What goes inside you?

Founder Aruna Chawla says Salad does not use plastic packaging in an attempt to be an eco-conscious brand in every way. Pic/Nishad Alam

Aruna Chawla, 26, is building India's first homegrown brand of vegan condoms. "How I got to this point is worthy of a coming-of-age movie," the law school graduate quips over an email interaction.

When the Delhi-born realised she was not cut for the long, stressful hours that a career in law would demand, she worked her way out, with a stint as an arts and fashion lawyer at the UNESCO Chair of Cultural Policy, University of Hildesheim. Eventually, she was drawn into buyer psychology, which in a way helped her found her condom brand, Salad. "I work with e-commerce brands to help them understand how their shoppers make purchase decisions. Using the insights, we build long-term marketing and brand-building strategies."

While working on one such assignment, Chawla got thinking about India's condom market. She felt it lacked the punch of powerful marketing. "Have you looked closely at a box of condoms? You'll find no mention of ingredients. It goes inside the most intimate part of our body, and yet, we don't know what goes into making them. Because condoms are an essential medical commodity, brands aren't obligated to disclose this information. This did not sit right with me. I knew I wanted to learn more."

As she went down a Google rabbit hole and spoke to manufacturers across the country, she realised the harm of withholding this information. "Big businesses are neither incentivised to be transparent about this data, nor encouraged to innovate safer variants. All innovations in the market are pleasure-oriented. What about safety? And whose pleasure are we focusing on?" she asks, adding, "I knew a brand like Salad had to exist. We're transparent about our ingredients. Our box packaging has a QR code that will take you to our ingredients page on the website, full of helpful information."

Regular condoms mostly contain ingredients like nitrosamine, which is carcinogenic in nature, benzocaine, an anaesthetic linked to causing hormonal imbalance, and casein, which is a milk protein that can affect people with lactose intolerance. Chawla adds, "The challenge is that we don't even know what goes inside other regular condoms. Casein is an animal byproduct popularly used to help make rubber condoms smooth and thin. It is normally added to the liquid bath to soften the latex, so it becomes smooth and flexible. With Salad, we have employed upgraded technology to replace animal byproduct use with vegan alternatives."

Salad saw a soft launch across India last week. While Chawla agrees that vegan condom is not a new idea, she wished to put her weight behind it because it "doesn't harm animals or use their byproducts" and yet allows you to practice safe sex. "We still face shame and judgment when we go out to stores to exercise the choice to have safe sex; it's not easy buying a condom in India. The intimate wellness and hygiene industry is interesting for me from that perspective. The online world makes it safer. You can spend hours researching and learning about the product, compare alternatives, and get it delivered to your doorstep. Salad condom is where my passion for psychology-driven online shopping and a desire to create a world where safe sex is accepted and appreciated, came together."

Taking the nature-friendly approach one step forward, the condoms don't use plastic packaging. They come sealed with paper stickers, and the delivery is in plain unmarked, brown recycled paper boxes to ensure privacy and saving of paper.

They are currently taking only pre-orders for the approximately 10 bucks a pop product, but once they launch officially, they will be shipping two days a week to
maximise efficiency of fuel and other resources. Chawla explains that the condoms are all ultra-thin, at 0.58 microns, and do away with irritation and the abrasive sensation users have to usually put up with. They are also fragrance-free and have no artificial flavour.

Chawla says that 15 per cent of their profits are committed to enabling sex education in schools and colleges in India. "Our marketing strategy moves away from ‘let's have fun' to offering informed opinion and education resources. We run the largest Clubhouse group on sex education, and reach has grown entirely organically."