Skincare tips from Dr Renita Rajan whose brand Chosen turns five

Skincare tips from Dr Renita Rajan whose brand Chosen turns five

Sunscreen. Sunscreen. Sunscreen. Dr Renita Rajan cannot emphasise enough on the importance of this simple cream/lotion/gel that often gets overlooked in lieu of more fancy treatments and creams.

“Sun protection has to be in place. What is the cause of pigmentation and most problems we face? Sun contributes to 80-90% of these,” says Dr Renita of Chennai’s Render clinic. She says, when she began practising as a dermatologist 16 years ago, she noticed many people found it difficult to wear sunscreen in this humid climate. So, she started counselling them. “I used to put out a basket of sunscreen, and clients would choose from it,” she says.

Dr Renita just celebrated the fifth anniversary of Chosen by Dermatology, her derma-cosmetic brand that focusses on the requirements and concerns of skin of colour. Headquartered in Chennai, Chosen was launched in January 2020. By March that year, they had to shut down because of the pandemic and subsequently, the online store, Chosen.in was born in April.

“We started with four products. Sunscreen is the biggest portfolio, followed by collagen, hair care, and face serums,” she says.

The variety of products continue to grow after intense R&D. Dr Renita says that the sunscreens took them over 700-800 trials to perfect because they were working on a specific brief. “We are making them for skin of colour, and we needed UVA coverage as well. We did not want to do sunscreen that had endocrine disrupting properties. Then we had to choose between zinc and titanium. Zinc is known to be absorbed well but it can be ecologically damaging. So we went with nano zinc,” explains the 44-year-old.

“We needed product to stay on skin, so we went with six to eight hours of immersion testing,” adds Dr Renita, while speaking about how long it takes to comes up with a product. The team at Chosen — with plants in Chennai and Puducherry — is now also working on hair colour, slated to be available in two years.

While creating products, Dr Renita, who is an alumna of Christian Medical College, Vellore and Government Kilpauk Medical College, says she looks at problems that dermatologists face, and identifies specific areas to deal with them head on.