For Ankita Thadani, fragrance was never just about smelling good. It was about healing, memory, comfort and emotion long before "clean beauty" became part of everyday vocabulary.
The founder of Secret Alchemist still hesitates to call herself the sole founder of the brand. In her mind, the story began decades earlier with her mother, a certified clinical aromatherapist who was working with essential oils and therapeutic formulations at a time when aromatherapy was still unfamiliar to most Indian consumers.
"I truly feel the journey started with my mother," Ankita says. "She was working with aromatherapy in the 1990s itself. At that time, even thinking about essential oils and healing through fragrance was so ahead of its time."
As a young girl, Ankita would help her mother craft blends and formulations. But life eventually took her in another direction. She studied architecture and built a successful career in the field, spending over a decade working on luxury residential projects including homes of prominent industrial families.
"I genuinely thought I would eventually launch my own architecture firm," she recalls. "I worked in architecture for more than ten years and became one of the youngest associates there."
Then came the pandemic. Construction sites shut down. Projects came to a halt. Around the same time, her mother retired from running her salon business where the products were being sold to a loyal customer base.
"Both of us suddenly found ourselves at home. And we are not women who can sit idle," Ankita says. That pause became the beginning of Secret Alchemist.
Ankita combined her design background with her mother's aromatherapy lineage and reimagined the business into a modern wellness and fragrance brand. Her mother's original venture, called 24K Remedies, evolved into Secret Alchemist, a name Ankita says reflected the therapeutic soul of the company.
"I have always loved the words apothecary and alchemist because they remind me of age-old healers and creators," she says. "At that point we were deeply focused on therapeutic products for sleep, stress relief and emotional wellbeing. I wanted us to feel like someone's secret healer."
The turning point for the brand arrived unexpectedly through social media. Actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu discovered the products and reached out directly.
"She messaged us herself," Ankita recalls. "When we met, we spoke for more than three hours. We realised there was real synergy."
That conversation eventually led Samantha to come on board as co-founder. Ankita describes her as deeply involved in every aspect of the business.
"She understands the pulse of consumers incredibly well," she says. "She knows what people are looking for, what conversations matter and how the market is evolving."
According to Ankita, it was Samantha who first pushed the idea of launching clean perfumes.
"At that point, clean beauty was growing, but nobody was really talking about clean fragrance," she says. "People were becoming mindful about skincare ingredients but perfumes were still getting away with simply mentioning the word 'fragrance' on labels without any transparency."
The category became deeply personal for both women, who had experienced their own health journeys. At the same time, doctors had begun warning Ankita against using conventional fragrance products around children because of concerns linked to allergens and endocrine disruptors.
"I started questioning what exactly we were putting on our skin every single day," she says. "Perfume sits on your pulse points for hours. Absorption is high. Yet most consumers don't know what goes into it."
Secret Alchemist went on to launch what Ankita describes as India's first clean perfume line with complete ingredient transparency. The brand openly publishes ingredient and allergen lists, something still uncommon in the fragrance industry.
Building those formulations, however, was not simple.
"We realised very quickly that aromatherapy knowledge alone was not enough," she says. "We needed expert perfumers who understood how to balance essential oils with safe synthetics and green alcohol."
The company eventually partnered with a perfumery house with over a century of legacy. The research and development process took close to nine months before the formulations were finalised.
Luxury, Ankita believes, does not need to come at the cost of transparency.
"India already has the finest ingredients in the world," she says passionately. "Even international luxury perfume houses source oud, tuberose and essential oils from India. What frustrates me is that Indian brands have rarely owned that legacy globally."
That philosophy extends to the packaging as well. Coming from a design background, Ankita pays close attention to every sensory detail, from the weight of the bottle to the unboxing experience.
"Perfumery is aspirational," she says. "When someone picks up the bottle, it should feel luxurious and beautiful. But I don't believe consumers should pay only for branding. They should pay for quality ingredients and thoughtful craftsmanship."
The latest chapter in Secret Alchemist's journey is hair perfume, a category Ankita believes is perfectly suited for Indian consumers.
"With humidity, pollution and active lifestyles, people want their hair to smell fresh too," she explains. "Hair fragrance also interacts differently with body fragrance and your natural chemistry, so the scent becomes more personal."
The brand recently launched Mineral Sage, a fresh earthy scent featuring sage from Himachal Pradesh and cedarwood, alongside Mystic Santal, a sandalwood and jasmine blend inspired by traditional Indian hair rituals.
"I wanted Mystic Santal to feel deeply Indian," she says. "The idea came from old practices where jasmine and sandalwood smoke was infused into the hair."
Looking ahead, Ankita's ambitions are global. She speaks excitedly about building an Indian fragrance house with the cultural relevance of Byredo or Diptyque while remaining rooted in Indian ingredients and conscious formulations.
"I want Secret Alchemist to become India's clean fragrance legacy…a brand that creates iconic fragrances but also changes the way people think about scent," she signs off.