went from zero to majority of revenue in a single month! Revenue more than doubled in 60 days.  The immediate consumer pull and capital efficiency of this launch provided clear evidence of product-market fit, establishing a high-growth foundation for further expansion.

We are excited to partner with Ankita, Akash, and Samantha on their mission to build India's first category-defining clean perfume brand!

‍