Priyanka Ganjoo
Five years inside Estée Lauder and IPSY made the absence of South Asian representation impossible to ignore. Priyanka Ganjoo founded Kulfi in 2021 — and in 2022 became the first South Asian-owned makeup brand at Sephora, via Sephora's first-ever Accelerator Program.
"South Asian skin tones, undertones, and cultural contexts as the formulation brief — not an afterthought."
— Priyanka Ganjoo
Priyanka Ganjoo spent five years in corporate beauty at Estée Lauder and IPSY before founding Kulfi in 2021. As a South Asian woman she had consistently been unable to find shade ranges, product textures, and brand narratives that reflected her community.
She named the brand after the South Asian ice cream — kulfi — for its associations with joy, color, and carefree pleasure. The brand is clean, vegan, cruelty-free, and formulated with South Asian skin tones explicitly in mind: shade development, pigment density, and cultural context.
In 2022, Kulfi became the first South Asian-owned makeup brand to enter Sephora — through Sephora's first-ever Accelerator Program — and continues expanding its assortment across eye, face, and brow.
Cultural reclamation as product company — naming, product narrative, and shade range all anchored in South Asian identity.
Representation is operational: shade and undertone work from day one, not as a retrofit campaign.
- Pre-2021Five years at Estée Lauder and IPSY
- 2021Founds Kulfi Beauty in New York
- 2022First South Asian-owned makeup brand at Sephora; Sephora Accelerator Program graduate