Mumbai, India | 5 August 2025 – In a market saturated with launch events, glossy campaigns, and one-size-fits-all foundations, 23-year-old content creator-turned-founder Ghazal Gupta is doing something radically different: building her brand before building her product.
Her brand un:fltrd, set to launch this month, hosted India’s first large-scale shade matching workshop, not as a promotional event, but as a public R&D lab. Over 150 women across skin tones, undertones, and age groups came together in Mumbai not to be influenced, but to influence. They swatched, tested, and gave honest feedback on more than 50 foundation shades and 6 colour correctors, providing real-time data that is directly shaping un:fltrd’s debut Almost Ready™ Cushion Foundation.
“I didn’t want to launch with a guess. I wanted to launch with truth mine and theirs,” says Ghazal. “This wasn’t a PR stunt. We didn’t even have a product to sell. It was a lab — built by and for brown girls who’ve always been asked to compromise.”
A Creator Who Chose Community Over Campaigns
Ghazal’s journey didn’t begin in a boardroom, it began in front of her mirror. Like millions of Indian women, she had spent years trying to “make it work” with foundations that weren’t made for her skin. As a digital native and beauty creator, she decided to flip the script. Rather than launching with paid ads and celebrity faces, Ghazal built a brand through community-first formulation a bold rebellion against the filtered perfectionism of legacy beauty.
The result? A shade matching workshop that turned beauty development into a democratic, real-skin-first process where every undertone swatched, every frustration voiced, and every swatch reaction was recorded, respected, and reflected in formulation tweaks.
Why It Matters
While the beauty industry talks inclusivity, few brands start there. In India, a country with immense diversity in skin tone, most foundations still follow global shade charts, leaving a majority of consumers underrepresented. A 2024 Mintel study found that only 12% of Indian consumers feel that foundations available in the market truly match their skin.
un:fltrd is changing that not through noise, but nuance. And it’s working. Despite not yet being in the market, the brand has already built a loyal base of women who see themselves not just in the future products, but in the process itself.
Building with Intention, Not Just Innovation
“We are not a brand building a community, we are a brand being built by a community,” Ghazal says. “And that makes all the difference.”
This approach aligns with broader Gen Z sentiment. According to a 2025 Kantar study, this generation values collaboration over perfection, and trusts brands that are transparent, imperfect, and human. Set to debut with its Almost Ready™ Cushion Foundation, un:fltrd promises more than just “inclusive” branding. It offers foundation as representation — makeup that doesn’t just sit on skin, but understands it.
