India Apr 21: On National Innovation Day, Nat Habit, one of India’s fastest-growing Ayurvedic personal care brands with over 45 lakh consumers and a presence across 10,000+ retail touchpoints, reflects on the innovation engine that drives its rapid growth, bringing together in-house R&D, manufacturing, and real-time consumer feedback to build performance-led beauty solutions. At a time when consumers are increasingly questioning the efficacy of natural skincare, the brand’s key breakthrough, LentiClear™, is the clearest demonstration yet of what this integrated model can unlock.
This becomes especially relevant in the context of India’s evolving skincare market. India’s face wash market is estimated at approximately ~₹10,000–12,000 crore in 2026 and continues to be dominated by synthetic surfactant-based cleansers. Natural alternatives, despite strong consumer interest, have historically struggled to deliver comparable foam, cleansing efficiency, and skin feel – often forcing consumers to choose between ‘natural’ and ‘effective’. Ingredients like lentils, widely used in skincare routines for centuries, have been difficult to translate into modern cleansing formats that deliver consistent performance. That gap is precisely what Nat Habit set out to close.
Nat Habit’s R&D team spent over two years addressing this challenge, resulting in LentiClear™ – a proprietary lentil-based cleansing technology that enables effective cleansing and gentle exfoliation within a stable foaming system. It enables skin clarity by enhancing skin elasticity, hydration retention, and strengthening the skin barrier for improved resilience and radiance.
This breakthrough was made possible by the brand’s vertically integrated structure. Nat Habit develops, tests, and manufactures its formulations in-house, allowing its R&D team to work in close conjunction with production and consumer insights. This end-to-end control enables the brand to invest in solving complex formulation challenges that are routinely deprioritised in outsourced.
In line with this performance-first approach, all LentiClear™ formulations are cold-processed and free from sulphates, parabens, and silicones.
Gaurav Agarwal & Komal Sharma, Inventors, LentiClear™, Nat Habit, shared, “Lentils have always been relevant to Indian skincare—the challenge was making them work in a format that delivers on performance. Conventional cleansing systems don’t easily accommodate them, which is why this hadn’t been solved at scale before. We spent two years, perfecting the formulation science and getting them to work together without compromising on efficacy or experience.”
The technology is already being scaled across the brand’s core portfolio. LentiClear™ is currently deployed across Nat Habit’s Tikta face wash range, including:
• Ubtan Tikta Face Wash – the category bestseller
• Masoor Daal Tikta Face Wash
• Kaali Mitti Tikta Men’s Face Wash
The range contributes 87% of the brand’s face wash category revenue, with an average repeat purchase rate of ~52%, indicating strong consumer acceptance of the format. The range is formulated for sun exposed, pigmented and pollution-exposed skin – Few of the most common concerns pushing consumers away from conventional cleansers.
Beyond immediate product performance, the innovation also signals a larger strategic direction for the brand. LentiClear™ has received a granted Indian patent – the first in a series of proprietary R&D-led innovations from the brand. Nat Habit’s anti-dandruff technology, Beracyl™, and its anti-acne technology, Berbamyrisin™, are both under patent, reflecting a broader shift towards building differentiated, science-backed formulations within the natural beauty space. The brand plans to continue investing in building an IP-led product pipeline over the coming year.
“Being vertically integrated means our R&D team works directly alongside our manufacturing and our consumers. When we identified gaps in the market, we had the ability to invest time and resources into solving them. LentiClear™ is a result of that approach – it is performance-first, backed by research, and built to deliver results that consumers typically associate with synthetic formulations. We’re seeing a clear shift where consumers no longer want to choose between natural and effective – both are expected. For brands, that means investing far more deeply in formulation and R&D than before.” said Swagatika Das, CEO & Co-founder, Nat Habit.
As India’s D2C beauty ecosystem matures, brands are increasingly moving beyond ingredient-led storytelling towards building proprietary technology and measurable performance. Nat Habit’s focus on in-house innovation reflects this shift – where differentiation is not just communicated, but created at the formulation level.
