I gave myself six months.

Six months from idea to launch. I had a vision, I had conviction, and I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. Two years later, here we are. And honestly? I wouldn’t change a single painful, frustrating, humbling second of it.

This is the story nobody sees when they land on a pretty website. The one that happened before the packaging, before the products, before any of it. I’m telling it because I think you deserve to know what’s actually inside these jars, not just the ingredients, but the two years of stubbornness that got them there.

It Started With a Lot of Research and a Very Long Shopping List

The first thing I did when I decided to build Maully was figure out what was already out there. I ordered products from every brand I could find. I read labels obsessively. I swatched textures, compared formulas, and started asking questions I didn’t yet know how to answer.

Then I found a cosmetologist, someone who actually makes formulas for a living, and I sat down with her and asked everything. Why are some products better than others? Why does an expensive body butter feel different from a cheap one? What’s actually doing the work, and what’s just filler?

That conversation changed everything.

I started reading about ingredients the way some people read novels. I built a list of ten products I wanted to create, filtered them down to five or six, and started looking for manufacturers. Simple enough, right?

Not even close.

The MOQ Problem Nobody Warns You About

Here’s something they don’t tell you when you decide to start a beauty brand: manufacturers have minimum order quantities. Big ones. And when you’re a first-time founder with limited capital, those numbers are terrifying.

I spoke to manufacturer after manufacturer. Most of them weren’t interested in small orders. Some didn’t even return my calls. It took longer than I’d like to admit to find someone willing to work with me, and when I finally did, I thought the hard part was over.

It wasn’t.

The Manufacturer Who Walked Out, Four Months In

The first manufacturer I worked with was a big one. We spent four to five months together, developing, sampling, iterating. And then, right at the end, when it was time to actually deliver the product, they pulled out.

Too many bigger brands. Not enough time for mine.

I had to start from scratch.

I found another manufacturer. Spent another four to five months working on formulations. And then, we couldn’t get the formulation right. Not to my standard. So I had to switch again.

By this point, my original six-month timeline was a distant memory. And everyone around me had started asking the question I was dreading: when are you launching?

The Fights I’m Proud Of

Here’s the thing about working with formulators when you don’t have a background in cosmetology, some of them will try to talk you out of your vision.

More than once, I was told to simplify. To use cheaper raw materials. To launch something more basic, more accessible, more ‘Indian market friendly’. One formulator literally laughed and said, you’re launching in India, why do you need such potent ingredients?

I said no. Every time.

Not because I was being difficult. But because I knew what I wanted Maully to be. I didn’t want to be just another product on a shelf. I wanted to deserve that shelf space. And that meant not compromising on what went inside, even when it cost more, even when it took longer, even when people thought I was being unreasonable.

I’ll also confess something: I am a perfectionist. The people around me hear about it constantly. But I think the product formulation was exactly the right place to be one. Maybe I let other things slide, the website, the timelines, sure, but not this. The formulation? That I promise you is the best it could possibly be.

100 Fragrance Iterations and a Friend With Very Dry Legs

Getting the texture right took months. Getting the fragrance right took even longer, somewhere around a hundred iterations, if I’m being honest. A hundred. For one product.

But the moment I knew it was actually going to work didn’t happen in a lab. It happened on a completely ordinary evening when a friend came over to hang out.

She has really dry skin on her legs. She was telling me how nothing was working, how she was reapplying lotion constantly and still feeling dry. I had a small lab jar of my body butter sitting in a bag of samples, I always had samples lying around, always scooping them onto anyone who came over, and I said, try this.

She tried it. Said it was amazing. I nodded politely, because of course she did, she’s a good friend, and good friends cheer you on.

And then, three days later, my phone rang.

“Bro. I took a shower. My legs are still moisturised. What did you put in that jar?”

That was the moment. Not a big presentation or a professional review. Just a phone call from a friend who had no reason to lie.

Because here’s what I knew about Maully’s Body Butter that I hadn’t been able to prove until that call: it doesn’t have aqua in it. It doesn’t evaporate. You don’t have to keep reapplying it. And when someone with a real problem uses it and calls you three days later, that’s when you know you’ve made something genuinely different.

The Labels That Bubbled, and the Launch That Almost Wasn’t

I thought the hardest part was behind me when I finally had finished formulations I was proud of. I was ready to launch before winter. I went to pick up my order.

The labels were wrong. Bubbling. Bad print quality. The whole thing had to be redone, redesigned, reprinted, reapplied. Weeks of delay, right at the finish line.

This is the part of building a brand that nobody posts about. The waiting. The vendor delays. The moments where everything is technically moving but nothing feels like it’s progressing. And meanwhile, everyone around you is asking why it’s taking so long, why you haven’t launched yet, quietly wondering if you’re actually serious about this.

I heard it all. For two years, I heard it.

Why Three Products, Not Six

Out of everything I developed and tested, only three products made the cut. Not because the others failed, but because they were the only three that felt completely right. That met every standard I’d set. That I would genuinely put my name on without hesitation.

Five or six became three. And those three became Maully’s debut collection.

I think that decision says everything about what kind of brand we’re building. One that would rather do less exceptionally than more adequately. One that believes the product in your hands should be worth every moment it took to get there.