Our Story
In 2003, I learned that archaeologists excavating a Roman site in Southwark, London made an extraordinary find. Buried beneath centuries of earth was a small tin vessel, sealed shut, perfectly intact. Inside it: a white face cream, still preserved after two thousand years. It still had a finger swipe pressed into its surface.
I was amazed to contemplate people millennia ago nourishing their skin and pursuing beauty. I had always been fascinated by ancient history, and had read Ovid, whose two-thousand-year-old books described life and beauty in ancient Rome.
Years later, I became discouraged and disillusioned by modern skincare products and routines. I tried many clinically formulated products and got lost and confused by it all. I thought about the whole foods I tried to feed my body and began to wonder why caring for my skin had become so complicated.
I remembered the Roman face cream and Ovid's writings, and began thinking again about how people in these ancient civilizations cared for their skin and what they knew about beauty. I wanted to know what else had survived.
I read everything I could find. Pliny the Elder, writing in 77 AD, documented the skin preparations Roman women used—tallow, beeswax, rose water, honey, clay. Galen, physician to emperors, described a preparation of beeswax, olive oil, and rose water—a formula that endured for centuries. The Ebers Papyrus, one of the oldest medical texts ever discovered, recorded the oils and resins Egyptians used to care for the body—castor oil, honey, frankincense, and more. Cleopatra herself was said to bathe in milk. Frankincense and myrrh, precious throughout the ancient world, were used to anoint and care for the skin.
There was a whole body of older knowledge about caring for skin that deserved attention. I wanted to bring that wisdom forward.
But it wasn't only the ingredients that stayed with me. There was something in the ritual itself. Skincare had become another thing to do; I wanted it to feel like caring for myself again. To slow down. To be present. To enjoy the scent, the texture, and the feeling of being precious in my own hands.
And so, Aurea Antiqua was born—for anyone who has stood before a shelf of serums and wondered when caring for their skin became so complicated. The ancient world kept it simple. It can be simple again. This was made for you.