Our story

A five-year-old in a hospital bed made the thing nobody would make for her

Aarti and Yana Solanki - mother and daughter, and the whole of Yani Beauty.

Yana is Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2026 at the Local Hero Awards, and an ambassador for We Can Be and New Young Blood. Yani Beauty was Highly Commended for Beauty & Wellness at the SHE Awards 2026, and winner of a Prestige Award 2025 for Natural Skincare in the Midlands region.

How one question became a brand

The hospital stay
"Mummy, can we make our own lip balms?"
Dry ward air left five-year-old Yana's lips cracked and bleeding, and every balm they tried made it worse.
The first batch
Plain Jane is born
Armed with a tutorial called Lip Balms 101, Yana and Aarti researched gentle ingredients and hand-poured their first vegan balm. It worked.
The range grows
From one balm to skincare
Plain Jane became six flavours, then Aarti's own reactive skin pushed the pair into jojoba cleansing oil, glow serum and hemp balm.
Today
Awards and ambassadorship
Yana is an ambassador for We Can Be and for New Young Blood, the UK platform championing young British Asian talent, and was named Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the Local Hero Awards 2026. Yani Beauty was Highly Commended for Beauty & Wellness at the SHE Awards 2026 and won a Prestige Award 2025 for Natural Skincare in the Midlands region.

Aarti and Yana Solanki making Yani Beauty balms and serums together at a wooden table

When Yana was admitted to hospital, the dry ward air left her lips cracked and bleeding. Every balm they tried made it worse - too harsh, too full of things none of us can pronounce, or simply useless.

So she asked the question this whole business is built on: "Mummy, can we make our own lip balms?" Aarti admits she laughed it off at first - neither of them knew the first thing about formulating anything. Then Yana turned up with a tutorial called "Lip Balms 101", and it was clear she meant it.

They researched gentle, natural ingredients together and handcrafted their very first balm: Plain Jane. It worked. Her lips healed, and a five-year-old had solved her own problem - which, as her mentors at We Can Be put it, is more than most grown-ups manage.

From one balm to a range

Plain Jane became a family of varieties, followed by a jojoba cleansing oil, Glow Serum and two hemp balms. Yana is an ambassador for the We Can Be programme, a UK initiative that helps children and teenagers explore entrepreneurship, and for New Young Blood, the platform celebrating young British Asian talent in business, sport, music and the arts.

What is We Can Be?

We Can Be is a UK entrepreneurship programme for children and teenagers aged 6-18. It helps young people explore business ideas and practical enterprise skills.

Visit wecanbe.co.uk

What is New Young Blood?

New Young Blood is a UK platform founded in 2024 that celebrates and supports young British Asian talent aged 6-21 across business, sport, music, TV and the arts. It runs mentoring, events, workshops and online spotlight series that put young role models in front of their peers.

Follow @wearenewyoungblood

What we stand for

Waterless formulations wherever the product allows it.
Vegan lip balms, jojoba cleansing oil and Glow Serum. The hemp balms contain beeswax.
Sustainability taken seriously, in packaging and in batch sizes.
Every INCI list printed on the product page, never hidden behind a tab.
Encouraging the next generation to make things - Yana is proof it works.

Nothing is contract-manufactured. Every batch is mixed, poured, cooled and labelled by hand in the East Midlands, in runs small enough that we know which afternoon your jar was made on.