the pure lineage
The tradition was passed to you.
Passing it on should not be a risk.
Kajjala Black is a kajal made in Canada, developed with cosmetic scientists and formulated to minimize lead and heavy metal content and meet Canadian safety standards.
The problem
The label does not tell you
what is inside.
What you're sold
Traditional eye cosmetics sold in diaspora markets and online are often made with galena, a lead compound, and arrive with no verifiable compliance data. Lead-free claims are typically self-declared.
What that leaves you with
Something your family has used for generations, no way to know what is in it, and no better option to switch to.
Why warnings haven't worked
People do not abandon an inherited practice on the strength of an advisory. They need something to move to. We have developed one of the first verified safe alternatives.
A New York City Health Department investigation, published in the CDC's MMWR in 2024, traced lead poisoning across five members of one household to a single imported surma: 390,000 parts per million lead.
In 2025, Pure Earth tested 56 kohl, kajal, and surma products from online marketplaces. Twenty-nine exceeded the FDA's 10 ppm lead limit, nine measured above 100,000 ppm, three above 350,000 ppm.
High-lead samples appeared under every name, kohl, surma, and kajal alike. The word on the tube is not a safety indicator.
What lead actually does
Lead is a cumulative toxin with no known safe level of exposure. It builds up in the body and affects the brain and nervous system, the heart, the kidneys, and the blood. Cognitive effects are irreversible, with the greatest risk during pregnancy and early development. Arsenic, cadmium, and mercury, which we also test for, carry their own established harms.
Small amounts, used daily for years, compound. That is why the standard matters. Read the World Health Organization's fact sheet on lead and health.
Health Canada and the US FDA both treat 10 parts per million as the maximum acceptable lead impurity in a cosmetic. The surma in the New York case measured 390,000 ppm, thirty-nine thousand times that limit.
Sources: NYC Health / CDC MMWR 2024 · Pure Earth, Lead in Traditional Eyeliner, 2025 · US FDA · Health Canada
The wider picture
Drew McCartor, President of Pure Earth, on the scale of global lead exposure and what a fix actually looks like. TED, 2026.
Watch the talk on TED.com →Pure Earth
Identifies and remediates lead and mercury pollution worldwide, and screens consumer products, including the eyeliner testing cited above.
pureearth.org →Lead Exposure Elimination Project (LEEP)
Partners with governments, industry, and communities to remove lead from paint and other consumer products, including cosmetics, in the countries where exposure is highest.
leadelimination.org →
How it works
Three steps, and the chain stays unbroken.
Join the waitlist
Tell us what you wear now and where you buy it. It costs nothing and it shapes what we make.
We publish results and ingredients
Before anything is sold, we publish our lab testing results, the full ingredient list, and our Health Canada notification status. You read the data, not a slogan.
Wear it, and pass it on
Kajjala Black arrives at your door, and the practice continues with something you can stand behind.
The product
Kajal · Made in Canada · Surma coming soon
Held to a Canadian standard. True to the ritual.
Packaging concept render · final product photography to follow
Developed side by side with the Cosmetic Science team at Seneca Polytechnic, from ingredients chosen specifically to avoid the heavy-metal contamination that comes with traditional mineral sourcing. Built for the waterline, for the way this has always been worn.
Formulated to the standard
Formulated to minimize lead and heavy metal content and to meet Canadian safety standards.
Tested beyond paperwork
ICP-MS heavy metals testing in progress through Seneca, going beyond supplier Certificates of Analysis.
Notified, not just claimed
Health Canada Cosmetic Notification documentation prepared and ready for submission.
Made for everyone
Made for anyone who lines their eyes, and made with the South Asian, MENA, and African diaspora communities who know this practice best, where kajal, surma, and kohl reach beyond cosmetics into ritual and daily life.
The Kajjala Black formula is complete, and additional independent lab testing is in progress. Nothing is sold until those results are in hand and published.
Join the waitlistOur standards
What we will not compromise on.
We are building the alternative that was never offered. The standard has to hold at every step, not only in the formula.
Formulated without
Parabens, BHA, and BHT. Formulated to minimize lead and heavy metal content.
Cruelty-free
Formulated without animal testing, with Leaping Bunny certification in progress.
Child-labour-free supply chain
We hold our supply chain to this standard, from raw material selection forward.
Sustainable packaging
A preference for sustainable, recyclable components, chosen with the communities we serve in mind, including places where waste infrastructure is limited.
100% women-owned
Founded and owned by three women, in Toronto.
The tradition
Older than any of us.
Carried by all of us.
Lined eyes appear in some of the oldest records we have. In ancient Egypt, kohl was ground from minerals and worn daily. Across South Asia, families made kajal at home from lamp soot. In many communities, surma carries its own long devotional history. It has been worn for protection, for ritual, for eye health, and simply because it is beautiful.
The name changes from place to place. The practice does not. It travelled with people, into Canada, into our own homes, and into the mirror where it is still passed from one hand to the next.
“My mother made it at home, from charcoal and ghee. I have worn it every day of my adult life.”
Kruti Desai · Co-founder
Continue the chain
About us
Three women. One standard.
Two of us grew up wearing this, and used the same imported products for years without knowing what was in them. One of us spent a career making cosmetics that meet the standard. We are not building this for a market. We are building it because we wanted it ourselves and it did not exist.
Kruti Desai
Co-founder · CEO
Grew up with kajal made at home from charcoal and ghee. In adulthood, like so many in these communities, she switched to the grey market products that were the only option available, and wore them without knowing what was in them. Fifteen years in strategy, data, and transformation: numbers, benchmarks, and evidence are her first language, which is why this brand publishes proof, not promises.
Natasha Bartlett
Co-founder · Chief Product Officer & COO
Fifteen years in cosmetic product safety and regulatory compliance. She owns the product end to end, from ingredient sourcing and supplier standards to the testing protocols that decide what ships. Her product safety expertise is what turns a mission into something you can actually put on a shelf.
Chetna Sharma
Co-founder · Chief Brand & Marketing Officer
Grew up with the same tradition and the same unverified grey market products. Over ten years in capital markets and banking, along with brand strategy experience in the eyewear space, she knows the difference between a brand that is known and a brand that is trusted, and she knows that in these communities, trust is not given, it is earned conversation by conversation.
Be first
The chain continues with you.
Join the waitlist for first access to Kajjala Black, our full ingredient list, and word when Surma follows. No spam, just the milestones that matter.
In our GTA survey, 91% of 42 women said they would switch to a clean, Canadian-made kajal if one existed. This list is where that switch begins.
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No spam. Only the milestones that matter.
Welcome to the lineage.
Know someone who still buys theirs off the shelf back home or from a marketplace listing? Send them this, it might be the most useful thing they read this week.
Contact
Write to us.
General & press: hello@silsara.com
Wholesale & retail: hello@silsara.com with subject “Retail”
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