Michelle Ranavat would never tell you she's an alchemist, but after being faithfully and devotedly obsessed with her and her line of products for the past several years, I've come to learn she absolutely must be one. It seems everything the entrepreneur touches is complete magic, from her partnership with iconic Indian designer Payal Singhal to the floral-printed wallpaper in the room she FaceTimes me from, and the gold-copper engraved nightstand upon which a handwritten Mother's Day card from her children sits.

Three years ago, the entrepreneur leveraged her background in engineering, finance, and product development to build one of the most high-quality, clean, vegan beauty brands I've ever had the luxury of getting my hands on. When I first met Michelle at a coffee shop over a year ago, I had tried a couple of her heavenly aromatherapeutic products — my favorite being a tie between her Jasmine spray tonic (the only ingredient being super high-quality USDA-certified organic jasmine) and her rose tea.

Ever since, she's come up out with this Kansa wand that's gone completely viral on Instagram, and a gentle Rose cleanser that's become my favorite makeup remover of all time. Without a doubt, every single product of hers is a massive hit. Never have I, or anyone I know who has tried her Ayurvedic-based products, had a single bad thing to say about Ranavat.

What's made her products even more rich is Michelle's incredible art of using storytelling to tell the ancient Indian secrets of beauty wisdom passed down through generations through her products to make one of the most luxurious experiences out of simply hydrating your face or even the dreaded task of removing your makeup. Michelle is a modern-day alchemist, though humble as she is, she'll never admit it herself.

What was your primary motivation to become a business owner?

It started with my upbringing, falling in love with my traditions and forming a really close bond to India as we visited as kids. That was a very stark contrast to growing up in a suburb of Wisconsin where it felt very different to be Indian.

I always wanted to find a way to express that but never found an outlet. After getting into finance and then getting let go when the market crashed, I went into pharmaceuticals and that was a really great way to learn about skincare formulations. I formed a love with that and so a couple of years later, I took my passion to tell the important stories of Indian wisdom in beauty that I think needed to be told with my experience in engineering, sciences, and product development and put them together.

What has been your biggest challenge and highlight as a business owner?

I think a challenge that will result in a high is this idea that Ayurveda is complicated. If you see adaptogens and moon juice or an Ashwaganda cream, it's cool and trendy. But if you're marketing your line to a store as Ayurveda, they say customers don't understand it.

There's this challenge in proving your culture is worthy of sharing its beauty secrets in a way. I think K-Beauty set such a good precedent for that with brands like Dr. Jart.

When you're trying a K-Beauty brand, anyone knows they can try it. But with Ayurveda, the challenge is how to communicate it effectively to the customer without removing where it came from and honoring its roots. People are buying Ranavat, using it, loving it, and seeing results, but if you write that it's Ayurveda, it puts the brand in a weird category.

The highlight of the business is now. With COVID, it's been so interesting because people are using skincare to take them somewhere. There are memories only reactivated through scent. You're really only transported when you're using a product that has unique properties, and I have found people resonated with Ranavat because of the strong connection we make to scent.

Other than that, the biggest high I've had is real customers telling me they feel like royalty or confident when they use our products.

Confidence was such a struggle for me, feeling like I wasn't normal when I was growing up in the midwest, so being able to give that to someone is the biggest high I could get.

How much does coming from a marginalized community play into your brand messaging?

It's everything. Storytelling is my passion and it starts with, you know, when know you open our shipping boxes and it'll say "claim your crown" which is something we've trademarked. That weaves into the aspect of cultivating dignity in communities where women, kids, or really anybody who feels like their fate has been sealed.

It all plays back into that claim your crown mentality. It all connects with that one message which is that it's so incredibly important to treat ourselves like royalty.

With the Desai Foundation, we donate two percent of all our proceeds and their mission very much aligns to "claim your crown." Sometimes, they organize sewing classes for women in villages, but it's not just about the fact that you made a mask or something. It's the fact that you had something to do for yourself. You now have a skill you're trained in and feel good about yourself.

How does social media and community-building impact the way you do business?

I'm so much more of a science person, and social media was not something I personally engaged in that much when I first started. To this day, my personal account is pretty much inactive. I really struggled with it because I thought I needed a whole big production to shoot a video. When I started taking it over myself and engaging with people my own way and being ok with posting crappy stuff and being ok with it, my community has really grown and I've seen the direct result of that in sales and brand recognition. Me taking over my own social has helped.

When I think of the Indian royals, I think of people who were responsible for their community and kingdom and making sure the people who lived there were well taken care of.

It's really the people that make the community, so making it accessible and friendly and not elitist is a reflection of how I live my life personally and that's so important because if I wanted to sell more, I would take a different approach about being luxury and not engage with people or create barriers and post only idealistic photos, but I think for me personally, I don't think I could be connected to the company if it was like that. That's how it took on this sort of unique shape of accessible royalty.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

My mom gave this advice to me. When you're building your brand, you want to dig in deep into your own personal self and create something that's unique to you. That's always going to give you a competitive edge. It does all the hard work for you because it's going to be something genuine and unique.

How you establish yourself with all these beauty brands was something I struggled with, but my mom always said to compare myself to myself. That has really helped me sort of remove a tendency to think that I'm trying to gain happiness or something to a milestone. I think you just have to tie it to you and yourself.

What can we expect from you in the future?

I'm working on something launching at the beginning of August. It's really exciting because with Ranavat, it's all about storytelling and the packaging is all about sharing the story of Indian royalty. There are so many elements with the textures and scent and it's all done in a not-so-obvious way.

Rapid Fire

What are your favorite accounts to follow on social media?

@sabyasachi. He's such an inspiration. I actually got married 10 years ago and wore his wedding dress. It was so much cheaper than it is today.

To what one characteristic of yours do you attribute your success?

Hard work. I have to stop myself sometimes.

Tell us a book you'd recommend.

I'm into nonfiction at the moment. I love "Shoe Dog." He doesn't start Nike till literally the last 100 pages and it's so interesting because it's an important message to know it didn't happen overnight.

What is one thing on your bucket list?

I've been dying to go to this place in India called Khanaugh in Northern India. That's where they make most of the rose essential oils coming from India. They have this bloom season where they have a space filled with roses and you can see them steam distill it in the traditional method and the people doing it are hundred-year descendants of people who have been doing this for centuries and probably have ties to royalty.

What is the item in your closet you wear the most?

I wear cashmere from Everlane and UNIQLO a lot because I want to be in sweats, but cashmere is the royal version of them. I feel like that's what the royals would do.

What is the one skincare product you can't live without?

Easy. It's Radiant Rani because I have been so short on supply right now that I don't even have it, and I can feel my skin gets dull when I don't have it. I went to Puerto Rico with my family once and I left my whole travel bag at home for like 10 days. I didn't have Radiant Rani and it wasn't a good situation. That's the one thing I see such a massive difference with all the time.

What is on your nightstand?

A hand-written card that says "Happy Mother's Day" from my son next to a mini pack of Chip's Ahoy.