The Quality Makers: Siffat Haider of Arrae

Let's talk about Arrae. 

“I got really interested in health and wellness in my early 20s. I had fractured a rib from a chronic cough after dealing with a poor immune system my entire life. When I went to the doctor, they just sent me home with codeine and no real life plan to make sure something like that doesn’t happen again. That experience got me interested in a more holistic approach to health, because up until that point, I'd gone with the antibiotic approach. But I’d been doing that bandaid thing forever, and I knew there was no long term solution through antibiotics, so eventually, I became interested in herbs, minerals and vitamins.

I started to read as much as I could, and began to ‘guinea pig’ on myself with different ingredients. I saw huge changes in my own immune system. I continued experimenting with herbs, minerals, vitamins, and using them for other concerns I had, like digestive issues, sleep problems, anxiety, and more. When I'd hang out with my friends or be in social settings with other women, bloating would constantly come up. 

That gave me the idea to create supplements that are very solution oriented, but also look really beautiful, and are exciting to use, so that they would no longer be shoved to the back of your pantry. I wanted to bring the skin care experience into the supplement category. And at that point, it hadn't been done before. So I was sitting on the couch one day, and I was telling my husband, Nish, my ideas. I told him I think we would do such a good job working on this together, and he said, “let’s do it.” That was how Arrae was born, and we've been off to the races ever since.

Where does the name Arrae come from?

“We wanted to solve an array of problems, and our take was to spell Arrae with an E instead of a Y. But the name also plays homage to both Nish and I. Nish comes from a software development background, and array is something that basically holds data points. So initially, when we launched the brand, our branding was with two square brackets on the outside and two quotation marks, which is an array in computer science terms. Then, our submark had rays because the thought was that I'm a very sunny person, so we included a ray of sunshine.” 

What was the product that you launched with? 

“We launched the brand with Bloat and Calm, and the reason was because everyone would talk constantly about being either bloated or anxious. I realized that the two issues are pretty intrinsically linked, because when we are anxious, our body goes into fight or flight mode, which throws off our digestion. 

That’s why, when people go through periods of high stress, they have more digestive distress. Vice versa, when you are bloated or you're dealing with any sort of digestive distress, we have to think about the amount of mental real estate that that takes up. It’s only natural for us to then feel anxious. Struggling with either or both of these issues, you feel like you can't fully show up to any other facet of your life. That’s why we launched the brand with both of those products.”

Where does your knowledge come from, in terms of what herbs, minerals and vitamins to include in the supplements?

“When we launched, we worked with a doctor who is a very good friend of mine. She was the one who helped us with the formulation for Bloat and Calm. Since then, we’ve put together a full R&D team in house, a group of 4 people who really look into the science behind every ingredient. It’s a very, very extensive process.”

What kind of feedback have you gotten from your Arrae community?

“Bloat was immediately the best seller. It really took the world by storm. It was also during a time where everyone was at home, eating in a way they weren't used to. The state of things in 2020 also led to the virality of the product. The best part of Bloat is that you take it, and you feel the impact immediately, in under an hour. You feel good right away, and it takes people away from the typical, chemically laden, over the counter medications that they would otherwise take. You take Bloat, you feel debloated, you take the probiotic, your gut heals over time. 

Our reviews are unbelievable. The stories I’ve heard through our MB-1 users, from people who are postpartum to people who've come off ozempic and decided to go for a more natural solution, show that our products do what they say they do, and that's because of the science that goes into each of them.

I've known for a long time that herbs have an impact on our overall wellness. But I’m also a very logical, science-minded person, so to see that these ancient modalities have so much science behind them, and getting to bring light to that science, has been a really fascinating experience for me.”

Where does your inspiration come from in terms of product creation?

“We're constantly chatting with our community to try and understand where the gaps exist. I believe that a good brand always listens to their customers to understand what they can do to make their lives better. The other thing is trend forecasting, which is a lot of my job. 

I consume everything health and wellness to see what the emerging trends are. What are people starting to talk about in the scientific communities that's also hitting the mainstream? We then triangulate those results with data. We look into search words, how things are doing on Amazon, if there's an uptick in certain ingredients and why that might be, etc. We go to a lot of conferences to understand what the up and coming trends are. I would say it's an amalgamation of all of those things that lead us to decide on what product to come up with next.”

Tell me about the different products you offer.

“Earlier this year, we launched Tone, which is a gummy that was formulated specifically to address the issues that women have with creatine. We have ginger root in there to help with digestion, because oftentimes creatine can be something that is bloating or more difficult to digest for women. That was a complaint that we would hear constantly. We also have a postbiotic in there that helps with body composition. The other concern we kept hearing was: ‘If I take creatine, will I get bulky?’

I actually started to take creatine a few years ago, and was blown away by the impact it had on me. I then, obviously, went deep into the scientific literature around creatine – understanding all the cognitive benefits, how important it is for helping retain muscle, especially as people start to get older, etc. I realized that women who were taking creatine were going on and off it, or some were even too scared to start. But creatine is an incredible supplement that everyone should be taking. So the goal was to address the issues that women were facing and make it more palatable. I'm so proud of this product.

We also have our Tribiotic, which we released late last year. It's a pre, pro and postbiotic all in one, and it has immunoglobulin as well, which is an amazing toxin remover. It's a super powerful product that helps with gut, vaginal and immune health. Just a couple of months ago, we launched our Clear Protein+, which is essentially a protein collagen and electrolyte blend that you can easily mix into water. It’s a simple way to supercharge your water. And last but not least we have our MB-1, Bloat, Calm, Sleep, Magnesium and Constipation.”

When people engage with your brand, what do you intend for them to take away from it?

“Our goal is to always be the best in the world, with whatever we touch. We need to know we’re doing something that's entirely different, that hasn't been done before, or that we're doing it better than anything that already exists in the market. I am not someone who monitors what other people are doing, truthfully, because I think that there's a lot of space for everyone to come in with their own, unique voice. 

When people engage with our brand, two things happen. Number one, they actually find the solutions to the problems they’ve been wanting to fix. That's our goal, always, to develop and deliver the best possible products we can. 

Number two, builds off our one liner: targeted solutions for life's unsexy problems. When we launched, being bloated wasn't something that people openly talked about. That happened after we came into the space. I like to think we had even the smallest hand to play in making it less taboo to talk about these very common problems. But common doesn’t mean that something should be normalized - we should want to feel better, and we shouldn't let these little problems take up a lot of space in our lives, because then it stops us from showing up as our best selves for everything else. The overall goal really is to actively come up with solutions in cheeky and exciting ways.” 

Make your everyday problems sexy by trying the best and smartest Arrae of supplement solutions.