New Ayurvedic Brand Vira Blends Body Care And Sexual Wellness

While sexual wellness brands continue to struggle at prestige beauty retail, body care is booming. Vira is melding the two to succeed.

Launched last week, the Ayurvedic brand that describes its focus as “sensual wellness” is starting with five luxury body care and wellness products priced from $26 to $44: multi-use body oil Nectar, warming arousal oil Ember, natural lubricant Bloom and sex serum Monsoon. The formulas feature ingredients such as turmeric, marigold, coconut oil and aloe. Out of the gate, Ember was a finalist and Dew won third place in the 2026 Sexual Wellness Awards. Vira sells on its own website and is slated to launch on Amazon soon.

Founder Shruti Viradia, a first-generation Indian American, began diving deep into Ayurveda in her early 30s in search of balance amid her bustling professional life in New York City. In 2022, she became a certified Ayurvedic health coach after completing a 300-hour program. She also completed an Ayurvedic cosmetology course, which motivated her to start whipping up body oils and lotions at home for friends and family.

Viradia’s exploration of Ayurveda led the entrepreneur to examine her sexuality, a first for her. “I grew up in a South Asian household, very conservative,” she says. “We never really talked about sex, self-care or mental health. So, I really never discovered anything about myself in those aspects of my life.”

Viradia tried traditional sexual wellness products, only to find herself dealing with bouts of bacterial vaginosis and yeast infections. Interested in alternatives, she began formulating clean lubricant in her kitchen alongside face creams and body oils. When her creations received rave reviews from friends, it gave her the confidence to develop Vira. “That was the inspiration, let me think about bringing this to the world.”

Viradia, who has worked in merchandise planning across brands and retail, estimates she has spent about $500,000 of her own money to launch Vira, funding product development, formulation and initial inventory without outside investment. To set Vira apart from the sea of mass-market sexual wellness brands that don’t emphasize clean ingredients, she sought to ensure every aspect of the brand felt sophisticated. The packaging is simple but luxe, with a subtle color palette that doesn’t scream sex.

“If I had this out on my nightstand, I wouldn’t be embarrassed,” she says. “I wanted to keep it very elevated, elegant. Our prices reflect that.”

Vira’s elevated approach resulted in pricing noticeably higher than mass-market brands like Astroglide, a trade-off Viradia is comfortable with. Its prices fall slightly below other considered premium intimate brands like Naomi Watts’ Stripes Beauty, though Vira’s lubricants are priced slightly higher than those by the brand Playground.

The global body care products market is valued at around $82 billion and is forecast to exceed $104 billion by 2031, expanding at an annual growth rate near 5%, according to Mordor Intelligence. By comparison, the global sexual wellness products market was valued at about $26.8 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach nearly $52.8 billion by 2034, advancing at a compound annual growth rate of roughly 7.9%, according to Fortune Business Insights, even as the category has faced an uneven path at prestige beauty retail.

At prestige beauty retailers such as Sephora, which has exited sexual wellness, store staff aren’t always well versed in sexual wellness and shoppers don’t typically come looking for sexual wellness products. Vira’s decision to initially concentrate on direct-to-consumer sales and Amazon reflects the tricky retail landscape for brands in the category and allows the brand to pinpoint consumers and study shopping behavior, informing a future retail strategy once the brand is more established.

As for her not-so-sex-positive family, Viradia reports they’ve responded encouragingly to her helming a sensual care brand. “It was a very interesting conversation to begin with, saying, ‘I’m going to start this brand. It’s about sex and sensuality,’” she says. “They’ve been supportive and really, really great partners.”