Bar stools and mirrors? Ladies, look out for the city’s first ever beauty bar at Express Avenue. Natural skin care brand Astrea might be three years old online, but their recently opened brick and mortar store encourages you to hop on a high stool and flip through a ‘specials’ menu for the day. This could be anything from a herbal steam to a skin expert consultation.
Yoghurt to try it
“People go to bars to feel good,” says Sharon Natarajan, founder of the all-natural brand. “And what better way to do that than take care of your skin,” elaborates the 40-year-old who was drawn to research around skin care when none of the products she was using seemed to be helping her allergies.
What started as just Sharon whipping up home formulations has fast evolved into a mini manufacturing unit based out of Shenoy Nagar, that caters to over 2,500 clients. Currently they have 40 products on the list which cover foot scrubs, toners, body yoghurts (we tried the Vanilla Rose and it is creamy and indulgent), scrubs and even anti-ageing treatments.
Time oat
However, what really keeps women coming back, we are told, is the high impact results for problems like eczema, acne, dry skin and under eye dark circles. “We use natural ingredients like rosemary, oregano, gotu kola (Centella Asiatica) from the keerai family and collodial oats,” Sharon shares with us. The Glow Facial Scrub which uses collodial oats, and is a best seller we hear, is pleasantly non-abrasive, and
gentle on the skin, which we like. Although, the fragrance is a bit strong for us, we approve of the end result which is supple skin that isn’t dry, as can tend to be the case with a scrub.
Open 10 am to 10 pm. Price: INR 200 to INR 820. Kits of two and three products are available at
INR 1,000 to INR 1,500.
sonali@newindianexpress.com | @brightasunshine