The magic of haircare brand CMPRESSD Beauty came from "necessity... and a little chemistry."
Founded by Ramya Viswanathan — a cosmetic chemist, frequent traveler, and sustainability devotee — CMPRESSD offers plastic-free, solid haircare that feels luxurious to the touch, designed to follow you wherever life takes you. Fortifying, elegant, and clean, CMPRESSD is proof that luxury and sustainability never have to be at odds.
For Behind the Curtain, Viswanathan tells us about the rituals that sustain her, building CMPRESSD, and the Gntl things she does for herself, every day.
What does your go-to shower ritual look like?
I’m a twice daily showerer! My morning shower is quick and simple, and is my cool down after my morning walk. My evening shower is my pre-bedtime unwind. I use a physical exfoliant a couple of times a week. After using a body wash, I switch between using a sugar scrub and sometimes I’ll make a salt scrub with fine himalayan pink salt, a little bit of melted coconut oil and a few drops of lavender. It feels incredibly relaxing.
What’s the one product you swear by and why?
I have a product I swear by for every category and we can start with body care. The Skin Wash is a new addition and I absolutely love the scent. It’s so fresh and clean without feeling overwhelming. I also love that it rinses clean. Twice a week, I use the Biossance Lactic Acid Resurfacing Night Serum. I know it’s a face product, but it does wonders as a body product. My skin leans dry, and I used to have scaly, alligator skin. This serum exfoliates and moisturizes at the same time and I’ve noticed a huge difference in how even my skin feels.
Pull back the curtain for us... what moment or spark set you on the path to creating what you’re building now?
When it comes to hair concerns, people often feel like they need to use more products without actually addressing the root cause of said concerns. As someone who’s had to formulate and develop products for hair care brands, I’ve had to test a lot of different products at once. This is when my hair became its absolute worst. I turned to my old formulation books from the 80s and 90s, and even thinking back to my early days as a bench chemist, I remembered that shampoo (and other product categories for that matter) don’t need 50+ ingredients. A handful of functional ingredients actually do the heavy lifting. I applied this philosophy to shampoo when I created the Hyaluronic+ Solid Shampoo Bar. I was able to create a unique, single pass surfactant system that deeply cleanses the scalp on the first wash without drying hair out. As a result, double shampooing isn’t necessary. I started giving out early samples of the bars to people to try, and the feedback was incredible. People were noticing less shedding, less buildup (many people think they have dandruff when it’s actually a form of buildup from certain products they’re using) and a general improvement in the overall condition of their hair. I contemplated starting a brand back in 2021, and chickened out because I was afraid of leaving the steadiness of my full time job. I couldn’t stop daydreaming about turning CMPRESSD Beauty into a reality and finally decided to go for it, beginning all of the branding work a couple of years later.
What’s something most people don’t see about the work that goes into your brand?
Sometimes, the efforts take consistency and time to see results. We live in a time that is so focused on instant gratification and fast growth without actually recognizing how unsustainable that can be. I’ve trained myself to keep going and treat my business as a marathon instead of a sprint.
Tell us one Gntl thing you do for yourself.
I give myself time in the morning to sit down and enjoy my breakfast and coffee undisturbed. I don’t enjoy multitasking every minute of the day, and when I start my day with this ritual, it keeps me in a calm state to handle what’s to come.
