VASANA

Brand in spotlight

This month’s three brands

Spotlight places are earned, never bought. No brand can pay to appear here.

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  Nerah Skin

  Nerah Skin makes lightweight, pH-balanced skincare that pairs clinically studied actives with plant-based ingredients, with a particular emphasis on Indian botanicals. The brand began from one question: why should skincare be a trade-off? For a long time the choice on the shelf was between formulas that were gentle but underwhelming and formulas that worked but arrived overloaded. Nerah Skin exists to remove that choice. The philosophy is minimalism with depth. Each formula is built to simplify a routine rather than extend it — no unnecessary steps, no inflated promises, multi-benefit products designed to work with the skin barrier instead of against it. More than anything the brand is after honesty: giving skin what it needs and nothing it does not, for people who prefer clarity to clutter and substance to noise.

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  House Of Strings

  House of Strings makes handcrafted string lamps, woven one string at a time by women artisans. It is a women-led studio working under Studio Varya. It began with a simple intention — to make light that carries feeling — and grew out of a personal exploration of materials, colours and craft into a small body of handmade lamps built around slow living. Each lamp is made by hand through a deliberate, patient process, from choosing natural materials to mixing colours that echo the landscape. The work is slow on purpose. House of Strings is not really about lighting a room. It is about lighting moments, memories, and spaces that feel like home — objects made with care, made to last, and made by someone whose hands you can see in them.

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  Labelyūga

  Yūga is an artisan-driven label founded by Parul Gupta, working in Indian handwoven textiles with the weaving communities of Kerala. It grew from a question that stayed with her long before the brand had a name: what does it really mean to create responsibly, and who do we create with? Parul's work with textiles began at the Indian Institute of Art and Design, Delhi, and deepened at 11.11 / eleven eleven. In November 2021 conversations with the researcher Gadha Gopal opened new paths; in April 2022 she travelled to Kerala for the first time to work directly with artisans. Yūga launched in September 2022, though its thinking had been forming for a while by then. Creation begins at the loom. The brand works with women weavers and handloom societies in Kerala in dialogue rather than direction — including techniques such as rice starch to strengthen yarn and coconut oil at warp setting. Production happens in Delhi; research and development stay tied to Kerala. Yūga does not work to trends or seasons, but to place, process and time. Five collections so far — H-47, Kirukeshiki, Vidavu, Sangham and Thaalam — each extending the last rather than replacing it. The practice runs past clothing into textile artwork and patchwork, where waste fabric and overlooked fragments find another life. Yūga has shown at Blur The Border at Soho House Mumbai, and been featured in The Hindu and in Practising Solidarity by ArtEZ, Netherlands.

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