Letting the skin do the work: why Itra and Gulāba were formulated as a pair
It started with a simple question
Śuci Wellbeing didn’t begin with a product plan. It began with a question Gioia asked herself during her pregnancy: what do I actually want to put on my skin?
She was looking for skincare that was natural not only in name, but in the quality of its ingredients and the integrity of its formulation. When she couldn’t find it, she drew on her training in aromatherapy and began formulating it herself. Before long the question grew: what would she want on her children’s skin?
One of the first things she questioned was something most skincare takes for granted.
How most creams work
A cream is a mixture of water and oil. Left alone, the two separate, so most creams contain an emulsifier: an ingredient added to hold them together in one jar. And where there is water, a preservative is usually needed too, to keep the product stable over time.
There’s nothing unusual about this. It’s how most creams are made. But it made Gioia wonder whether water and oil needed to share a jar at all.
Letting the skin bring them together
Her answer was to keep them apart until the moment of use. Instead of one cream, she formulated two products:
- Gulāba Face Mist, a rose hydrosol, which is the water.
- Itra Face Balm, a balm made without water, which is the oil.
Mist your skin with Gulāba, then press in Itra while your skin is still damp. Water and oil meet on your skin, and your skin takes on the role an emulsifier would otherwise play in a jar.
Why we formulate this way
Keeping the two apart lets each formulation stay true to itself. Itra needs no emulsifier because there is no water to hold, and without water it doesn’t need a preservative either. Gulāba doesn’t need to be altered to fit inside a cream. Every ingredient in each product is there for its own reason.
Together they form one complete step in caring for your face. Each also stands on its own, so you can use them in whatever way suits your skin and your day.
Where this leads
This is how we approach every formulation: start from a real need, question what’s taken for granted, and include only what earns its place. Gulāba and Itra were among the first formulas to come from that way of working, and they still say a lot about who we are.
