Exactly two years after I quit my newsroom job, it’s finally happening. MAYURA is launching this month.
We’ll open up preorders very soon. Our first production run is limited, and the waitlist will receive a product reveal email and notice that the site is a GO before we post anywhere else.
I’ve been intentionally keeping our full product designs — one formula, two accessories — under wraps. The only people who have seen it so far are those involved with production & photography, attendees at our first pop-up and stylists at salons I’ve visited with samples. The waitlist will be first to see. Sign up here if you haven’t joined yet. It’s one of the last days to get in.
I’m so excited about the two accessories we’re launching alongside our first formula, the Hair Oil Elixir.
MAYURA formulas are developed and made in California. Our accessories are also made in a place of extraordinary craftsmanship. Provenance is as important as intention. It dictates everything about how something is crafted, and the experience of using it.
We’ve hit some snags that slowed down Hair Oil Elixir production in the last few weeks. The snags are leading to a lot of manual labor to hand-finish Hair Oil Elixir units. I’m antsy to launch before the holidays. The QA team has been working to make sure each unit meets our standards, and this has shown me the value (yet again) of filtering for quality in relationships.
So many people have been shocked when I say MAYURA is manufactured in California. “That must be so expensive. Why not just do China, India or Vietnam?”
Because when you want quality, you need to invest in quality. Because when problems come up on the production floor, I can fly in the following day at 8am and walk through what’s happening with the team, agree on a quality standard, understand where we may need to make changes before the next big production run and make sure you are getting a product that meets the promise behind every MAYURA product. We stand for quality and intention.
The Hair Oil Elixir has transformed my hair in the last year and a half since I began testing our formula. I get more compliments than I’ve ever gotten before on my hair, walking down the street, in coffee shops and restaurants, from stylists when I bring MAYURA samples door to door.
The work is so varied, and so fun, when you’re every department. I have so many ideas we can run with once we’re able to build out more of a team. But for now, as crazy as it can be sometimes, I actually am enjoying the journey. I gave myself a job that lets me make videos about why witches have curly hair, and also build effective and gorgeous products. We contain multitudes.
Here’s today:
selecting + organizing product page photos for the website that came in this morning
designing graphics in Canva with Claude’s help for certain PDPs
preparing a brand onboarding doc for my warehouse + packing lists for tomorrow’s shipments
running to UPS for a big box to repack custom packaging materials into to send from my apartment to the warehouse
checking in with manufacturing on progress, details
press outreach
podcast prep for the next episode
drafting + making + reviewing social content for this week and building a backlog of content for launch week
client work: meetings, strategy, and execution: couple hours + slacks and coordination
writing and staging this Substack post: 20 minutes
If you’re not already following We Are Spiraling on Apple, Spotify, or whatever pod app you use, be sure to smash the subscribe button there. I’ll publish episodes that take you to the production floor for each product in the coming weeks.
We also have two amazing guests for the show, publishing this year. One of those episodes is already recorded and will drop this month. Recording with the other later this week and cannot wait to bring you that episode before the holidays as well.
Talk soon,
Priya