If you haven’t heard of Gajen Chandra by now then you must have missed the TikTok boom of the pandemic years. Through the short-form video platform, Gajen first started gaining a following through his comedic videos. Now, fast forward a few years later, and this young talent is quickly growing into one of the country’s most-sought-after content creators.

Aside from his career in content, Gajen is also an entrepreneur and brand owner through Chandra Skin, his foray into the world of skincare which he’s very passionate about. “It’s still quite new so if I were to introduce myself, I wouldn’t lead with Chandra Skin. But it’s a passion project for now,” he explains, and one that he plans to expand slowly but surely over the coming months.

Expressing creativity, authentically

Gajen’s big break came during the COVID-19 lockdown. Like all of us were, he found himself stuck inside with not many options available for expressing himself. So Gajen took to TikTok with short skits and slice of life content. From relatable POV videos and tongue-in-cheek comedic takes to IYKYK inside jokes and NSFW-themed skits, his content runs a wide gamut of topics.

“I guess I never really had a niche, because I just made random videos of the stuff that I go through in my daily life. I guess they are quite relatable to others – but honestly they are kind of unhinged too which I think we all were during that time,” Gajen starts, reflecting on what it is he thinks strikes a chord with his audience. “At that point in the early days of TikTok, the threshold [for gaining attention] was much lower too, and even just doing something slightly unhinged would make you stand out.”

But now, the platform is a completely different ballpark from what Gajen started with, explaining that the algorithm changes constantly. “To be honest, I don’t really plan my content or my direction. I sort of go with the flow, taking advantage of whatever happens in the moment or what’s trendy at the time,” he explains.

And though keeping up with the trends is key to staying on top of the game, Gajen maintains his sense of self through it all, putting a strong focus on originality and authenticity. “I think creativity is to be original. You can take inspiration [from others] but it’s in knowing how to make it your own and make it unique – while also staying relatable,” he explains.

As a full-time content creator signed with Aspect Ratio Studios, Gajen is still navigating his way through his career, taking it one day at a time. He’s been putting more focus into Instagram too, balancing out his video shorts with lifestyle and fashion content to meet the brands where they are.

The content creator to entrepreneur pipeline

Earlier this year, Gajen took a leap into a new entrepreneurship journey after launching Chandra Skin. The label debuted with its first (and currently only) product, the Dewy Lip Butter in the universal shade Flushed. “I’ve always been into skincare, although I’m not a beauty influencer,” Gajen starts, explaining that his sensitive skin prohibits him from trying out many products like beauty influencers are expected to do.

He continues, “But I am quite passionate about skincare, and specifically lip care because I had really bad acne growing up and going on Accutane dried out my lips completely. In those years, I think I got addicted to lip balms – and I knew that my first product would have to be a lip product.”

Gajen is taking things slow with Chandra Skin and taking his time to really understand the market before expanding into more. “I’ve always been into fashion and beauty, and I actually had a clothing brand last time…which flopped,” he says with a laugh. He’s taking about Stimul8 Apparel, a graphic-based (yes, Gajen also does graphic design) clothing venture that started from a friend’s suggestion to print his designs on t-shirts.

“I always wanted to own a clothing brand, but I think the whole thing was just wrong timing and wrong era. The hypebeast trend died down and people moved into more minimalist style, and over time I just lost passion,” Gajen tells us. “I feel like I took a lot of risks with my clothing brand, and then a lot of them didn’t work out, so I’m playing it safe [with Chandra Skin].”

When asked if the “content creator-to-entrepreneur pipeline” exists, his answer came almost instantly. “Yes, I think it does. I feel like everyone should branch out and do other things. I think realistically, you can’t be creating content or stay relevant forever,” he answers honestly. “There’s also a stigma on influencer-owned brands but I don’t see what’s wrong with it. It’s good that people are trying to do more,” he states.

Building Chandra Skin one step at a time

Despite the young age of his brand, Gajen has already learnt quite a bit through the journey so far. From challenges that come from just the scale of running a small business that forces compromise to choosing where to put his feet down in delivering a quality product.

“I’m quite proud of the product itself. I’m still working on improving it for the next launch, but the formula and the R&D for it took a very long time and that’s something I’d say we did successfully,” he explains.

“At this point, I think I’m still figuring out the edge. Initially I wanted to create products that will be inclusive to darker skin tones, but that’s not yet strong enough because there’s only one shade,” he goes on to say. Though there is a second (brown) shade in the works, there’s definitely still room for Chandra Skin to prove itself in the fast-paced beauty market – and Gajen is working his way there.

“But what I’m very grateful for is that people in the industry have been very supportive, especially other business owners. Maybe they understand the struggle, but it’s really been nice to have supportive people around me.”

Gajen is able to take these lessons in his stride, but what came as a surprise to him is how challenging it would be to create content for his brand. “I don’t know why I expected it to be easier. Maybe because I am a content creator myself, and because I’m doing it on my own right now, it’s been hard to come up with ideas on top of creating my own personal content too. Like I understand now why brands have content creators to do this for them,” he reflects with a laugh.

The next step for this Next Gen icon

Though his immaculate vibes, unmissable tattoos, and sense of style are easy surface-level points of difference between Gajen and other young content creators, it took him a while to find his answer to what it is that truly sets him apart. “Honestly, other influencers have a niche that they create around, but I don’t have that. What I put out on social media is just who I am, what I put out is my personality,” he answers.

“I see myself as ‘just Gajen’, and what you see are all the different aspects of me. I’m interested in skincare, fashion also, and even starting my own brand. I can do things, and that’s part of the whole package,” he says.

In a way, Gajen chooses to stay true to himself in whatever he does, allowing himself the space and freedom to do everything and anything that aligns with his interests. And in doing that, he’s able to grow in a way that’s authentic to him.

As a final word, he shared some lessons he’s learnt in his unconventional career path so far. “First, it’s going to sound so cliché but, it’s to step out of your comfort zone. I held myself back a lot in the earlier days because I was scared, but until you take the risk and try you won’t grow,” he starts.

“Then, in terms of the business, it’s okay to fail and to learn from those failures. Most successful businesses, it’s never on the first try. And thirdly, in this content creation industry, it’s good to build connections with people. Creators support each other and it’s a community – something I really learnt when I launched my business,” Gajen summarises.

In terms of what comes next, Gajen’s honest answer is that he doesn’t know. “With my content, I just go with the flow and it’s always been that way since I never really had a specific goal for it. And for Chandra Skin, I would love to come out with more shades, but I’ll also go with the flow and see where the market takes me.”

Stay up to date with Gajen Chandra by following @gajenchandra on Instagram and TikTok. Stay tuned for more from Chandra Skin by following @chandra.skin.

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Photography by Imran Sulaiman.