Kartika Herbal Beauty Parlour

Our shop is at Shop No 1 on Kiran Path in Mansarovar, right across from the Power House. Being in Jaipur, it gets quite hot, so the shop is a bit of a relief from the sun for the women who come by. We call ourselves a herbal beauty parlour because we use a lot of those kinds of products, but we keep things very simple. There’s no big fancy machinery here. It’s mostly just us using our hands and the basic tools we’ve had for years. The space isn’t very large, but we’ve tucked in everything we need to do hair and skin work. The walls are painted a light color that’s started to fade a bit near the door. We see a lot of local ladies who live in the surrounding lanes. They stop in while they are out for groceries or picking up kids. It’s a very informal place. You might see a cup of tea sitting on a counter or a stack of local magazines for people to read. We don’t have any big marketing plans; we just open the shutters in the morning and wait for the regulars to arrive. It can be a bit slow in the heat of the afternoon, but it picks up again once the sun starts to go down. We just do the work as it comes and try to make sure everyone feels okay when they leave. It’s just a normal neighborhood shop for the local community.