Carmesi: Empowering Women With The Right Kind of Education About Feminine Hygiene


By Rachit Juneja

June 23, 2021


“We want to educate and empower our users with the right kind of information with regards to feminine hygiene and break the taboo around it, so that they can make the right choices for themselves.” - Tanvi Johri for Founder & CEO, Carmesi.


Every menstruating human deserves to bleed with dignity. Unfortunately, this normal biological process that unifies us beyond caste, creed, colour, or race, becomes an obstacle for many young girls in India. Carmesi is an all-natural & eco-friendly intimate care brand for women. Based in Gurgaon, Carmesi offers intimate hygiene products such as sanitary pads and panty liners, that are all-natural and biodegradable. Founded by Tanvi Johri and Rikshav Borah at the end of the year 2017, the brand has already attracted over 50,000 customers in just one and a half years and has been growing at a rate of 25 percent month-on-month. Presently, Carmesi sells its products online via Carmesi’s website and e-stores like Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa, Big Basket, and Purplle. Moreover, Carmesi focuses on delivering an experience that's empowering & unique, in an effort to shun the shame associated with periods.



Tanvi  Johri, the Founder and CEO of Carmesi started the women’s hygiene brand along with co-founder  Rikshav Borah in 2017. The brand enjoys the distinction of getting a 100% rash-free certification for its sanitary pad range.  An astute professional, Tanvi spearheads Marketing, Branding, and Product Development at Carmesi.  Right from the inception of a product idea to the complete testing and product development phase,  she is directly involved to ensure that Carmesi offers the best and the safest products to its audience.  Tanvi, here, is responsible for brand awareness and marketing communication, with a vision to make  Carmesi the leading Indian brand for feminine hygiene. 


We got in touch with Ms. Johri to find out more about Carmesi’s journey and association with actor Tisca Chopra, and here is what we found out:



About Carmesi’s Launch and journey so far:


“We launched Carmesi in January 2017. The idea of Carmesi was born out of my own personal experience as a young girl. I used to get a lot of rashes from the sanitary napkins available in the market, and through surveys and discussions, I found out that I wasn't the only one facing this issue. Moreover, another concern I had was that we never had a proper mechanism to dispose off sanitary napkins, from the functionality point of view. Women are always on the lookout for tissues, polythene bags, newspapers, etc. Even though it is a major inconvenience, no one ever came forward to help fix it. Thus, rashes and disposal are the two problems I have always been most concerned about. After thorough research, I found out that these were both global issues with regard to women and sanitary napkins. By changing the material used for making sanitary napkins, these issues could be resolved, hence, I started working on the same. Carmesi was thus born after extensive research, with a natural sanitary napkin available with disposable bags, to tackle both of these issues. Since then, our journey to shattering the taboo around feminine health and hygiene has been great. Our portfolio of brands has expanded with tampons, menstrual cups, cramp relief, etc. We have grown to become a holistic company catering to women’s feminine hygiene as a whole.”


How is Carmesi raising awareness around menstrual health?


“The very name “Carmesi” translates to the colour crimson, the colour of blood, in Spanish. The name was conceptualized in order to question why people do not show the real colour of period blood in advertisements for sanitary napkins. Moreover, just as segments like personal care beauty have evolved over the years, to provide memorable experiences to women, with their product and packaging, we wanted to provide a similar experience for feminine hygiene and menstrual health as well. We made sure our packaging is beautiful and attractive, something that can be adorned on one’s dresser, rather than shying away from it. Apart from these things, we are very vocal about issues women have when they are on their period, on our social media channels. Most of our posts are targeted towards being the go-to channel for all things surrounding this topic so that they are taken seriously. For us, empowering women means to make them understand the best choices they should be making for their bodies by knowing their bodies better, which is something that has not been tapped into. Conclusively, education around the topic of female hygiene and menstrual health is missing at such a major level that empowering women can only come by spreading awareness about the same so that they can understand their bodies better so that they can make better choices for themselves.”


What kind of challenges have you faced along the way? How difficult is it to tap the traditional users in the cluttered feminine hygiene space?


“One of the biggest challenges is that women are not actively looking out for solutions to problems they face while they are menstruating. Most feminine hygiene that has come up in the recent past, trying to further the same causes as us, are collectively facing this issue. The reason why this happens is that sanitary napkins are legacy products. We are only spoken to about our periods when we start menstruating. After that, the conversation about it kind of dies down. Whereas, when it comes to skincare and beauty, women are actively talking about what is suiting them and what isn’t. Issues like rashes faced during periods are treated as a “part of the process”. Making women recognize this issue, along with the fact that there is a solution for it, requires a lot of education and awareness. This has been the biggest challenge for us at Carmesi. 

Secondly, people are used to buying sanitary napkins from their local departmental stores and pharmacies, rather than the online space. At Carmesi, 95% of our sales take place online. Shifting users from an offline space to an online space has been another challenge for us.

Lastly, the fact that menstrual health is still a taboo in India, makes it very important for me to carefully and diligently decide what communication route I should take, while we also want to come across as a bold brand.”


What has been the impact of Covid on menstrual hygiene brands?


“Covid has had a huge impact on brands as well as users of our products, in the past year. Most brands catered to just menstrual health and hygiene, are all startups, so Covid has also impacted the way we function. Making our brand stand out in an atmosphere wherein people and organizations are already in a challenging position, has been quite tough. However, with the onset of Covid, people started looking for alternatives online, which benefitted brands in the same segment, to an extent, as going out to procure products was out of the question. This helped in slightly changing the mindset of people, who were then exposed to a handful of brands who are available online, providing superior solutions.”


Why did you choose to partner with Tisca Chopra?


“Firstly, Tisca is a very kind and humble person. Apart from that, one of the biggest reasons why we decided to collaborate with her was because she recently launched a book in which she talks at length about how teenagers need to know about periods and how people need to open up and talk about periods in a more wholesome manner. This resonated with our brand ideology very well - education needs to be of utmost importance when it comes to the feminine hygiene industry. Tisca, a mainstream actress talking about this made me realize how important it is for women in the industry to come forward and talk about these issues because that's how they will become dinnertime conversations, where young girls and boys can consult their parents without any hesitation. We thus approached Tisca and congratulated her for the conversations she had initiated as the mother of a teenager, and associated with her for our brand.”


What are your future plans for Carmesi?


“We want to be a one-stop-shop for women in India, when it comes to feminine hygiene, both in terms of products and content. We want to offer a portfolio of products for women, catering to different kinds of needs, belonging to different leagues and age groups. With this, we want to build so much credibility around our brand that whenever women need anything with regards to these issues, they can just visit the website or social media handles of Carmesi, which is also certified and follows all health guidelines. We are not a mainstream brand, we wish to launch products that are tabooed or haven’t seen the level of advancement they should’ve in terms of safety, ingredients, or the kind of experience women deserve. Lastly, we want to educate and empower our users with the right kind of information with regards to feminine hygiene, and break the taboo around it, so that they can make the right choices for themselves.”