![Minimalist skincare and hair care products in the brand's own product photography - the goods its three-case refund policy applies to]()
Minimalist's refund policy is the shortest of the six Indian beauty policies we read on 1 October 2026, and it turns on a single word. "We offer refunds / replacements only in following cases" - wrong shipment, damaged product, expired product.
All three are about what came out of the box. Seven days to raise it, 48 hours for the brand to review it, a courier collection from your door, and a refund initiated within 24 hours once the issue is verified. Below: what that fast last figure does and does not promise, and how it compares with four other brands' published timelines.
📅 Update log:
1 October 2026 — first published. Written from Minimalist's own refund policy page at beminimalist.co as it stood on 1 October 2026; every quotation is the brand's own wording, reproduced as printed. The comparisons with Beardo, Dot & Key, Mamaearth, mCaffeine and Libas come from those brands' own policy pages read the same morning. No order was placed and no timeline was tested.
Three grounds, and the word is 'only'
Minimalist's refund page is the shortest of the six Indian beauty policies we read on 1 October 2026, and the key sentence is six words long. "We offer refunds / replacements only in following cases:" - followed by three bullets: you received a wrong shipment, you received a damaged product, you received an expired product.
Every one of those is about what arrived, not about what you made of it. A serum that did not suit your skin, a sunscreen whose finish you dislike, a duplicate bought by accident - none of them is on the list. That is standard across this category: Beardo, Dot & Key, mCaffeine and Mamaearth all restrict returns to fault cases too, and Libas, a clothing brand, is the only one of the six that accepts a return "for any reason".
The window is seven days and the page closes it firmly: "In any of the above case, please raise a return/ replacement request within 7 (seven) days from the date of delivery", and "No return or any other claim will be acceptable or valid after the expiration of 7 days from the time of delivery of the product." Requests go by email to the address published on that page.
| Minimalist's published terms, read 1 Oct 2026 | What the page says |
|---|
| Wrong shipment received | Refund or replacement |
| Damaged product received | Refund or replacement |
| Expired product received | Refund or replacement |
| Changed your mind | Not listed |
| Product did not suit you | Not listed |
| Time to raise a request | 7 days from delivery, by email |
| After 7 days | "No return or any other claim" |
| Review of your request | 48 hours |
| Refund after verification | Initiated within 24 hours |
The one-line version: photograph a Minimalist parcel on arrival and check the batch date on the carton. The three things this policy covers - wrong, damaged or expired - are all visible in the first five minutes, and the claim dies at day seven.
Forty-eight hours to review, then a pickup from your door
The process after you write in is published in three short steps. "Please allow us 48 hours to review your request. Once the request is approved, we will initiate a reverse pickup. Our courier partner will pick the order from your doorsteps."
There is no self-ship clause on this page, which is a small mercy worth noting - Libas asks non-serviceable pin codes to self-ship and reimburses only up to Rs. 100, and Mamaearth reimburses self-shipped returns as wallet credit. Minimalist's page describes a courier collection and leaves it there.
The last step is the fastest figure any of these six brands publishes. "Upon receiving the returned order, our service team will review the same. If the issues described by you are verified, our team will initiate a refund within 24 hours." Compare that with Beardo's 48 working hours to initiate, Dot & Key's 7 working days to refund a prepaid order, and Mamaearth's estimate of two weeks after pickup for the whole process.
The fast number is at the end of a slow chain
A 24-hour refund initiation is only the last link. Before it there is your email, up to 48 hours of review, a courier collection the page does not put a date on, the transit back, and a verification step at the other end. The published 24 hours starts when the verification succeeds - not when you first wrote in.
What Minimalist does not publish is as informative as what it does. The page carries no COD-versus-prepaid split (Dot & Key's refunds take 7 working days prepaid against 14 for cash on delivery), no exchange clause, no stated free-delivery threshold inside the policy itself, and no cancellation window of the kind mCaffeine puts at three hours. If you need those answers for an order you have already placed, the brand's support address on that page is the route.
Where it is unusually clear is in its tone about the grounds. The page opens by saying the brand hopes you will love its products and that if you wish to return one, "please reach out to us and we will take care of everything for you" - and then lists the three cases in which that applies. Brands often handle individual cases more generously than their written terms require; that is between you and their support team, and nothing on this page can promise it.
| Refund initiation compared, as published on 1 Oct 2026 | Stated time |
|---|
| Minimalist, after verification | Within 24 hours |
| Beardo, after authorisation | Within 48 working hours, credited 4-8 days later |
| Dot & Key, prepaid order | Within 7 working days of the request |
| Dot & Key, cash on delivery | Within 14 working days |
| Mamaearth, cancelled order | Within 7 business days |
| Mamaearth, returned product | About 2 weeks after pickup |
What this page is, and what it is not
This is a plain-English reading of beminimalist.co/policies/refund-policy as it stood on 1 October 2026. Quotations are the brand's own words, reproduced as printed, including its own spelling and punctuation. The comparison table draws on Beardo's, Dot & Key's and Mamaearth's own policy pages read the same morning, and compares published terms rather than measured performance. We did not place an order, raise a return or test any timeline. Policies change without notice; the live page and Minimalist's own support team are the authority on your order, not this article.
Before you buy: on a brand with a fault-only policy, the first-order risk is yours - so start with the smallest size of any new active, and open the parcel while the seven-day clock is still young.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I return a Minimalist product I have opened?
Not on the published grounds. "We offer refunds / replacements only in following cases," the page says, and lists three: a wrong shipment, a damaged product, an expired product. A product that simply did not suit you is not among them. Those are the brand's own terms as read on 1 October 2026; contact its support team about your own order, since a brand may handle an individual case differently from its written terms.
What is Minimalist's return window?
Seven days from the date of delivery, and the page is unusually firm about the edge: "No return or any other claim will be acceptable or valid after the expiration of 7 days from the time of delivery of the product." Requests are raised by email to the address published on the policy page. The same seven-day figure appears on Beardo's, Mamaearth's and Libas's pages; Dot & Key publishes 48 hours and mCaffeine five days.
How long does a Minimalist refund take?
The page publishes two numbers around the ends of the process. "Please allow us 48 hours to review your request," and then, after the returned goods arrive and the issue is verified, "our team will initiate a refund within 24 hours." Between those sits a reverse pickup and the return journey, for which no duration is published. The 24-hour figure is the fastest post-verification initiation among the six Indian D2C brands we read the same day, but it starts at verification, not at your first email.
Does Minimalist collect the product or do I have to post it?
The page describes a collection. "Once the request is approved, we will initiate a reverse pickup. Our courier partner will pick the order from your doorsteps." There is no self-ship clause on it - unlike Libas, which asks non-serviceable pin codes to self-ship with reimbursement capped at Rs. 100, or Mamaearth, which reimburses self-shipped returns as PayTM or Mamapay wallet credit.
Can I cancel a Minimalist order after placing it?
The refund policy page does not publish a cancellation window, so this article cannot tell you - and that absence is itself worth knowing. For comparison, mCaffeine publishes a three-hour email cancellation window and Mamaearth allows cancellation until an order reads 'Ready to Ship'. If you need to cancel a Minimalist order, write to the support address on its policy page as early as possible rather than relying on anything stated here.
Prices & codes last verified: October 1, 2026
Zoutons may earn a commission when you buy through links on this page. Everything described here was read on 1 October 2026 from Minimalist's own published refund policy page at beminimalist.co, and every quotation is the brand's own wording reproduced as printed, including its own spelling and punctuation. This is a plain-English summary for readers and is not legal advice, not a complete statement of Minimalist's terms, and not a substitute for reading the live policy page and the terms shown at your own checkout, which prevail over anything written here. We did not place an order, cancel one, raise a claim, return a product or test any timeline on this page. Policies, windows and contact addresses change without notice, sometimes between the date of this reading and the date you read it, and a brand may handle an individual case more or less generously than its published terms require; the absence of a clause from a policy page is reported as an absence and is not a statement that the brand refuses that thing. Comparisons with Beardo, Dot & Key, Mamaearth, mCaffeine and Libas describe what those brands published on their own pages on the same date and are statements about published terms only, not about the quality of anyone's goods, packaging or customer service, and a shorter published timeline is not evidence that any brand is faster in practice. Nothing on this page is an allegation of wrongdoing, unfair trade practice or of any breach of the Consumer Protection Act, the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules or any other law, rule or platform policy by Minimalist, by Uprising Science Private Limited or by any other company named or unnamed; fault-only returns on opened cosmetics are common industry practice and are described here, not criticised. Nothing here is a statement about any product's ingredients, concentrations, safety, suitability for any skin or hair type, or fitness for any purpose, and nothing here affects any statutory right you may have under Indian consumer law. If you have a problem with an order, contact Minimalist's support team first; this page cannot resolve it and has no involvement in any order you place.
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