The world of clean, natural beauty is all too enticing. Brands all across the globe offer products reflective of nature that promise to deliver the results you desire. Their products claim to harvest the goodness of traditional ingredients and pack it into modern vessels of commercial beauty Simply put, they smell good, they’re beautiful to look at, and one sure hopes they work!

While navigating through the myriad of Indian skincare brands that specialize their focus in preparations based on ayurvedic principles, I came across many options. Far too many. Enough to let an inexperienced doe (someone who doesn’t know a lot of skincare and beauty and is only just starting to explore) get tangled in the world of choices. The number of options out there is sure to throw a novice in a conundrum.

Which brand to choose? Which product to buy? How and when to use it? How do most people review it? Does it suit your needs? How likely is it to make your skin react? Gathering the answers to these things can be daunting, to say the least. That’s where this blog comes in, to help you make an informed decision and figure out just what you need!

Product Face-Off

n my quest to find out which beauty brands are best in the skincare game, I was able to narrow down my very long list to two, which impressed me the most. The first is the well-known ayurvedic beauty giant Forest Essentials and the second is the underdog, Blue Nectar, a relatively smaller but better-performing brand than most Indian skincare brands out there. Following are some of the skincare products from both these companies that I’ve tried to review in competition with each other. Let’s see which one fits you better?

1. Face Cleanser

For the first step of any skincare routine, I evaluated two very popular cleansers, one from each brand.

• Blue Nectar’s Shubhr Radiance Honey Face Wash
• Forest Essentials’ Delicate Facial Cleanser with Kashmiri Saffron & Neem

Ingredients: Both cleansers promise and deliver the goodness of honey (a cherished ingredient in the skincare world).

The face wash from blue nectar has Aloe vera as one of its gems.

The facewash from Forest Essentials has extra skincare warriors such as kewda water, neem leaves, and most importantly, saffron.

Special Features: The Shubhr Radiance Honey Face Cleanser’s MVP is its 15% concentration of real honey in the concoction. It promises intense hydration and claims to have anti-pollution properties when combined with the 8 ayurvedic herbs.

Forest Essentials’ Delicate Facial Cleanser promises to purify the skin and treat other conditions gently. It is free of any parabens and petrochemicals.

Target Audience: Shubhr Radiance Honey Facewash is formulated for all skin types, while the Delicate Facial Cleanser targets people with sensitive, oily, and acne-prone skin. Whether you choose versatility or concern-specific performance is your call to take.

Affordability: I immediately noticed that the Blue Nectar face wash is a lot more affordable at Rs. 445 for 100 ml of product. At the same time, for Rs. 350, you get half the amount (50 ml) of product in the travel size version, of the Forest Essentials delicate face cleanser. Beauty is important but it should also be cost-effective.

2. Toner

Any beauty buff will ask you to drop whatever your current toner is and switch to rosewater. It’s superior by every means. It just is! Both the brands of choice here offer their versions of rosewater toners. Are they worth the switch and the extra pennies?

• Blue Nectar’s Shubhr Rose Face Mist: Steam Distilled Pure Toner Water
• Forest Essentials’ Facial Tonic Mist Pure Rosewater

Ingredients: Both brands offer 100% pure rosewater face mists with no additives or extra ingredients.

Special Features: Forest Essentials’ rosewater facial tonic mist is sourced from flowers that originate in the city of Kannauj.

There aren’t many other special features individually for either of the versions but rosewater mists and toners, in general, do a lot for your skin. They cleanse it, hydrate it, and balance its pH. And hence, are worth an addition to your skincare routine.

Target Audience: Pure rosewater is a magical ingredient that can be enjoyed by people of all skin types.

Affordability: While formulation and selling points in both brands are pretty much the same, there is a huge, whopping difference price-wise. Blue Nectar offers its rosewater toner at Rs. 425 for 100 ml of the product while it costs Rs. 1,025 for 130 ml of  Forest Essential’s face tonic!

3. Serum

Serums just have that quality about them. You can’t help but be mesmerized. They look like magic potions in tiny little bottles and the way the two mentioned below perform, they may as well be magic! Serums or face oils are the perfect luxurious to any skincare routine and a great source of locking in hydration and improving barrier function so they’re definitely worth the investment. Two of the best serum in the beauty game are:

• Blue Nectar’s Kumkumadi Tailam Face Serum
• Forest Essentials’ Advanced Soundarya Age Defying Facial Serum

Ingredients: The Kumkumadi Tailam serum consists of natural ingredients such as saffron, manjishtha, and sandalwood oil (Chandan ka tel). The Advanced Soundarya Age Defying Serum uses cherished ingredients like ghee, sesame oil, 24k gold bhasma, and licorice root (yastimadhu).

Special Features: Kumkumadi serum practically does everything your skin could ever need. It’s like allspice in a bottle. You name it, this bottle has it! From brightening your skin, repairing pigmentation, minimizing signs of aging, improving skin’s elasticity & firmness, to being free from any chemicals, preservatives, or mineral oils, adding a radiant glow to your face, and having 26 special herbs that come together to create the perfect concoction for you.

Advanced Soundarya serum has 24k gold in it. It doesn’t get much more luxurious than that. The powdered form of said gold i.e. bhasma is claimed to have the ability to penetrate the deepest layers of the skin, what a dream come true. Forest Essentials as a skincare brand has many awards from beauty giants like Elle, Vogue, and Nykaa for this product specifically. That tells you something! Combined with moisturizing ingredients like desi ghee and sesame oil, along with licorice root which acts as a gentle sunscreen and protects the skin from sun damage, this serum becomes liquid gold in a bottle, quite literally.

Target Audience: Kumkumadi Tailam Facial Serum is formulated with everyone in mind. It claims to suit all skin types and delivers on its promises.

Advanced Soundarya serum mainly caters to people with a dry type of skin and targets early signs of aging, and does a fantastic job at it.

Affordability: For th

e average, middle-class Indian, both these serums may fall on the pricier side. Sure, there are countless brands out there that offer more affordable options which probably work well. But, when it comes to investing in a product that you’re sure delivers what it owes, you can’t help but turn to these two.

You can get Blue Nectar’s Kumkumadi Facial Serum at Rs. 1,495 for 30 ml of product. For that same 30 ml, Forest Essential’s Advanced Soundarya Age Defying serum costs Rs. 5,595 which is almost 4 times the former serum!

The formulations are entirely different, so are the ingredients used and both these brands target somewhat separate audiences. So the call to take depends on several variables but the level of either of their performance cannot be refuted!

4. Face Cream

Face creams are probably my favorite skincare product ever. They’re easy to use, very rarely messy, need no extra applicators, water, or anything else! Quick to apply, and a great way to provide hydration to your skin and make it softer than a baby bum, here are two of my most preferred ayurvedic face creams:

• Blue Nectar’s Shubhr Jasmine & Patchouli Nourishing Night Repair Face Cream
• Forest Essentials’ Advanced Sanjeevani Beauty Elixir

Ingredients: The Shubhr Night Repair Face Cream from Blue Nectar has two hero ingredients Jasmine and Patchouli, which give it its irresistibility and a heavenly fragrance. It is comprised of natural ingredients like almonds (for essential vitamins), turmeric (for anti-bacterial properties), desi ghee obtained from cow’s milk (for making the skin supple), and kokum (it’s not just a cool fruit local to Goa; helps the skin to regenerate effectively).

Sorry to disappoint you folks, but the Advanced Sanjeevani Beauty Elixir sadly does not have sanjeevani “booty” in it (pun intended for all my mythology fans here)! What it does have, is the goodness of glycerin (a cherished natural humectant), kokum butter (making another promising exotic appearance), sweet almond oil (for an unparalleled glow), and aloe vera (for its soothing properties). If that doesn’t scream nourishment and hydration, I don’t know what does!

Special Features: Shubhr Night Repair Cream, as the name suggests is intended for usage during nighttime. It is gentle on the skin and most effective when used right before sleeping as it slowly penetrates all the layers of the skin when your body rests. 

Advanced Sanjeevani Beauty Elixir poses to be the secret to eternal beauty. It has a gel-like consistency, not something you’d see in an average, everyday cream. It also triples up as a pre-moisturizer as well as a smoothing make-up primer (we love a good multi-functional product in this house!)

Target Audience: Both skincare products mentioned function as repairing face creams, and are practically blessings for people suffering from blemishes, acne, fine lines, wrinkles, dry patches, bumps, rashes, and basically any other kind of skin-cell damage.

Affordability: Both products function similarly but have different compositions and ingredients.

You can purchase Blue Nectar’s Shubhr Nourishing Night Repair Face Cream for Rs. 1,095 and you get 50 grams of the product. 30 grams of Forest Essentials’ Advanced Sanjeevani Beauty Elixir can be bought for Rs. 3,975.

The latter evidently is approximately 4 times more expensive than the former but whether or not it is worth it, is your call to take! 

5. Exfoliating Scrub

For me, an exfoliating scrub is that one skincare product that is very difficult to get right. You could either hit a jackpot or land yourself into something that will punish your skin for months. There’s really no in-between. This is why I’ve narrowed down a total of two following scrubs that derive their efficiency from the knowledge pot of Ayurveda and work divinely without harming your skin.

• Blue Nectar’s Shubhr Ayurvedic Kumkumadi Brightening & Anti-Aging Face Scrub
• Forest Essentials’ Deeply Nourishing Facial Cleansing Paste

Ingredients: Shubhr Ayurvedic Kumkumadi Scrub is enriched with ingredients like Roses, sunflowers, sandalwood, saffron, grapes, aloe vera, and oils such as olive oil, sesame oil, coconut oil, kumkumadi oil, and almond oil.

Deeply Nourishing Facial Cleansing Paste has much-adored ingredients like honey, turmeric paste, shea butter, and pistachios, all of which come together to form an extremely gentle on the skin concoction that remains unparalleled.

Special Features: Shubhr Ayurvedic Kumkumadi Scrub claims to do more than the traditional exfoliator. It functions as an excellent de-tan or tan-removal method for all those days you stepped in the sun. It is also a great option for people with dry skin, who generally avoid exfoliating because of all the nourishing oils it has. 

The Forest Essentials’ Cleansing Paste has a very unique consistency that is much smoother and softer than its competitors. It may not do as good of a job in removing dead skin from the surface as its grainy-textured contemporaries but it is still one of the best ones out there in the game.

Target Audience: Both skincare brands do not have specific target groups and claim that their products work for anyone wanting to exfoliate their skin.

Affordability:  Blue Nectar’s Shubhr Ayurvedic Kumkumadi Brightening & Anti-Aging Face Scrub retails at Rs. 775 for 50 grams of the product. For the same amount of product, Forest Essentials’ Deeply Nourishing Facial Cleansing Paste retails at Rs. 2,950.

Again, the latter hails on the pricier side and may not be affordable to some or suitable for everyone out there but there’s no doubt that it works!

6. Face Mask

All of us need a good face mask every now then, whatever it may be for. I truly believe that a fun maskin session can help you manage just about any stressor in life while removing tan and pampering your skin. Masks or packs are just so versatile! You can use them as a way to unwind on a weekend or apply a layer of either of the following two masks (that I’ve curated with you in mind) after a long, tiring day at work to prepare for the next day.

• Blue Nectar’s Shubhr Turmeric Star Anise Ubtan Face Pack & Mask For Glowing Skin & Tan Removal (wow that’s a mouthful)
• Forest Essentials’ Facial Ubtan Soundarya

Ingredients: Both products derive their principal ingredients from Ubtan, a type of DIY homemade mask that has been prepared by grandmothers in Indian households for centuries.

Shubhr Ubtan Face Mask has as its core ingredients, skincare’s holy grails like Multani mitti (treats acne and pigmentation) and turmeric (brightens the skin and adds a natural glow) along with underdogs like star anise (reduces wrinkles and tightens the skin) and lodhra powder (reduces dark spots).

The Forest Essentials Soundarya Facial Ubtan is an exfoliating treatment cum mask/pack prepared with hand-pounded herbs including Fennel Seeds, Star Anise (making a reappearance), Fenugreek, Saffron, and Lemon Peel. It also houses the goodness of ingredients such as neem leaves (known for their antibacterial properties), turmeric (our hero from the former product), and roses (hydrates the skin, thus diminishing the appearance of fine lines). Soundarya Facial Ubtan claims to deeply cleanse and illuminate the skin.

Special Features: Blue Nectar, like most of its products, houses a high herb quotient in its version of the ubtan face mask. The brand uses a unique blend of 9 different herbs and does a rather swell job of removing acne scars better than any product I’ve seen so far. Another fun fact about this ubtan is that it can double up as a scrub when you need it to, how convenient!

Similar in function and powder-like consistency, The Ubtan from Forest Essentials is fantastic at the task of stimulating the underlying tissues of the skin, giving it a smoother and more radiant finish.

Target Audience: The Ubtan Face Packs from both brands are formulated for all skin types and perform as promised.

Affordability: Blue Nectar’s Shubhr Ubtan Face Pack retails at Rs. 575 for 100 grams of the product whereas Forest Essentials’ Facial Ubtan Soundarya retails at Rs. 1,175 for 80 grams of the product. Though the price difference isn’t as big as it has been for some of the other products, you still end up paying almost twice as much for a lesser amount of product when you purchase the latter.

Final Verdict

• Okay so here’s the thing, there’s no true way of finding out which skincare product or brand works out better for you unless you try them both personally. It may be tough on your pocket but that is sadly perhaps the most effective way of choosing your winner. Another way is to go with what I’ve managed to mention in this blog. Here’s the gist of the conclusion I’ve come to:
• Both brands signify the epitome of luxury and make you feel as though you’re no less than royalty.
• Packaging-wise, Forest essentials has been dominating the brand game for a while but Blue Nectar puts up a tough fight. Both brands offer beautifully crafted products that are visually appealing.
• Both brands offer pure and natural products. Their brandings revolve around being chemical-free.
• Forest Essentials slightly trumps Blue Nectar because of its packaging. Their products are eco-friendly and more often come in solid, reusable glass jars. However, Blue Nectar is certainly an eco-conscious brand that offers its products in recyclable plastic containers.
• Forest Essentials claims to bring a luxurious quality to Ayurvedic knowledge while Blue Nectar’s Ayurvedic applications are aimed at being more contemporary.
• Blue Nectar is without a doubt, the more economical brand. Products offered by both companies have similar claims and similar functions (their effectiveness and worthiness is rather subjective and depends entirely on the user), why then should one be more expensive than the other by that great a difference, food for thought, I suppose.

The concept of Ayurvedic beauty has taken the world by storm and it doesn’t seem to stop or slow down anytime soon. The only thing you can do is make a conscious and fun ride out of it!