BioMuni.
India's rapidly growing clean, eco-friendly and personal-care sector is facing a new transparency reckoning. The conversation is being driven by #RevealWhatsInsideCompletely, a consumer transparency movement started by Nani, now 70, who started her entrepreneurial journey at the age of 65 as the founder of Ayurveda-inspired personal care brand BioMuni.
Taking a consumer-first stance, Nani is challenging a practice increasingly common across the modern D2C industry: the use of broad marketing descriptions that can leave consumers unclear about the individual ingredients contained in a finished product.
Terms such as "natural bio-enzymes," "plant-derived surfactants," and other umbrella descriptions may communicate a product's positioning but Nani argues that consumers deserve greater clarity about what those descriptions actually contain.
"If a product is marketed as safe, clean and better for my family, why shouldn't I be able to see exactly what is in it?" asks Nani, Founder of BioMuni. "As a grandmother and a founder, I believe consumers deserve to know what they are putting on their hair, skin and bodies, or using around their families. Consumers should not have to rely only on marketing language or brand assurances. If an ingredient is in the product, disclose it."
The debate gained significant public attention after home-care brand BECO launched its #WarOnWhatsHidden campaign encouraging consumers to question what is inside competing cleaning products.
Nani believes the question BECO has raised is an important one.
But she believes it should be applied consistently including to BECO itself.
"If we are asking established FMCG companies to reveal what is inside their products, then the same question has to be asked of every brand participating in the conversation including BECO itself," says Nani.
BECO's campaign asks consumers to question what may be hidden inside cleaning products. But when the same standard of scrutiny is applied to BECO's own product communication, as a consumer, questions remain.
BECO's packaging highlights "Coconut, Plant-Based Formula and 5 Natural Bio Enzymes" on the back, while the front refers to "Coconut-based surfactants," "Orange & Frangipani," towards bottom and "IFRA / Ecocert compliant ingredients" towards the top.
But what exactly do these descriptions tell a consumer?
Five Natural Bio-Enzymes - which five?
Coconut-based surfactants - which ones?
And if a label says "IFRA / Ecocert compliant ingredients," does it mean it applies to all the ingredients or some specific ones?
The transparency question becomes even more important when BECO's website acknowledges the use of preservatives, while this does not appear on the product label.
Surprisingly, somewhere on the BECO website, palm-based surfactants are also mentioned and on the product label it's just coconut based surfactants. This can be really confusing for a consumer. Why not have the complete list of ingredients at one place, on the product label itself? Or is the product label only highlighting the hero ingredients for marketing, while the consumer has to search across different places to understand what is actually inside the product?
If the brand is asking consumers to question what is hidden in other products, shouldn't the consumer also be able to find the complete ingredient information of the product being promoted as the transparent alternative clearly and in one place?
Nani says this is precisely where the distinction between selective transparency and complete transparency becomes important.
"BECO has asked consumers to question what is hidden in other products. That is a conversation I welcome. But transparency cannot be a standard that applies only when we are examining someone else's product. If we are asking consumers to look closely, then every brand should be willing to be looked at just as closely."
What Does the Scanning Test by BECO Actually Reveal?
BECO has also heavily promoted its scanning-based comparison as part of the conversation around hidden ingredients.
But Nani argues that consumers should distinguish between testing for the absence of one particular ingredient and revealing the complete contents of a product.
If the scan demonstrates that LAS is absent from BECO's dishwash and present in a competing dishwash, that may establish a difference between the two products.
But it does not by itself reveal everything that is present inside either bottle.
"Imagine a personal-care brand showing consumers a sulphate-free shampoo, then testing another major shampoo brand and saying, âLook, they have sulphates and we don't,'" says Nani. "Would that tell the consumer everything that is inside either shampoo? Of course not."
"The same principle should apply to dishwash liquids. Showing that one ingredient is absent from your product does not automatically tell consumers everything that is present. Absence of one ingredient is not disclosure of all ingredients."
According to Nani, this is the fundamental difference between selective transparency and complete transparency.
A campaign can demonstrate that a particular ingredient is present in one product and absent in another. But consumers seeking complete transparency are entitled to ask a much broader question:
What else is in the bottle?
"A test for one hidden ingredient is not a window into the entire bottle," says Nani.
Nani says #RevealWhatsInsideCompletely was created to take the conversation one step further.
"If we are going to ask consumers to question what is hidden, then let's go one step further and reveal what is actually inside completely," says Nani.
Nani believes the issue extends beyond BECO and its campaign. As India's D2C ecosystem increasingly builds brands around words such as clean, natural, sustainable, conscious and eco-friendly, consumers are being asked to place greater trust in the brands behind those claims.
Her argument is that this trust should be matched by transparency.
"The consumer deserves one standard," says Nani. "Whether a brand is large or small, traditional or new-age, if we are asking consumers to question what is hidden, we should also be willing to reveal what is inside our own products."
BioMuni says it has followed this principle from the beginning, starting with its Hard Water Shampoo and Face Wash and continuing it across its subsequent hair and skincare products.
The brand says consumers should not have to decode broad marketing terms or rely solely on brand assurances to understand what they are purchasing.
At BioMuni, the complete list of ingredients used in a product is mentioned together on the product label itself. The same complete ingredient information is also available on the BioMuni website www.biomuni.com
If transparency is important enough to demand from others, it should be important enough to practise yourself.
About BioMuni
BioMuni is an Ayurveda-inspired clean personal care and wellness brand built around a core philosophy of complete ingredient disclosure. The brand develops targeted products for modern consumer concerns including its Hard Water Shampoo and Face Wash, while providing consumers clear visibility into the ingredients used across its hair and skincare range.
