It is always interesting to see what the next generation of a business family does to take the family business to the next level. The same can be said of Supriya Mody, the third generation from the Mumbai based pharmaceutical major Unichem Laboratories Ltd. (Unichem). Having cut her teeth in private banking, followed by marketing at Unichem, Mody has now launched her own luxurious skin care brand FutureMe. After having launched the brand in South Africa in 2024, Mody now brings her luxurious skincare brand to India.
During her 15 year stint at Unichem, Mody worked hard on growing her grandfather and father’s legacy. When it was time to build her own legacy, she wanted to create a mesmerizing, beautiful, sensual and visceral in experience brand in luxury skincare which was wrapped in performance, science and technology. “Why this journey matters is because of two things; one, is that this background in pharmaceuticals gave me that advantage which not many brands in the world have – my experience in pharmaceutical formulations with ingredients, most importantly regarding efficacy, that something has to work – that DNA started from there,” says Supriya Mody, founder and CEO, FutureMe.
The global skin care market is divided between luxury skincare on the one hand and drug store brands on the other. The most oft refrain heard about some luxury skin care is that though priced at the higher end, some products don’t work. The things that work are not always beautiful, amazing and sensual. You either don’t like the smell or you chose to pick up a drug store brand. In launching Future Me, Mody has tried to solve this puzzle. “Why can’t a skincare brand be both luxurious and beautiful, and efficacious and work? What is the problem here that we are not able to get the best of both worlds? Why are we compromising on one aspect or the other?” asks Mody. With these questions she sought the help of leading formulator Dr. Renuka Thergaonkar. According to Dr. Renuka Thergaonkar, for any skin care to work right the most important thing is for it to enter your skin. As the skin is made up of seven layers, absorption is crucial for anything to permeate the skin barrier.
Mody had her eyes set on creating a global luxury skin care brand that can compete with the likes of La Mer, La Prairie or Sisley Paris, to mention a few. In order to be able to get the luxury aspect right – the feel, the texture, and the smell – it took her and Thergaonkar seven years to get the right blend from botanical extracts. Priced at Rs6,000 and above, the FutureMe product range comprises a moisturising cream, hydrating gel, regenerating serum, nourishing face oil, to mention a few. At the core of the brand’s innovation is FutureBlend™, a proprietary complex engineered through a proprietary BeautyFrequency™ sound-therapy process to ensure deep skin penetration and deliver visible efficacy.
Seeing the boom in the Indian beauty and skincare market, Mody felt this was the right time to bring the brand to India. She also realized that though luxury skincare is luxury in price, the customers were not getting that amazing experience. She wanted her brand to create that `wow’ experience. What is a luxury experience? Say you walk into a luxury store like Saks or Bergdorf Goodman and the first thing you are asked is `what is your concern?’ Luxury brand stores also treat customers as royalty where you would walk in, look around, fall in love, pick up what you want and leave. “I felt that somewhere in luxury skincare I wanted to bring that luxury back. And how do you bring it back is when you focus on the client, the customer and make it into something positive,” she says.
A luxury brand is all about the experience, and how do you give someone an experience without a space. Mody has created a home for her brand. And as a home is a private space, so is the home of FutureMe. It is a very exclusive, intimate, by invite or appointment only space. Anyone who comes here is invited, that’s how you feel special. The objective was always to make you feel special. “We did not want to create a space that feels like an office, or spa, we needed it to be a home. The furniture, the dining table, the arrangement gives you the feel of being in someone’s home, the home of Future Me,” says Kaizad Shroff, architect and interior designer, ShroffLeon.
Mody gave Shroff the creative freedom within the brand codes to create the House of FutureMe which is a concrete material manifestation that gave way to her dream. Every element within the space has been crafted in India – bespoke furniture, embroidered textiles and hand-finished surfaces. At the heart of the space, a bespoke glass chandelier acts as its emotional and visual epicentre. Created in collaboration with Arjun Rathi, the chandelier is sculpted with asymmetrical, crown-like shards that blur the line between art and functional lighting. Throughout the interior, the environment unfolds as a living translation of the brand’s ethos.
Branding throughout the space reveals itself in a subtle way. Logos are debossed into resin, integrated into architectural lines, or layered discreetly into materials. Nothing is overt, yet everything is intentional – echoing FutureMe’s belief that true luxury is expressed through subtlety. A suspended custom-made installation above the central dining area adds rhythm and dimension, echoing the natural motifs of FutureMe’s first collection, Arayani. Created in collaboration with Priyanka Shah, the piece deepens the enchanted forest theme that runs through the space. Just as FutureMe’s formulations have been made in India, every element within the space has been crafted in India – bespoke furniture, embroidered textiles and hand-finished surfaces.
As treatments and therapies will start soon, Mody wants everyone to come and enjoy this space and forget about your worries. Though in the heart of South Bombay, you could be anywhere. “It is the ideal space to take a moment and just breathe, love and enjoy the ritual of being you,” she says.