Plum is the oldest of India’s direct-to-consumer skincare brands, incorporated in October 2013, and the one most often described as owned by Unilever. It is not. On 1 September 2026 we read the ingredient lists, manufacturer declarations and prices on thirteen of its products. Most of what Plum prints holds up better than the category norm. One product does not, and it is the dearest serum on the shelf.
Plum belongs to Pureplay Skin Sciences, a founder-run private company; Unilever’s venture arm holds a minority stake, not control. Its PETA cruelty-free listing checks out in PETA’s own directory, in the top tier. Its “1% Retinol & Bakuchiol” serum lists retinyl palmitate and bakuchi seed oil, and neither word from the front appears on the back. The 50 ml niacinamide serum costs ₹14.94 per ml against ₹20.47 for the 15 ml of the same formula, checked 1 September 2026.
Snapshot
- Legal name
- Pureplay Skin Sciences (India) Private Limited, CIN U74120MH2013PTC248969, registered in Thane, Maharashtra
- Founded
- Incorporated 8 October 2013; founded by Shankar Prasad, who remains a director
- Current owner
- Independent. Founder-run and venture-backed; no change of control on the register
- Who makes it
- Four contract manufacturers on 13 of 13 packs checked: Sprivil (Satara), Intigree (Palghar), Vardhaman (Boisar), Indo Herbals (Haridwar)
- Core line, selling price
- ₹527 to ₹711 for a 30 ml serum; ₹351 to ₹615 for a 50 g sunscreen, checked 1 September 2026
- Certification
- PETA “Global animal test-free and vegan”, listed in PETA’s directory with a licensed logo
- Financials
- ₹402 crore revenue from operations and ₹25 crore profit in FY25, the first profitable year on record
How it started
Plum was founded in 2013 by Shankar Prasad. The company register agrees to the day: Pureplay Skin Sciences was incorporated on 8 October 2013, with Prasad and co-founder Prasanya Chennapatnam as directors from the first entry, and both remain on the board. A brand whose founding story matches its filing is rarer than it should be in Indian beauty. Plum’s does.
The funding record matches the register too. Unilever Ventures, Unilever’s venture arm, invested in a Series A dated December 2018. It placed a nominee director on the board on 28 January 2019. Faering Capital led a $15 million Series B in November 2020, and A91 Partners led a $35 million Series C on 23 March 2022 at a $250 million valuation. Each round is followed within weeks by a new director from that investor. Actor Rashmika Mandanna joined as an angel in June 2022.
None of this is a sale. The brand Hindustan Unilever actually bought, for 90.5% in April 2025, is Minimalist. Unilever’s venture arm was a minority shareholder in Plum years before that deal, which is a genuinely interesting sentence and a different one from “Unilever owns Plum”. Plum has had no change of control in thirteen years.
- FY20₹52.31 crore, loss of ₹1.27 crore
- FY21₹90.56 crore, loss of ₹3.18 crore
- FY24₹326 crore, loss of ₹84 crore
- FY25₹402 crore, profit of ₹25 crore
Roughly 7.7 times the revenue in five years, and the first profit after twelve years and about $50 million raised.
Entrackr, reading the Registrar of Companies filings, 23 March 2022 and 29 September 2025. FY22 and FY23 are not on the public record.
The FY25 detail is the economics of the whole category in one filing. Total spending was ₹400 crore. Of that, ₹139 crore went on advertising and promotion and ₹128 crore on the cost of materials. Plum spent more telling you about the bottle than filling it, and that is the year it turned profitable.
What they actually make
Plum makes nothing itself. Every one of the thirteen packs we read names a third-party manufacturer, and the company’s register entry carries no manufacturing code. The About page says “We create our formulas ourselves in our lab”, which is a claim about formulation, not about a factory. That is the standard model for Indian skincare and there is nothing wrong with it. Our Campus audit covers a brand that runs its own plants, and the difference is worth knowing when you read a pack.
- Sprivil Healthcare, SataraSeven SKUs, including four serums and three sunscreens
- Intigree Biomed, PalgharFour SKUs, including the mineral sunscreen and both face washes
- Vardhaman Remedies, BoisarThe Squalane sunscreen and the 1% Retinol serum
- Indo Herbals, HaridwarThe Green Tea & Zinc sunscreen gel only
Every pack but the Green Tea gel is made in Maharashtra, within a few hours of Plum’s Thane office.
That geography is the unusual part. Most Indian skincare brands we have read manufacture in the Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand excise-benefit belts, at Baddi, Parwanoo and Haridwar. Plum’s supply chain is largely at home. Sprivil and Intigree also make products for Deconstruct. Indo Herbals is the same Haridwar industrial estate that makes sunscreens for Mamaearth, on a different plot, and Plum’s page prints no licence number to compare. Four of the thirteen packs carry a manufacturer’s name and address but no licence number at all.
Then the test that matters for a serum buyer. Plum prints a percentage in the product name on seven of the thirteen: 10% niacinamide, 15% vitamin C, 2% salicylic acid, 2% alpha arbutin and so on. Not one of the thirteen ingredient lists carries a percentage inside it. That is the norm, not the exception; Minimalist is the one Indian brand that prints concentrations in the list itself. What Plum’s lists do show is position. Niacinamide sits second of 27 in the 10% serum, ethyl ascorbic acid second of 18 in the vitamin C serum, salicylic acid third of 20, alpha-arbutin second of 13. On every product where a position check was possible, the order is consistent with the claim. Consistent is not proof, but nothing in the list runs against it.
Except on one product. The “1% Retinol & Bakuchiol Face Serum”, ₹790 MRP for 30 ml, lists retinyl palmitate at position 7 of 29 and Psoralea corylifolia (bakuchi) oil at position 14. Retinyl palmitate is an ester of retinol and a legitimate, widely used cosmetic retinoid. Bakuchi seed oil is the plant that bakuchiol is extracted from. Each is a different substance from the one named on the front, with its own INCI name. Nothing on the page substantiates the figure 1%.
The front of the bottle names two ingredients and a number. The back of the bottle contains neither word and no number.
That is a discrepancy on the label, not a finding that the serum does not work. There is an industry practice of describing an ester by reference to its parent compound. What a reader cannot do is check the claim against the pack, which is the whole point of printing it. At ₹23.70 per ml this is also the most expensive serum in Plum’s mainline range.
Sunscreens are where Plum’s paperwork is strongest. Its trueSPF page publishes product-specific test certificates for four sunscreens and offers a batch-number lookup for lab reports. Product pages say every production batch is tested. Among the Indian brands we have read, only Dot & Key publishes more. And still the page names no laboratory and no ISO standard number; it says “in-vitro” and “in-vivo” and stops. The most expensive sunscreen, Bright Years at ₹17.11 per ml, carries no trueSPF statement at all and is not among the four certificated products.
Plum’s sunscreen certificates are posted as images, and neither that page nor any product listing names the laboratory or the test standard. Weigh them as a brand showing its paperwork, not as a third party vouching for the number.
The ingredient lists also show a split the packs do not. Three of Plum’s six sunscreens use benzophenone-3 and ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, the two filters better known as oxybenzone and octinoxate. Three use the newer filter set with neither. The European Union restricted benzophenone-3 by a regulation of July 2022. Same brand, same vegan badge, same SPF 50, and the only way to tell which you are holding is the INCI list.
| Sunscreen, 50 g unless stated | UV filter set | Selling price per g, 1 September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 2% Niacinamide & Rice Water SPF 50 PA++++, 80 g | Benzophenone-3, octinoxate, avobenzone, titanium dioxide | ₹6.59 |
| Green Tea & Zinc SPF 50 PA++++ | Benzophenone-3, octinoxate, avobenzone, titanium dioxide | ₹7.90 |
| Cica & Hyaluronic Acid SPF 50 PA++++ | Newer filters, no benzophenone-3 or octinoxate | ₹7.90 |
| Squalane & Vitamin E SPF 50 PA+++ | Newer filters, no benzophenone-3 or octinoxate | ₹8.78 |
| Oat & Ceramide 100% Mineral SPF 50 PA+++ | Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide only | ₹12.30 |
| Bright Years SPF 50 PA++++, 45 ml | Benzophenone-3, octinoxate, avobenzone; added fragrance | ₹17.11 per ml |
The mineral sunscreen’s “100% mineral” claim holds: its list carries titanium dioxide and zinc oxide and no organic filter. It costs 87% more per gram than the 80 g hybrid for the same SPF 50 and one PA grade lower.
What Plum costs in India
Plum is a mass brand with a mid-range core. The bulk of the range sits between ₹275 and ₹875 MRP, and the brand’s own site knocks 10 to 12% off almost everything as a standing discount, checked 1 September 2026. The 30 ml serums sell at ₹527 to ₹711 and the 50 g sunscreens at ₹351 to ₹615. The cheapest thing we sampled is a 100 ml face wash at ₹242; the dearest is the Bright Years serum at ₹1,386 for 30 ml.
| Serum | Selling price, 1 September 2026 | Per ml |
|---|---|---|
| 10% Niacinamide & Rice Water, 15 ml | ₹307 | ₹20.47 |
| 10% Niacinamide & Rice Water, 30 ml | ₹579 | ₹19.30 |
| 10% Niacinamide & Rice Water, 50 ml | ₹747 | ₹14.94 |
| 15% Vitamin C & Mandarin, 20 ml | ₹445 | ₹22.25 |
| 2% Salicylic Acid, 30 ml | ₹527 | ₹17.57 |
| 2% Alpha Arbutin & HA, 30 ml | ₹527 | ₹17.57 |
| 1% Retinol & Bakuchiol, 30 ml | ₹711 | ₹23.70 |
The number articles keep quoting for the niacinamide serum, ₹307, is the 15 ml. The 30 ml is ₹579 and the 50 ml is ₹747. Plum’s collection pages show the cheapest size’s price beside every size of a product, so anyone reading prices off the grid rather than the product page will get them wrong. The per-ml column is the one that decides what to buy.
- 10% Niacinamide, 15 ml
- ₹20.47 per ml
- 10% Niacinamide, 50 ml
- ₹14.94 per ml
- Gap
- 27% cheaper in the 50 ml
- Checked on
- 1 September 2026, plumgoodness.com
At ₹14.94 per ml the 50 ml is level with Minimalist’s 60 ml of the same active at ₹15.00 and cheaper than The Derma Co’s 30 ml at ₹17.17. On sunscreen, the 80 g hybrid at ₹6.59 per gram is among the cheapest SPF 50 sold by any Indian brand we have read, close to Minimalist’s 100 g at ₹6.30. Sunscreen only works when you use enough, so the big pack is the one that matters. Marketplace MRPs differ by batch; Purplle listed the 80 g at ₹630 MRP against ₹599 on Plum’s own site the same day.
Who Plum is actually for
Plum suits a buyer who wants a vegan, cruelty-free range from an independent Indian company, at a per-ml price that beats most of the category once you buy the larger size. The 50 ml niacinamide and the 80 g hybrid sunscreen are the two products where the maths clearly favours it. Anyone who buys on the ingredient position rather than the front-of-pack number will find six of seven percentage claims consistent with the list.
It is not for the buyer who wants the concentration printed in the ingredient list, which Plum does not do and Minimalist does. Nor for anyone who wants a named laboratory and a standard behind an SPF number. And a reader choosing the retinol serum should know that the pack and the ingredient list name different compounds, and decide whether that matters at ₹711.
Reputation and controversies
The cruelty-free claim is the one Plum built the brand on, and it holds up against the certifier’s own records. Plum Goodness appears in PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies directory, in the higher of PETA’s two tiers, “Global animal test-free and vegan”, with the licensed-logo badge. The entry, the tier and the brand name all match the pack. Plum has done the thing properly, and it deserves saying.
Two qualifications. First, PETA’s programme is a signed statement of assurance plus supplier agreements; registration is free and the logo costs a one-time $350 licence. It is a promise in writing, not an inspection or a laboratory test. Second, animal testing of cosmetics has been prohibited in India since notification G.S.R. 346(E) of 21 May 2014, which CDSCO lists on its own cosmetics page. Every cosmetic legally sold here is already cruelty-free. What PETA’s listing adds is a global undertaking and a supplier chain, which is real, and smaller than the packaging implies. Plum was making the claim in 2013, before the law caught up.
The word “toxin-free” was part of how the press described Plum in March 2022. On 1 September 2026, no page on plumgoodness.com used the phrase. What the pages carry now is narrower and better: paraben-free, sulphate-free, fragrance-free, 100% vegan, each of which can be checked against an ingredient list. One exception: the Green Tea Pore Cleansing Face Wash lists sodium laureth sulphate, fragrance and two synthetic colours, beside a niacinamide face wash sold as sulphate-free.
On “clinically tested”, Plum discloses more than most and still not enough. The niacinamide serum cites a 36-user study in January 2024 and the alpha arbutin serum a 32-user study in November 2024, both at “an independent, expert-graded lab”. No laboratory is named and no report is published. “97% of users experienced reduced blemishes” is a self-reported panel figure, not a measured outcome, and “dermatologically tested” means a test happened, not that a dermatologist recommends anything.
The advertising council’s record for Plum’s company, Pureplay Skin Sciences, holds nineteen decided outcomes, and what they are about matters more than how many there are. Seventeen concern influencer posts published without a disclosure label. That is a failure to say “Ad”, by whoever posted it, and it is not a finding that a Plum product does not do what the bottle says.
Exactly one of the nineteen is about a product claim. On 5 December 2023 the council upheld a complaint over a Plum Coconut Milk shampoo advertisement promising “22x shinier hair in just 1 wash” and stronger strands. That is the whole of Plum’s product-claim record. The one remaining row is listed as upheld while its own text says the advertisement was not in contravention, so this audit does not cite it either way.
And one thing about what that single ruling settles. The council is the advertising industry’s own self-regulatory body rather than a statutory regulator, and its December 2023 decision was about one shampoo advertisement in the wording it then carried. It does not put those words out of bounds for good, and no council or court has examined the product pages as they read today.
The council’s annual reports for 2023-24 and 2024-25 name neither Plum, Pureplay nor Phy.
Buying it in India
Plum sells through its own site and marketplaces such as Purplle, with the site’s 10 to 12% standing discount doing most of the work. The useful skill is reading the pack. Our Bata audit applies the same skill to a brand and a listed company that are separate entities. The MRP-against-selling-price gap in our Metro audit makes it necessary in footwear too.
Find the active in the ingredient list
Ingredients run in descending order, so a 10% active belongs near the top. Plum’s niacinamide sits second. If the name on the front is not in the list at all, as with the retinol serum, the pack has told you something.
Read the manufacturer line
Look for “Manufactured by” and a licence number. Plum’s packs name Sprivil, Intigree, Vardhaman or Indo Herbals; four of the thirteen we read give an address but no licence number.
Look for a report, not a badge
On sunscreen, ask for a laboratory name, a standard and a measured value. Plum’s trueSPF page has certificates and a batch lookup but names neither a lab nor a standard; Bright Years has no statement at all.
Divide the price by the millilitres
The 15 ml niacinamide costs ₹20.47 per ml, the 50 ml ₹14.94. Buy the small bottle to test your skin’s reaction, not to save money.
Read the price off the product page
Plum’s collection grids show one size’s price beside every size. Open the product page, pick the variant, then compare. Expect 10 to 12% under MRP as the everyday price, checked 1 September 2026.
Common questions
Is Plum owned by Unilever?
No. Unilever Ventures, Unilever’s venture arm, took a minority stake in 2018-19 and holds a nominee board seat; control has never changed and both founders remain directors. The Indian skincare brand Hindustan Unilever bought outright is Minimalist, in April 2025.
Is Plum an Indian brand?
Yes. It belongs to Pureplay Skin Sciences (India) Private Limited, incorporated in Maharashtra on 8 October 2013 and registered in Thane. All but one of the thirteen products we checked are made in Maharashtra.
Is Plum really PETA-certified cruelty-free?
Yes. Plum Goodness is listed in PETA’s own directory in the “Global animal test-free and vegan” tier with a licensed logo. The certification is a signed undertaking rather than an audit, and animal testing of cosmetics has been prohibited in India since 21 May 2014 in any case.
Does Plum’s 1% Retinol serum contain retinol?
Its ingredient list names retinyl palmitate, an ester of retinol, at position 7, and bakuchi seed oil rather than bakuchiol at position 14. Neither “retinol” nor “bakuchiol” appears in the list, and nothing on the page substantiates the 1% figure.
Which size of Plum’s niacinamide serum is the best value?
The 50 ml, at ₹747 or ₹14.94 per ml on 1 September 2026. The 15 ml at ₹307 works out to ₹20.47 per ml, 27% more for the identical formula.
Who manufactures Plum products?
Contract manufacturers. On the thirteen packs we read: Sprivil Healthcare in Satara, Intigree Biomed in Palghar, Vardhaman Remedies in Boisar and Indo Herbals in Haridwar. Plum owns no factory on the record.
How we research and verify brand audits: our methodology.
References
- ZaubaCorp, Pureplay Skin Sciences (India) Private Limited, accessed 1 September 2026 — CIN, incorporation date, registered office, directors and their appointment dates, no change of control
- CB Insights, Pureplay Skin Sciences, accessed 1 September 2026 — round dates, Unilever Ventures as Series A investor, Rashmika Mandanna angel round, total raised
- Entrackr, 23 March 2022 — $35 million Series C led by A91 Partners at a $250 million valuation; Series B of $15 million; FY20 and FY21 revenue and losses; “toxin-free” description
- Entrackr, 29 September 2025 — FY24 and FY25 revenue, loss and profit; ₹139 crore advertising and ₹128 crore materials in FY25
- Plum, About us, accessed 1 September 2026 — “When we began in 2013”, “We create our formulas ourselves in our lab”, vegan and cruelty-free wording
- Pureplay Skin Sciences corporate site, accessed 1 September 2026 — brands owned; no manufacturing plant named
- Plum, 10% Niacinamide & Rice Water serum, accessed 1 September 2026 — INCI order, Sprivil as manufacturer, 15/30/50 ml prices, 36-user study wording, PETA wording
- Plum, 1% Retinol & Bakuchiol Face Serum, accessed 1 September 2026 — INCI list with retinyl palmitate at 7 and Psoralea corylifolia oil at 14; Vardhaman Remedies as manufacturer; ₹790 MRP, ₹711 selling
- Plum, 2% Niacinamide & Rice Water SPF 50 sunscreen, accessed 1 September 2026 — filters, two manufacturers and licence numbers, 30/50/80 g prices, “every production batch tested”
- Plum, Green Tea & Zinc SPF 50 gel, accessed 1 September 2026 — Indo Herbals, Haridwar, as manufacturer with no licence number; filters; price
- Plum, Bright Years All-Day Defence SPF 50, accessed 1 September 2026 — filters, fragrance and colourant, ₹770 for 45 ml, no trueSPF statement
- Plum, Oat & Ceramide 100% Mineral Sunscreen, accessed 1 September 2026 — titanium dioxide and zinc oxide only; Intigree as manufacturer; ₹615 for 50 g
- Plum, Cica & Hyaluronic Acid SPF 50, accessed 1 September 2026 — newer filter set; Sprivil; ₹395 for 50 g
- Plum, Squalane & Vitamin E SPF 50, accessed 1 September 2026 — newer filter set; Vardhaman Remedies; ₹439 for 50 g
- Plum, trueSPF programme page, accessed 1 September 2026 — five named checks, certificate images for four sunscreens, batch-number lookup; no laboratory or ISO number named
- EUR-Lex, Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/1176 of 7 July 2022 — EU restriction on benzophenone-3 in cosmetics
- Plum, Green Tea Pore Cleansing Face Wash, accessed 1 September 2026 — sodium laureth sulphate, fragrance and colourants in the list; Intigree; prices by size
- Plum, 2% Alpha Arbutin & Hyaluronic Acid serum, accessed 1 September 2026 — INCI position, 32-user study wording, ₹527 for 30 ml
- Purplle, Plum brand page, accessed 1 September 2026 — marketplace MRP of ₹630 on the 80 g sunscreen
- PETA, Beauty Without Bunnies directory, Plum Goodness entry, accessed 1 September 2026 — listing in the animal test-free and vegan tier with the licensed-logo badge
- PETA, Beauty Without Bunnies programme, accessed 1 September 2026 — statement of assurance, supplier agreements, free registration, $350 logo fee, the two tiers
- CDSCO, Cosmetics division, accessed 1 September 2026 — animal testing ban G.S.R. 346(E) dated 21 May 2014; Rule 36 on cosmetic claims
- Plum, site search for the exact phrase “toxin-free”, 1 September 2026 — no results
- ASCI, complaint outcomes, 2 September 2026 — nineteen decided outcomes for Pureplay Skin Sciences: seventeen on influencer disclosure, one on a product claim, 5 December 2023
- ASCI Annual Report 2023-24 — Plum not named
- ASCI Annual Report 2024-25 — Plum not named
Plum is what most Indian skincare brands say they are. Founder-run for thirteen years with no sale, a PETA listing that exists where the badge says it does, a manufacturing chain that stays in Maharashtra, six of seven percentage claims consistent with the ingredient order, and more sunscreen paperwork published than nearly anyone else. Buy the 50 ml niacinamide at ₹14.94 per ml and the 80 g hybrid sunscreen at ₹6.59 per gram; both are among the best-priced of their kind from any Indian brand we have read.
The scepticism goes to three places. The “1% Retinol & Bakuchiol” serum, at ₹711, lists neither ingredient by name and gives no basis for the number. The sunscreen certificates name no laboratory and no standard, and the dearest sunscreen has none. And cruelty-free has been the law in India since May 2014, so the badge Plum earned honestly buys you less than the pack suggests. In FY25 the company spent ₹139 crore on advertising against ₹128 crore on materials, and you are paying for both.
Buy the large sizes of the niacinamide serum and the hybrid sunscreen, read the back of the retinol bottle before you pay ₹711 for the front, and treat the bunny as a legal minimum rather than a reason.
