Natural And Hygienic. Period

Ten-month-old Carmesi has created a new category in the menstrual hygiene market—a luxurious, all-natural sanitary pad that’s packaged to tackle taboos.

- Pankti Mehta kadakia

Thanks to the myriad awareness campaigns led by activists and celebrities, periods are not as much a taboo as they used to be. Yet, even as we discuss menstrual hygiene and make sanitary napkins more accessible, we may have ignored ancillary problems that are nowhere close to being solved.

In India alone, about 12 billion sanitary pads are used, and discarded, each year, according to recent data from Menstrual Health Alliance India, a collaborative of organisations working on menstrual hygiene. The environmental stress that plastic-based sanitary pads causes has always been a huge concern. Now, two young entrepreneurs aim to take it on.

Tanvi Johri, 26, and Rikshav Borah, 29, are co-founders of New Delhi-based Carmesi (Spanish for crimson), which makes premium sanitary pads from biodegradable bamboo fibre—an ultra-absorbent with anti-bacterial properties—and cornstarch.

With more than 50,000 customers since its November 2017 launch, Carmesi raised $500,000 (about ₹3.5 crore) in a pre-series A funding round in August, led by Samrath Bedi, managing director of the luxury ayurvedic beauty brand Forest Essentials. “There is a gap in the market in addressing female hygiene through an environmentally conscientious approach; this space has huge potential going forward. Not only should we endeavour to remove the taboo associated with menstrual cycle, we should also do it in a manner that is not detrimental to the planet,” says Bedi.

The purpose of Carmesi is twofold—to make comfortable, safe and absorbent sanitary pads that are biodegradable; and to elevate a woman’s period experience with a luxurious touch.