RENÉE is the make-up brand of Renee Cosmetics, an Ahmedabad company co-founded by the two founders who sold Beardo to Marico and by television actress Aashka Goradia. This audit covers who actually makes the products, what they cost per gram, and what the company’s filings and reported figures show.
RENÉE is an independent, founder-led Ahmedabad brand that uses contract manufacturers — six of the seven product pages we read name Indian factories, several with licence numbers. Its core line sells at ₹189–₹699, and its 1.5-gram kajal works out to ₹300 a gram at MRP, against ₹546–1,214 for the Lakmé and SUGAR kajals we checked. Its FY25 filing, as reported by the press, shows ₹321.2 crore of revenue from operations.
Snapshot
- Legal name
- Renee Cosmetics Private Limited, Ahmedabad — incorporated 18 October 2019
- The brand
- Launched as Rene by Aashka Goradia in 2019; relaunched as RENÉE in September 2020
- Founders
- Aashka Goradia, Ashutosh Valani, Priyank Shah — directors since day one
- Ownership
- Independent; venture-funded, roughly $76–77 million raised, no takeover on record
- Who makes it
- Contract manufacturers — Regi India, Star Color, Sunshine Industries among those named on its own pages
- Core-line prices
- ₹189–₹699 selling, ₹249–₹750 MRP, checked 2 September 2026
- FY25, as filed
- ₹321.2 crore revenue from operations; ₹64.2 crore net loss (press readings of the RoC filing)
How it started
The back story is Beardo. Ashutosh Valani and Priyank Shah founded the men’s grooming brand in Ahmedabad in 2015; Marico bought 45% in 2017 and completed the acquisition in July 2020. The price was never disclosed — press estimates put the total value at ₹350–400 crore, and estimates is all they are. Their second act was already incorporated by then.
Aashka Goradia had launched her own line, Rene by Aashka Goradia, in 2019. Renee Cosmetics Private Limited was registered in Ahmedabad on 18 October 2019 with all three as directors, and the brand relaunched as RENÉE in September 2020 — the name comes from the Latin renatus, reborn. Funding coverage often prints “founded 2018”; the register says otherwise. The entity behind a brand is its own story — Bata India being a separate listed company from the global brand is the classic case — and here the register, not the press, carries the date.
- Rene by Aashka GoradiaThe actress’s own line, launched 2019
- Renee Cosmetics Pvt LtdIncorporated in Ahmedabad, 18 October 2019 — three founders on the board
- RENÉERebranded and relaunched September 2020
- $200 million valuationSeries C, August 2025 — press-carried, not a filing
Five funding rounds took the company from a stated ₹50 lakh of initial investment to roughly $76–77 million raised by August 2025, when Playbook led a $30 million (about ₹263 crore) Series C. Funding is not revenue: FY25 shows ₹321.2 crore of revenue from operations and a net loss, as reported from the company’s filing.
No public document shows what share the founders still hold. The Independent call rests on four years of heavy press coverage with no takeover reported, and founders on the board throughout — read it as the best public record, not a certified cap table.
What they actually make
RENÉE uses contract manufacturers. The company’s registration code is a services code, and every product page we read prints “Marketed by: Renee Cosmetics Pvt Ltd, Ahmedabad” above a third-party manufacturer. That split is normal in beauty; in footwear it runs the other way at Campus, which makes most of its own shoes — the question that matters is whether a brand tells you who its factories are.
RENÉE mostly does, and that is worth crediting. Of seven product pages read on its own store on 2 September 2026 — a sample, not the catalogue — six declare Indian factories by name, with state manufacturing-licence numbers printed for several: Regi India Cosmetics in Haridwar and Dehradun for the Fab 5 lipstick and the Face Base foundations, Star Color Cosmetics of Thane for the Madness pH lipstick, and Sunshine Industries in Himachal’s Baddi belt for the Midnight Kohl pencil. That last factory also appears on SUGAR’s own site as the maker of its lip liner — two rival labels, one pencil plant.
The seventh page is the odd one out. The Stay With Me lip crayon declares its country of origin as China, and the “manufacturer” printed is a UAE free-zone entity at an industrial free-zone address in Ras Al Khaimah. The page does not name the factory in China. On the pages we read, six products are made in India and one in China.
What Renee Cosmetics costs in India
Everything we read sits below ₹800 MRP, and the brand’s own site discounts unevenly — 0–25% depending on the product. The per-gram column is where the range gets interesting.
| Product | MRP → site price | Per gram or ml, at site price |
|---|---|---|
| Fab 5 5-in-1 lipstick, 7.5 g | ₹750 → ₹559 | ₹74.53/g |
| Madness pH lipstick, 3 g | ₹499 → ₹455 | ₹151.67/g |
| Stay With Me lip crayon, 3.5 g | ₹299 → ₹299 | ₹85.43/g |
| Midnight Kohl pencil, 1.5 g | ₹450 → ₹399 | ₹266/g |
| Face Base liquid foundation, 23 ml | ₹750 → ₹659 | ₹28.65/ml |
| Face Base serum foundation, 25 ml | ₹650 → ₹599 | ₹23.96/ml |
| Everyday primer, 30 ml | ₹249 → ₹189 | ₹6.30/ml |
Brand-site prices checked 2 September 2026; the primer price is Purplle’s, the same day.
The flagship deserves its own arithmetic. The Fab 5 is sold as a 5-in-1 lipstick, five shades in one stick; the declared net weight is 7.5 grams in total, and the pack does not print a per-bullet weight. By the gram it is cheap — ₹74.53 a gram at the site price, and a third-party tracker recorded ₹449 on Amazon.in in October 2024.
- Fab 5 MRP
- ₹750 — ₹100 per gram
- Brand-site price
- ₹559 — ₹74.53 per gram
- Gap
- 25% below the printed MRP
- Checked on
- 2 September 2026
Kajal is where RENÉE quietly wins. Its Midnight Kohl is a fat 1.5-gram pencil at ₹450 MRP — ₹300 a gram, or ₹266 at the site price. Lakmé’s Eyeconic runs ₹546–643 a gram and SUGAR’s kajals ₹996–1,214 a gram at their own brand-site MRPs (September 2026), because rival pencils carry 0.25–0.35 grams of product. The same effect shows inside RENÉE’s own range: its 0.8-gram Mini kajal works out to ₹343.75 a gram at MRP. An MRP is a ceiling, not a price, and grams are the fairer unit — the same gap between the printed number and the real one that our Sparx audit tracks in footwear.
Who Renee Cosmetics is actually for
The brand’s ambassadors are announced publicly: an Ileana D’Cruz campaign by January 2022, Rashmika Mandanna in June 2022, Janhvi Kapoor for the fragrance line in March 2023, and Mrunal Thakur from August 2024, fronting the brand’s first television commercial.
For FY25, Entrackr’s reading of the filing puts sales and promotion spending at ₹159 crore.
At MRP, RENÉE’s 1.5-gram Midnight Kohl works out to ₹300 a gram; the rival kajals we checked ran ₹546 to ₹1,214 a gram.
- 2020₹2.5 crore on marketing and advertising, company-stated
- 2021“Over ₹15 crore”, company-stated
- FY25₹159 crore sales and promotion, as reported from the filing
2020 and 2021 are company statements; FY25 is Entrackr’s reading of the filed year.
Company statements to IMPACT, January 2022; Entrackr’s reading of the FY25 figure, May 2026.
So who should buy it? Someone shopping the ₹200–₹700 shelf who compares by the gram will find real value here, especially in kajal and the foundations. Someone buying mainly for long-wear or SPF performance should check the pack and ask the brand for its test report.
Reputation and record
The FY25 filing, as reported by Startuppedia, shows ₹321.2 crore of revenue from operations and a net loss of ₹64.2 crore for the full year. Revenue was ₹97 crore in FY23.
On the pages read on 2 September 2026, the About page describes the products as “high quality, cruelty-free and FDA-approved”, the kajal is titled “up to 24 hours”, the lip crayon “up to 12 hours” and the foundations state SPF 8 and SPF 15, and the pages cite no approving authority, test method or PA grade for these claims. Several of the product pages carry the contract manufacturers’ state manufacturing-licence numbers. The cruelty-free wording is supported by a directory listing: RENÉE is listed in PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies directory, though the entry does not mark the brand all-vegan — “vegan” appears on individual products.
On the legal record: a search of Indian Kanoon on 2 September 2026 found no judgment naming Renee Cosmetics Private Limited. The Advertising Standards Council of India’s complaint-outcomes record, read on 3 September 2026, lists twenty outcomes naming the company, spanning 16 February 2023 to 16 December 2025, and nineteen of them were upheld. The single exception, dismissed, was a 16 February 2023 complaint about an influencer’s Black Lipstick post.
What the twenty are about matters more than the count. Every one was decided under ASCI’s guidelines for influencer advertising, and each turns on how a paid post was labelled rather than on what the product was said to do. None is a finding against a product claim. ASCI is the advertising industry’s own self-regulatory body rather than a statutory regulator, and each of those decisions attached to a single post as it was published between February 2023 and December 2025. None puts a form of words out of bounds, and nobody has ruled on RENÉE’s own pages as they read today.
Buying it in India
RENÉE sells through its own site, Purplle — 166 products listed there on 2 September 2026 — and the big marketplaces, plus offline counters. The company’s stated channel mix in January 2025 was 20% own site, 45% marketplaces and 35% offline, and by August 2025 it stated “15,000+ outlets”; these are company-stated figures. Prices move by channel: the Midnight Kohl was ₹399 on the brand’s site and ₹338 on Purplle the same day.
Read the manufacturer block
The site’s product pages print the factory and, on several, its licence number — Regi India, Star Color, Sunshine Industries on the pages we read. The marketer’s Ahmedabad address is not the maker.
Check the country of origin
Most of the line declares India, but one lip crayon we read is made in China, with a UAE free-zone address printed as its manufacturer. The origin line tells you more than the logo.
Price it by the gram
Divide price by net weight before comparing. A ₹450 kajal with 1.5 g inside beats a ₹275 mini with 0.8 g — ₹300 versus ₹344 a gram at MRP.
Ask for the test report
If wear time or SPF matters to you, check the pack and ask the brand for its test report. Otherwise, choose on shade and texture.
Compare channels on the day
The same kajal was ₹61 cheaper on Purplle than on the brand’s own site on 2 September 2026. Check one marketplace before paying the site price, and treat MRP as a ceiling.
Common questions
Is RENÉE an Indian brand?
Yes. Renee Cosmetics Private Limited was incorporated in Ahmedabad on 18 October 2019, and the brand relaunched as RENÉE in September 2020. Six of the seven products we checked are made in India by contract manufacturers; one lip crayon is made in China.
Who owns RENÉE Cosmetics?
Its founders — Aashka Goradia, Ashutosh Valani and Priyank Shah — lead the company, which has raised roughly $76–77 million of venture funding. No acquisition or change of control appears anywhere on the public record we read, though exact shareholding percentages are not public.
Does RENÉE make its own products?
No. It is a marketer. Its own product pages name third-party factories — Regi India Cosmetics, Star Color Cosmetics, Sunshine Industries — several with manufacturing-licence numbers.
Is RENÉE profitable?
The FY25 filing, as reported, shows ₹321.2 crore of revenue from operations and a net loss of ₹64.2 crore for the year.
How much product is in the Fab 5?
It is five shades in one stick, with 7.5 grams of product in total. At ₹559 it works out to ₹74.53 a gram.
Is RENÉE cruelty-free?
PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies directory lists RENÉE Cosmetics as cruelty-free across ingredients, finished products and suppliers, checked 2 September 2026. The directory does not mark the brand all-vegan; “vegan” appears on individual products such as the Madness pH lipstick.
How we research and verify brand audits: our methodology.
References
- ZaubaCorp company record, accessed 2 September 2026 — incorporation on 18 October 2019, registered office, directors, charges
- YourStory, 1 July 2020 — Marico’s 45% Beardo stake in 2017 and completion of the acquisition in July 2020
- Entrackr, 9 July 2020 — the ₹350–400 crore Beardo deal-value estimate
- Inc42, 4 February 2025 — Rene by Aashka Goradia in 2019, the September 2020 relaunch, the marketing strategy
- YourStory SMBStory, 28 April 2021 — the stated ₹50 lakh initial investment and early Gujarat manufacturing partners
- Entrackr, 7 August 2025 — the $30 million Series C, $200 million valuation, roughly $76 million total raised, FY23 revenue, “15,000+ outlets”
- Inc42, 7 August 2025 — Series C corroboration and the ₹1,755 crore valuation figure
- IMPACT, 18 January 2022 — 2020 and 2021 advertising spend and the Ileana D’Cruz campaign
- afaqs, 15 June 2022 — Rashmika Mandanna announced as the face of the brand
- MediaNews4U, 10 March 2023 — Janhvi Kapoor signed for the fragrance category
- FashionNetwork India, August 2024 — Mrunal Thakur signed 16 August 2024, fronting the first TVC
- Entrackr, 29 May 2026 — FY25 sales and promotion of ₹159 crore
- Startuppedia, 12 March 2026 — FY25 filed figures: ₹321.2 crore operations revenue, ₹64.2 crore net loss
- Business Today, 6 January 2025 — the company-stated channel mix
- RENÉE About page, accessed 2 September 2026 — the “high quality, cruelty-free and FDA-approved” wording and the Renatus naming
- Fab 5 product page, accessed 2 September 2026 — ₹750 MRP, ₹559 price, 7.5 g net weight, Regi India Cosmetics and licence number
- Midnight Kohl product page, accessed 2 September 2026 — ₹450 MRP, 1.5 g, Sunshine Industries, the 24-hour claim
- Face Base liquid foundation page, accessed 2 September 2026 — ₹750 MRP, 23 ml, SPF 8, Regi India Dehradun
- Face Base serum foundation page, accessed 2 September 2026 — ₹650 MRP, 25 ml, SPF 15
- Madness pH lipstick page, accessed 2 September 2026 — ₹499 MRP, Star Color Cosmetics and licence number, vegan wording
- Stay With Me crayon page, accessed 2 September 2026 — ₹299, country of origin China, UAE free-zone entity printed as manufacturer, the 12-hour claim
- Purplle brand page, accessed 2 September 2026 — 166 products listed and cross-checked selling prices
- Price History tracker, updated 29 October 2024 — the Fab 5 at ₹449 on Amazon.in, third-party tracked
- PETA Beauty Without Bunnies directory, accessed 2 September 2026 — RENÉE Cosmetics listed as cruelty-free
- Indian Kanoon search, 2 September 2026 — no judgment naming the company found
- ASCI complaint outcomes, Renee Cosmetics Private Limited, accessed 3 September 2026 — twenty outcomes from 16 February 2023 to 16 December 2025, nineteen upheld, all decided under the influencer advertising guidelines
Credit where it is due: RENÉE’s product pages are unusually open about who makes the goods — six of the seven we read name an Indian factory, several with a licence number — and by the gram it compares well. At MRP the kajal is ₹300 a gram against ₹546–1,214 for the rival kajals we checked, and the foundations sit at ₹24–29 a millilitre at the site price.
Judge it on the product in hand. If wear time or SPF matters to you, check the pack and ask the brand for its test report; otherwise, buy it for the shades and the price per gram.
Buy RENÉE by the gram — at ₹74.53 a gram for the Fab 5 and ₹266 for the kajal at the site price, it is good value among the brands we compared.
