Our founders have a deep respect for beauty rituals trusted across time and cultures. Many of their product inspirations come from longstanding traditions of their own—such as their Russian grandmothers using sugar to heal their scrapes as children—or that they’ve encountered on their travels. Take the story of Umbrian Clay, which transformed the skin of their friend who suffered from blemishes and led them to discover it’s been used in therapeutic treatments since ancient times. And Crème Ancienne is based on the formula of the world’s first cream, developed in the 2ndcentury by the physician to Emperor Marcus Aurelius who created various balms used on gladiators. By applying modern science to these age-old practices, fresh preserves them while making them even more powerful.