CHAPPED LIPS!
Among all the start ups I know of, this to me is by far the most unique one. Lo and behold, I introduce to you ‘Chapped Lips’. This start up is the brain child of Kanika Gupta and Annette Jacob and its name aptly personifies what they desire to achieve through it. Both share their love for the simple and beautiful things in life and through Chapped Lips hope to spread some ‘Random Loving’.
Best friends since school and currently pursuing Psychology, Annette and Kanika started this venture less than a year ago in June 2013 and have used the medium of art and creativity to spread the message of love and the celebration of life. Chapped Lips deals in cards, personalised journals, wedding invitations and much more, which are 100% hand made by these two creative beauties. Unlike numerous ventures that deal in the aforementioned, Chapped Lips celebrates things that are seldom thought of, small things that bring us joy, things that we sometimes take for granted. Each of their products is a combination of humour and life!
Having known Kanika from school, I saw this as an opportunity to bring to you their inspiration, their reasons and much more straight from the horse’s mouth and asked her to do an interview with me. She talks about what inspired them and how they conceptualised Chapped Lips. Throughout the interview, you will see glimpses of her sense of humour, which Annette and she have so perfectly incorporated in their products.
What inspired you both to start your own business?
I think our sense of humour when we’re together and our ability to make anything simple, seem like something that needs to be celebrated, and we saw that they weren’t many things out there in the market that celebrated random friendships, being gay, dogs, intimacy and the simple things in life in general. So we combined what we know best, humour with life. We thought everybody could use some random loving.
How did you come up with the name ‘Chapped Lips’?
Well the name came about as chapped lips because of a personal joke we have. We both have an Incredibly annoying habit of using lip balm every 10 minutes, and when we were brain storming for names, this made us laugh and we thought we can be a little selfish and name it chapped lips and keep people wondering about the absurdity of the name. Also because, Archie’s and hallmark were already taken.
How did you conceptualise Chapped Lips, and why choose only cards and journals?
Well because to be honest our target group were college and school students, and since we know how it is to be like one with no money, cards seemed to be a nice cheap and a fun way to spread the idea. The diaries came about as a way of inspiring people to start keeping journals, we both are Psychology students and know how important it is to sometimes vent out certain feelings and write down memories and that the pleasure it gives when you go back I read all of it in your own broken handwriting. We wanted to bring back the idea of writing for ones’ self again. And since we also do personalized diaries it’s amazing to see the kind of ideas people want their journals to portray.
But now, gradually we are expanding to Gulaks (the Indian piggy banks made of mud) they look adorable and very vintage. We love anything vintage. But we’re taking it slow since we’re still in college and it’s a little difficult to find time.
Tell me one idea from a customer that you loved for a personalised diary.
Most of the personalized orders we get are from friends wanting to gift it to their friends. But this one girl gave us this long list of random words she wanted on the cover of her diary. It started with “happiness is….”
How do you currently operate, receive and deliver orders?
We operate online. But we do set up stalls at college fests whenever we get an opportunity.
What is your vision for chapped lips? Where do you see it say, 5 yrs from now?
We hope to own a small shop by then with a lot of unconventional products including fun customized underwear. Basically, anything and everything uncomplicated, funny or vintage accompanied with a nice open space for people to sit and read and write and sip a cup of coffee. We hope to spread the joy of random things in life that give us and people happiness even if we don’t have stores all over the world or the country, having just one would give us the happiness of knowing that people are giving their time and money to celebrate the simple things in life.
Do you see yourself including anyone else, if your market gets big or do u want it to be only yours and Annette’s venture?
No no, we would love to have people if that happens. The more the merrier.
If u were to define chapped lips in one word/sentence, what would it be?
“Random loving.”
Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/chappedlips44
