Behind The Beauty with Arati Sharma
- Apr 29
- 8 min read
“What are you making?” I asked my dad as I entered the kitchen. The air was thick with a deep, nutty aroma that felt familiar, though I couldn’t quite place it.
“Ghee,” my dad smiled. I peered over the kadhai and sure enough, it was ghee alright — in all its beautifully gleaming, golden-hued glory. As we gathered around the table for dinner later that evening, I didn’t realize it then, but ghee — and its signature aroma — would go on to become one of the most defining anchors of my adult life.
For most Indians — whether in the motherland or elsewhere around the world — ghee is a ubiquitous part of our lives, so much so that we rarely pause to acknowledge the many benefits it has to offer. But for Toronto-based angel investor and entrepreneur Arati Sharma, it was at the heart of her life as the daughter of two immigrants growing up in a suburb of Brampton in the ‘90s. “Ghee and an Indian household go hand in hand, but Toronto then was nowhere close to what we associate with Canada now,” Sharma tells me. “We didn’t have all the big Indian grocery stores that we do now and ghee wasn’t readily available. I remember my mom, dadi and dad making ghee in bulk to make sure everyone had enough, including the rest of our family as well as our neighbours.”
Which is why when her brother, Varun Sharma, came to her with the idea to introduce ghee to skincare, she was instantly sold. “After spending over seven years at Shopify, I felt like I had seen every iteration of skincare brands,” says Sharma. “Ghee, however, hadn’t had its moment in the sun the way coconut oil or olive oil was experiencing. So, almost six years ago, we started the journey to bring ghee to topical use, with a shelf-stable formula, paired with complementary ingredients, and under the guidance of our lab partners. As for the ghee, my dad still makes it, but commercially now; he’s our quality control, constantly tinkering with the amount of time that it’s cooked for and perfecting the filtration process.”
It is exactly that slow, deliberate care that is mirrored in the intentionally unhurried way in which Ghlee approaches each new launch (six years in, the brand sells their bestselling ghee-based lip balms — the Chai is my favorite! — along with a lip masque, lip scrub and a muscle balm via their website). And with a recipe that comes straight from the Sharmas’ family kitchen, every new product drop is an extension of that lineage — an act of love, preservation and healing alchemized into a modern-day, heirloom-worthy beauty ritual.
What does a typical day in your life look like?
I’m a mom, wife, founder, lifelong student and investor, so I don’t have a typical day, but I try to schedule my week to make sure I’m doing all I can and not burning out. Sometimes I miss having a full-time job; none of that ever felt like a 9 to 5 but with ADHD, if I don’t have a plan for a week or even the month, my days all can blend. Freedom brings both flexibility and anguish for me!
My Mondays are my admin days. Tuesdays are in-person Ghlee days; I’d love to increase those in the future, but for now, it’s working well for us. Being pregnant, I stack any health or doctor’s appointments and work on our home renovation with my husband, our architect or interior designer (my husband and I are building a new home) on Wednesdays, since that is the day I don’t take any meetings. Then in the afternoons, I volunteer at my son’s school library. I haven’t been very active at his school, so I started the year with the goal of being involved in a small but meaningful way. I get to see him interacting with his classmates, visiting the library (something we love to do on weekends), and putting in some much-needed face time at the school. Thursdays and Fridays are reserved for Ghlee heads-down work, followed by meetings and coffees with founders building great companies. It energizes me to meet with people building across many different industries. Weekends are filled with seeing friends and family, downtown with just the three of us, maybe a date night here and there, and usually a bit of time to clean and organize my life.
The one thing I do every day is cook a meal. Either it’s my son’s lunch in the morning or dinner if we don’t have anything planned. Cooking calms me; it’s one of the few things in my life that has a short beginning, middle, and end. And you get to enjoy the fruits of your labour right away!
What does your skincare routine look like? Would you consider yourself to be a beauty maximalist or a minimalist?
As I’m pregnant, I’ve cut down on almost all actives, other than Azelic Acid, Vitamin C, Hylauronic Acid, or Niacinamide. I’m constantly trying different cleansers — nothing beats a fresh, clean face — which I follow with a moisturizer, eye cream, sunscreen and lip balm. Some of my favourite skincare products are the Paula’s Choice Azelic Acid, Skinceuticals’ C E Ferulic Serum and the Elta MD Tinted Sunscreen (Live Tinted makes a pretty great one too!). Sahajan’s Essential Oil Cleanser and the Elemis Cleansing Balm are my go-tos for makeup removal, which I follow up with one of CeraVe’s cleansers. I am also obsessed with the Ranavat Brightening Saffron Serum as well; it’s more of an oil, which is great as it’s getting colder in Toronto. Peter Thomas Roth Hyaluronic Cloud Cream is my go-to moisturizer and for my eye cream, I usually use whatever I have, like the Caudalie one I was recently gifted (which I’m going to finish before trying a new one).
And then, of course, I go for Ghlee’s Lip Mask at night and the Lip Balm (in mango-papaya, especially, possibly because I’m craving so much fruit while pregnant) during the day. I’ve also tried every belly balm on the market, I just need my brother to make a ghee-based one, and I’ll probably swim in it. I’m not one for simple skincare routine (as you can probably tell by now); I try everything and then skin-cycle so I’m not overdoing it with the actives. I definitely do my research and spend time learning about what to use for my skin type and where I am in life currently, though, and especially with pregnancy, I’m trying to keep it simple. Please consult your doctor or ChatGPT or whatever you use for pregnancy info before trying something out!
The last product (not yours) that you really liked, and why.
This is the hardest question! I love so many brands and products, and am constantly trying them. I love Sidia (I’m an investor, yes), but the new solid perfume is so chic and usable.
What is your earliest memory of ghee, and do you remember the first time someone in your family used it as a form of beauty? Who was that someone and what stayed with you from that moment?
Memories of my family and ghee go hand-in-hand — I distinctly remember my grandmother’s hands, which she massaged ghee into after cooking. One of my most vivid memories of ghee is with my dad, who made me simple dal and ghee to try to convince me to eat (I was a tiny, scrawny kid). And my mom, our OG beauty influencer, who used ghee and other simple ingredients from the kitchen to make different masks and remedies. She’s also the ultimate balance of homemade and store-bought, though, because she was taking me to the Clinique counter and prioritizing buying great quality skincare long before it was cool.
What is a beauty ritual that you shared with your family while growing up?
Masks! My mom loves masking, and growing up we would all mask together. Both my brothers got married last year and it was hilarious how all of us were running around the house with our face masks on — including the men!
Why did you and your brother decide to create this brand? What are some core tenets from that story that you would always want to stick to as you grow the brand?It was my brother’s idea! I had reached a point where I felt I had seen all the skincare on the market and even though there’s a brand launching everyday, we didn’t see ghee being used topically like we were seeing with olive oil, coconut oil, and other fats. I knew I had to back him and join him on the journey. Our core tenets bridge our heritage and family traditions with the modern day world; we don’t shy away from skincare and new ingredients, but we do also want to marry them with age-old and time-tested wisdom.
Some of our guiding principles as the first ghee-based skincare brand include our rootedness in South Asian culture and Ayurvedic practices, bringing this centuries-old fat to the market in an easy-to-use way, modernizing “ghee on the go” as we like to say in our office, the focus and care that we invest in our products and the formulation process and prioritizing using ghee where it’s going to help the most. That’s why you may not see us doing full-face launches in the future or force-fitting actives into ghee, and focusing instead on ointments, like our muscle balm launch. Our user testers have told us they use our lip balm on their cuticles, elbows, and other areas, as well, which is great because it fits exactly into our mission of what we want to do with ghee.
Your beauty philosophy in three words.
Intentional. Ancestral. Effortless.
How do you honor your roots and your culture without leaning too much into the stereotypes that surround it? And how does that translate into your work as co-founder at Ghlee?
For me, it’s about the nuance — showing the depth of our culture beyond the obvious examples. At Ghlee, we don’t over-explain or exoticize ghee, we let it speak for itself. We also share stories and ingredients with context, modern design and care — not through the lens of trend, but through one of legacy.
Take, for example, our chai lip balm: it’s not necessarily the syrupy chai flavour that you’ll see in a lot of chai products, and it doesn’t have even a hint of synthetic fragrance. It’s intentionally and painstakingly developed to mimic a cup of chai through numerous rounds of samples and collaboration with Varun and our lab. We used clove oil, cardamom seed oil, cinnamon bark oil and other ingredients that you are more likely to find in your mom’s cha (as us Punjabis say,) than what you’ll find in a trendy coffee shop!
We’re also lucky to have been brought up in Canada; unlike other diaspora communities, we live in a rich, multicultural area. Your identity isn’t a melting pot but a mosaic, and even though immigration has changed, being Indian or South Asian isn’t a significant discovery for me, at least. It’s just something we are alongside any of the other things that make me, me.
What’s in your current ‘five-minute face’ and which lip look are you going for the most lately?
My five-minute face usually includes a tinted moisturizer, concealer, brow gel, blush and a lip balm, often our Mango-Papaya or the Mint. If I’m going for a lip, I’ll usually add a brown liner with a mauve lip oil or gloss on top! Lately, I’ve been leaning into a soft glossy look, something that feels fresh but easy. The Saie Blush in Ciao is perfect on my brown skin, and I can’t get enough of the Kulfi concealer!
A beauty belief that you’ve changed your mind about recently.
That more steps mean better skin. I’ve learned that consistency and simplicity are far more powerful, and that your skin reflects how you live, not just what you apply.
A dream brand collab or fragrance profile for Ghlee that you would love to create.I’ve always been the biggest fan of D.S. & Durga! Fragrance-wise, I imagine something warm and familiar — notes of cardamom, sandalwood, and honey. Soft, nostalgic and still beautifully elevated.
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