This Summer Pamper Your Skin with Refreshing Ice Therapy Treatment by Isa Beauty

• Tell us about yourself and your background.
• I have been in the beauty industry on and off since 2013. I was not too much into formulation but I have done courses from L'Oréal for hair and beauty and then I thought of getting into a business of my own and got into formulating products. It started out like a hobby sometime around 2016 when this sector was booming. It had already been a passion of mine and I was using natural products on my skin every now and then as much as I could. So I started this as a hobby and then decided to pursue it further and did an online course from Formula Botanica, and then started Isa Beauty in October, 2018.


• What made you create Isa Beauty?
• Icing has been a part of my skin-care routine since a very long time. It is also a very traditional beauty ritual that has been followed for years. All the celebs follow it, and even all the traditional beauty gurus follow it. It’s something everyone knows about, and it has been a part of almost everyone’s beauty routine as it’s a great treatment that works for all skin types all over the world.
  
  But it is not very convenient because you have to go and get the herbs and you do it once in a while. You don’t end up doing it regularly, plus when you are icing your face with your hands you tend to get cold burns and leave it halfway. These were the difficulties I was facing and tried to remedy them when I was formulating. There are similar products available abroad but there was nothing like this in India so I thought why not take a leap of faith and get into it.


• Tell us about the formula used in your ice therapy.
• We formulated Isa with a team of international formulators using special herbs and ingredients like green tea, cucumber, aloe, etc., the most commonly used ingredients that everyone can benefit from. All our ingredients are Ecocert certified and natural and they are powerful extracts. These ingredients are useful in treating common problems that Indian skin tends to have like pigmentation, dark spots and sun tanning. It is a natural product and it takes time but once you get used to it and you get the synthetics out of it, this is something that is feasible and convenient to use. You have to make the concoction and you can use it about 7 to 8 times. You don’t have to keep making it again and again. It also comes with an applicator that makes it more convenient to use as you can just pop it back into the freezer.


• Please tell us more about the ingredients used in the ice treatment.
• The ingredients we use are cucumber, aloe, carrot, green tea, amla, pomegranate, papaya, oats, etc. All these have different forms of compounds, like when you talk about oats it’s got beta glucans. When you are icing your face your skin tends to get on the dry side so we have used beta glucans so that the ice treatment does not dry out your skin, and at the same time it also works for dry skin. Icing as a beauty treatment is normally used more for oily or normal skin types but for dry skin it tends to be drying if used on a regular basis.
  
  Then we have used papaya which is a great antioxidant, cucumber that freshens the face instantly, and green tea works as an antibacterial. All these ingredients are combined based on the benefits they provide and how they can potentially bring out the best results by working together. They bring out the best of the icing treatment.

Where Can You Find Them?

• Can a customer pick certain treatments based on their specific needs?
• Right now we are not looking at customisation and we have not come up with anything that can be customised. But our treatment takes care of most concerns for any skin type and the problem areas do get better irrespective of the skin type. That's how we tried to create it, so for now there is no customising. We are however looking at other products that we will come up with that will be more targeted to specific customer needs. Our current ice treatment is for improving your overall skin health.


• How do you ensure quality?
• Every batch goes through various tests. The quality also depends on where we source our ingredients from and the antibacterial activity count done on them before formulating the product. One extract can come from a thousand different sources and we ensure quality by selecting the right one.


• Have you done trials that show it helps all skin types equally?
• Yes, we have. We had outsourced our products to a company to run trials and they sent the samples out to a few customers. Based on the data received from these trials we know people found it really hydrating and also met the other parameters.

• Q. What’s next for Isa Beauty?
• In the near future we will be coming out with a core series that addresses the basic beauty needs such as moisturisers and cleansers. Specialised ice treatment products will also come in at a later stage, but what’s next in line for us are simplified products that are all natural based. We are in the process of formulating these. What normally happens with even natural products is the use of artificial substances such as synthetic emulsifiers. We are working towards a line of all natural beauty products.


• Q. Please can you give some tips to people wanting to shift to natural beauty products?
• Research is very important when making a switch to natural products. Often there are too many ingredients on the label and a product claiming to be natural may have only 1 or 2 natural ingredients in less percentages mixed with fragrances or emulsifiers that are not completely natural. For example, fragrance is a major irritant, yet most natural beauty products will have it. Hence read the labels carefully, research as much as you can and obviously there is trial and error when making a switch so don't get disappointed because you will eventually get there and then there is no turning back!

• Simply pour the sachet into 100 ml of tap water.
• Mix and pour it in the ice applicator which comes in the package.
• Put the applicator in the freezer for not less than 4 hours or till it is frozen.
• Wash your face and apply it on your neck and face in a circular motion. Pat dry your face and you are done for the day.