Minimalist prints the percentage in the product’s name and promises “full disclosure of ingredients used and their concentration”. On 1 September 2026 we read the ingredient lists on sixteen of its 76 products. On every skincare active we checked, the number on the front matches the order on the back. Few Indian brands can say that. The other fact worth stating plainly is who owns it. Since April 2025, that is Hindustan Unilever.
Hindustan Unilever holds 90.5% of Minimalist’s parent, Uprising Science, after paying ₹2,706.44 crore on 21–22 April 2025; HUL’s deal figures show about ₹45 crore of primary capital into the company. On twelve of twelve actives products, the stated percentage sits where the ingredient order says it should. Three sunscreens publish in-vivo SPF results above claim, with a named laboratory. The hero serums cost ₹15 to ₹36 per ml at the price actually charged, checked 1 September 2026.
Snapshot
- Legal name
- Uprising Science Private Limited, CIN U36999RJ2018PTC061104, incorporated 3 May 2018, Jaipur
- Brand launched
- October 2020, as the company’s second venture after a hair-care business
- Current owner
- Hindustan Unilever Limited, 90.5% since 21–22 April 2025; founders hold 9.5%
- Founders
- Mohit Yadav, who remains CEO, and Rahul Yadav
- Who makes it
- Uprising Science itself, at F-2109 RIICO Industrial Area, Jaipur, on all 16 packs checked
- Core line, selling price
- ₹495 to ₹630 for a 30 ml serum; ₹360 to ₹540 for a 50 g sunscreen, checked 1 September 2026
- Financials
- ₹690.2 crore revenue, ₹25.9 crore profit, ₹235 crore advertising spend, FY2026
How it started
There is no company called Minimalist. The brand belongs to Uprising Science Private Limited, incorporated in Jaipur on 3 May 2018 by brothers Mohit and Rahul Yadav. The About page says “founded in 2020”, which is true of the brand and incomplete about the company. The same entity first ran Freewill, a personalised hair-care business. Its investor Peak XV records the pivot to skincare in 2019, and the brand went on sale in October 2020.
Mohit Yadav is a chartered accountant who was Vice President at CarDekho until 2017. The only funding round on record is a $15 million Series A on 30 July 2021, about ₹110 crore, led by Peak XV with Unilever Ventures. That second name matters. Unilever was a shareholder three and a half years before its Indian subsidiary bought the company.
- Uprising Science Pvt LtdIncorporated 3 May 2018 in Jaipur; first venture is Freewill hair care
- MinimalistPivot in 2019 via Peak XV’s Surge; brand launches October 2020
- Peak XV and Unilever Ventures$15 million Series A, 30 July 2021 — the only round on record
- Hindustan Unilever90.5% for ₹2,706.44 crore, completed 21–22 April 2025
One legal entity, one pivot, one funding round, then a sale to a shareholder’s parent.
The deal is often misreported. HUL announced it on 22 January 2025. Its earnings presentation put the pre-money enterprise value at ₹2,955 crore: a ₹2,670 crore secondary buyout of existing shareholders plus a ₹45 crore primary infusion. The Competition Commission cleared it on 17 March 2025. Completion came on 21–22 April 2025 at ₹2,706.44 crore for 90.5%, with the founders’ 9.5% to follow in about two years.
On those published figures, about ₹45 crore was primary capital into the company, and ₹2,670 crore was paid to existing shareholders, including the founders, Peak XV and Unilever Ventures, as sellers. Most of the money therefore bought existing shares rather than adding new capital, and ₹2,955 crore was the enterprise value, not the amount paid at completion.
The accounts since then say what the deal was for. Revenue rose from ₹347.4 crore in FY2024 to ₹514.8 crore in FY2025 as first filed, with a net loss of ₹31.5 crore. The FY2026 filing restates FY2025 at ₹506.5 crore with a far larger loss, driven by a non-cash charge on preference shares rather than by trading. FY2026, the first full year under HUL, brought ₹690.2 crore of revenue and a ₹25.9 crore profit. Advertising reached ₹235 crore, 34 paise of every rupee of revenue, and the store target went from 2,000 to 20,000.
What they actually make
The catalogue ran to 76 products on 1 September 2026: about 46 for skin, 13 for hair, 6 for body, 4 for babies, plus eye and lip. The brand’s identity is the serum with a number in its name, and that is a testable claim. Under Rule 34 of the Cosmetics Rules 2020, ingredients above 1% must be listed in descending order of weight. A “10%” active listed far down the order would be inconsistent with its own label.
We read the full ingredient lists on twelve skincare actives and four SPF products. On all twelve actives, the page states the percentage and the named ingredient sits where that strength would put it. Niacinamide 10% lists niacinamide second of 23, straight after water. The Tranexamic 3% serum discloses four actives at 3%, 3%, 1% and 0.3%, and the order matches all four in sequence. The Glycolic Acid 8% liquid even prints its pH, 3.4 to 4.0, which most Indian brands leave off.
Indian law requires the ingredient list in descending order and not a single percentage. Minimalist prints the numbers because it chose to, and on twelve products of twelve they hold.
Three qualifications belong beside that. First, the sunscreens are where the disclosure is thinnest. On a sunscreen the actives are the UV filters, and not one filter concentration appears on any of the four SPF products. Second, “AHA BHA 10%” gives a blend total across four acids and no split. Third, the Salicylic Acid 2% serum lists glycolic acid at position five, above the salicylic acid at seven, with no percentage for the glycolic. That is reported as the published list shows it.
Who makes it is the other question, and here Minimalist is the exception. All sixteen product pages carry the same line: “Manufactured and marketed by Uprising Science Pvt Ltd, F-2109, RIICO Industrial Area, Ramchandrapura, Jaipur 302022.” One company, one address, no third-party formulator. The Competition Commission described the target as a company that “manufactures and sells” its products, and on 6 September 2024 the brand announced a 200,000 sq ft plant at Mahindra World City, Jaipur. It is the marketer-versus-manufacturer question that runs through our Campus audit, and Minimalist lands on the same side as Campus.
None of the sixteen product pages shows a manufacturing licence number; that detail is normally printed on the carton. Look on the pack for a line beginning “M.L. No.”
The sunscreens deserve their own reading. Three of four SPF products state an in-vivo test to ISO 24444:2019, name the laboratory, print a study number and give the measured value, above the claim every time.
| Product | Claim on pack | What the page publishes |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Vitamin SPF 50 | SPF 50, PA++++ | In-vivo, ISO 24444:2019, Advanced Science Laboratories, study number given, SPF 56.6 |
| Light Fluid SPF 50 | SPF 50, PA++++ | In-vivo, ISO 24444:2019, Advanced Science Laboratories, study number given, SPF 56 |
| Lip Balm SPF 30 | SPF 30, PA++++ | In-vivo, ISO 24444:2019, Advanced Science Laboratories, study number given, SPF 33.6 |
| SPF 60 + Silymarin | SPF 60, PA++++ | Labelled “in-vivo”, COLIPA 2011 on a UV-2000S analyser, Mascot Spincontrol, no study number, SPF 69.65 |
Two points on that table, in FashionAudit’s reading of the standards. ISO 24444:2019 is titled “In vivo determination of the sun protection factor”, and its stated scope is SPF. The PA++++ rating is printed in the same block, and no study under the UVA methods, ISO 24442 or 24443, is cited. Separately, the SPF 60 page describes its result as “in-vivo” and names a Labsphere UV-2000S, an instrument that Agaram India lists as an in-vitro SPF testing system. No product page links to the full report.
What Minimalist costs in India
Every price below was read from the product’s own page on 1 September 2026, not from the listing. The collection page shows the cheapest size under each name: “Vitamin C 10% Face Serum, ₹299” is the 10 ml, not the 30 ml. Every product carried an MRP and a lower selling price the same day, a uniform 10% off on almost every line.
| Product, 1 September 2026 | Selling price | Per ml or g |
|---|---|---|
| Niacinamide 10%, 30 ml | ₹540 (MRP ₹599) | ₹18.00 |
| Salicylic Acid 2%, 30 ml | ₹495 (MRP ₹549) | ₹16.50 |
| Vitamin C 10%, 30 ml | ₹630 (MRP ₹699) | ₹21.00 |
| Retinal 0.1%, 20 ml | ₹720 (MRP ₹799) | ₹36.00 |
| Glycolic Acid 8%, 150 ml | ₹450 (MRP ₹499) | ₹3.00 |
| Multi-Vitamin SPF 50, 100 g | ₹630 (MRP ₹699) | ₹6.30 |
| SPF 60 + Silymarin, 50 g | ₹540 (MRP ₹599) | ₹10.80 |
| Lip Balm SPF 30, 8 g | ₹270 (MRP ₹299) | ₹33.75 |
The per-ml column shows the difference between sizes. The small pack costs noticeably more per ml, and the trial bottles sit under ₹250.
- Niacinamide 10%, 10 ml at ₹237
- ₹23.70 per ml
- Niacinamide 10%, 60 ml at ₹900
- ₹15.00 per ml
- Trial-size premium
- +58% per ml
- Checked on
- 1 September 2026
The sunscreens are the cheap end of the range. The 100 g SPF 50 at ₹6.30 per gram costs less than half the per-ml price of any face serum. The 150 ml glycolic liquid at ₹3.00 per ml is the outlier of the catalogue. On Nykaa the same day, MRPs were identical and the discount was the same 10%: ₹539 against ₹540 for the niacinamide serum, though one Nykaa product page showed ₹569. Expect ₹540 to ₹570 there, and gain nothing by hunting between channels.
Who Minimalist is actually for
This is a brand for the reader who wants to know what is in the bottle and how much, and will pay ₹16.50 to ₹21 per ml for a 30 ml serum to get it. It is not the cheapest actives brand in India. The money buys an ingredient order that agrees with the number on the front, a manufacturer that is the brand itself, and sunscreen data with a laboratory’s name on it.
It is also a brand that argues against its own category’s language. The Our Values page states that “everything is a chemical, water is a chemical, therefore chemical-free products don’t exist.” For a site that exists to fight beauty misinformation, that sentence deserves quoting. The About page also claims “300 million+ customers”, without saying how that figure is counted.
Two things the pack does not tell you. Shelf life runs 18 months from manufacture on the water-based serums and 24 months on the sunscreens and retinoids, but no page states a period after opening. The consumer-panel lines, such as “93% subjects saw significant acne reduction in 4 weeks” on the Salicylic 2%, come without a sample size, protocol or report on the page. The safety line on every product is more careful: patch testing under a dermatologist’s supervision, and nothing more claimed.
Reputation and controversies
A common error is ownership. During the October 2025 sunscreen controversy, one creator argued the results were biased because Minimalist and The Derma Co “are owned by Honasa”. They are not. The Derma Co is Honasa’s; Minimalist has been 90.5% HUL’s since April 2025. The two parents are competitors. By June 2025 they were on opposite sides of a Delhi High Court case, CS(COMM) 342/2025, over an HUL sunscreen advertisement. It ended with HUL agreeing to modify the ad and the Court accepting the changes, as reported on 13 June 2025. Minimalist was not a party.
A second common error is that Minimalist’s sunscreen failed those October 2025 tests. It was one of four products that cleared their claim. In the ten-product in-vitro test published on 19 October 2025, Minimalist’s SPF 50+ measured 78.54, 57% above the label. Six brands measured under 40 against claims of 50 or more. Hold the caveat: this was in-vitro testing on plates, privately commissioned, and one product claiming 50 returned 146, so the figures are best read with caution. Minimalist’s own in-vivo figure of 56.6 is the more meaningful number, and it is also above the claim.
ASCI’s Annual Complaints Report for 2025–26 names no individual personal-care advertiser. The council’s record of complaint outcomes does carry the Minimalist name, on sixteen entries, but the ones it puts first are not complaints against Minimalist at all: on 3 February 2023 the council upheld complaints against Honasa Consumer over The Derma Co advertisements that compared its 10% vitamin C serum with Minimalist’s, one of them running “Minimal is Better? Not in skincare”. Those findings are against the advertiser that placed the advertisements, not against the brand they named. Not one of those entries makes Minimalist the advertiser. The council is the advertising industry’s own self-regulatory body rather than a statutory regulator, and those 2023 decisions went to the advertisements as they then stood.
What has changed under HUL, on the evidence, is money and shelf space. Advertising rose about 53% in FY2026 against 36% revenue growth. The founders remain and run it. The proposition has not changed: the same Jaipur address on the pack, the percentage in every product name, the full ingredient lists, the sunscreen study numbers. There is no evidence of a price rise, a reformulation or a change in who makes it.
Buying it in India
Minimalist sells through its own site, Nykaa and a growing store network, with identical MRPs across the channels we checked. The useful skill is not finding the cheapest shop. It is reading the pack, the same skill our Bata audit applies to a brand and a listed company that are different entities, and which the MRP-versus-selling-price gap in our Metro audit makes necessary in footwear.
Find the active in the ingredient list
Ingredients above 1% must run in descending order of weight, so a 10% active belongs near the top. If a “10%” active sits far down the list, ask the brand to explain the order.
Read the manufacturer line and the licence
Look for “Manufactured by” and a licence line beginning “M.L. No.” Minimalist’s packs name Uprising Science at its own Jaipur plant; the product pages do not show the licence number, so check the carton.
Look for a study, not a badge
“Clinically tested” is a badge. A standard, a laboratory, a study number and a measured value are a study. Minimalist publishes all four on three sunscreens; the cited studies are SPF methods, and no UVA (PA) study is cited.
Divide the price by the millilitres
Minimalist’s 10 ml bottles cost ₹23.70 per ml against ₹15.00 in the 60 ml. Buy the trial size to test your skin’s reaction, not to save money.
Ignore the MRP
Ten percent off is the standing price on the brand’s site and on Nykaa, checked 1 September 2026. A “10% off” banner is not a sale; a price above ₹540 for the 30 ml niacinamide is the one to question.
Common questions
Who owns Minimalist?
Hindustan Unilever Limited holds 90.5% of Uprising Science Private Limited, the Jaipur company behind the brand, since completion on 21–22 April 2025. The founders, Mohit and Rahul Yadav, hold the remaining 9.5%, which HUL has a path to acquire in about two years.
Is Minimalist owned by Honasa or Mamaearth?
No. Honasa Consumer owns Mamaearth and The Derma Co. Minimalist is HUL’s, and the two parents were on opposite sides of a Delhi High Court case over sunscreen advertising in 2025.
Did Minimalist’s sunscreen fail the 2025 SPF tests?
No. In the October 2025 in-vitro tests, Minimalist’s SPF 50+ measured 78.54 and was one of four products that cleared their claim. The brand’s own published in-vivo ISO 24444 result for that product is 56.6.
Does Minimalist make its own products?
Yes, on the evidence of its packs. All sixteen product pages we checked read “Manufactured and marketed by Uprising Science Pvt Ltd” at its RIICO Industrial Area plant in Jaipur, and the Competition Commission described the company as one that manufactures and sells its products.
Are the percentages on Minimalist products real?
On the twelve actives products we checked, the stated percentage is consistent with the ingredient’s position in the published list, which the law requires to run in descending order. That is consistency, not laboratory proof. No UV filter concentration is given on any sunscreen.
How we research and verify brand audits: our methodology.
References
- Ministry of Corporate Affairs record via ZaubaCorp, Uprising Science Private Limited — legal name, CIN, incorporation date, directors, manufacturing activity code
- Minimalist, About page — “founded in 2020”, “300 million+ customers”, “Clinically Proven” claims
- Peak XV Partners, 29 July 2021 — Freewill, the 2019 pivot through Surge, in-house manufacturing
- YourStory, 22 September 2021 — October 2020 brand launch, founders’ background
- FashionNetwork India, 30 July 2021 — $15 million Series A with Unilever Ventures
- Unilever press release, 22 January 2025 — announcement, secondary and primary structure, founders continuing
- Business Standard, 17 March 2025 — ₹2,955 crore enterprise value, ₹2,670 crore secondary, ₹45 crore primary
- Press Information Bureau, CCI approval, 17 March 2025 — clearance date, “manufactures and sells” description
- Business Standard, 22 April 2025 — completion, ₹2,706.44 crore for 90.5%
- Entrackr, FY2025 filings — FY2024 and FY2025 revenue and loss as first filed
- Inc42, FY2026 filings — FY2026 revenue and profit, restated FY2025 comparatives
- Ascendants, 17 August 2026 — ₹235 crore advertising, preference-share charge
- Storyboard18, 2025 — 20,000-store target, founders retaining control
- Minimalist, all products, 1 September 2026 — 76-product catalogue count
- Cosmetics Rules 2020, CDSCO — Rule 34 on descending ingredient order and licence number on the label
- Minimalist, Niacinamide 10% Face Serum, 1 September 2026 — ingredient order, manufacturer declaration, prices per size
- Minimalist, Tranexamic 3% Face Serum, 1 September 2026 — four actives at four percentages, ingredient order
- Minimalist, Salicylic Acid 2% Face Serum, 1 September 2026 — glycolic acid above salicylic in the list, consumer-panel claim, prices
- Minimalist, Glycolic Acid 8%, 1 September 2026 — stated pH, 150 ml price
- Indian Retailer, 6 September 2024 — 200,000 sq ft Jaipur plant
- Minimalist, Multi-Vitamin SPF 50, 1 September 2026 — ISO 24444 study, laboratory, SPF 56.6, prices
- Minimalist, Light Fluid SPF 50, 1 September 2026 — ISO 24444 study, SPF 56
- Minimalist, Lip Balm SPF 30, 1 September 2026 — ISO 24444 study, SPF 33.6, price
- Minimalist, SPF 60 + Silymarin, 1 September 2026 — “in-vivo” wording, COLIPA 2011, UV-2000S, SPF 69.65
- ISO 24444:2019 — title and scope: in-vivo SPF only
- Agaram India, Labsphere UV-2000S — the instrument described as an in-vitro SPF testing system
- Nykaa, Minimalist brand store, 1 September 2026 — marketplace MRPs and discounts
- Minimalist, Our Values — the “chemical-free products don’t exist” position
- afaqs, October 2025 — the “owned by Honasa” claim as printed
- S.S. Rana & Co., 13 June 2025 — outcome of Honasa v HUL, CS(COMM) 342/2025
- BuzzInContent, 19 October 2025 — the ten-product in-vitro SPF test results
- ASCI Annual Complaints Report 2025–26 — no individual personal-care advertiser named
- ASCI, complaint outcomes, 2 September 2026 — sixteen entries under the Minimalist name; the Honasa comparative advertisements upheld 3 February 2023
Minimalist is the rare Indian skincare brand whose front of pack survives a reading of its back. Twelve actives products, twelve percentages consistent with the ingredient order, a manufacturer that is the brand itself, and three sunscreens with a laboratory’s name and a measured SPF above claim. None of it is required by law, and no other brand we have read does all of it. At ₹18 per ml for the 30 ml niacinamide serum, that disclosure is what you pay for.
The caveats sit with the sunscreens. No UV filter concentration is disclosed on any SPF product, the PA++++ rating appears beside a standard whose stated scope is SPF, and the SPF 60 page describes as “in-vivo” a result from an instrument that Agaram India lists as in-vitro. The product pages also do not show a licence number, so check the carton. Since April 2025 the owner is Hindustan Unilever, and advertising was ₹235 crore of ₹690.2 crore revenue in FY2026, with a 20,000-store target.
Buy the 30 ml or 60 ml serum for the disclosure, never the 10 ml, and note that the sunscreen studies cited are SPF tests, with no UVA study cited for the PA rating.
