Why Good Earth’s Anita Lal waited 30 years to launch her new skincare brand

Anita Lal keeps circling back to the serenity of the mountains, all the calm and in her case, inspiration, it has to offer. 

The founder and creative director of luxury design house Good Earth, Anita recalls how she escaped to her home in the hills for a brief while nearly thirty years ago, after experiencing a severe skin reaction. “I used some skincare that I chanced upon, which compromised my skin barrier. Nothing seemed to suit my burning skin until I found pure rose water, and local mountain oils; wild peach, apricot and rosehip,” she says. 

This personal experience, and chancing upon Pratima Raichur’s book Absolute Beauty got her thinking. And now, thirty years after Good Earth launched in 1996 comes Iti, the brand’s new skincare line. 

“My journey with making skincare started as Amritam with Good Earth, where I was dabbling with bath and body products. The rose facial mist is still very popular, as are the bath oils. And my daughter Simran started Paro in 2018 as well, a brand that was rooted in vedas and spiritual thought,” she says, of her tryst with skincare. 

Passion project

Anita however calls Iti, which means ‘as it is’ in Sanskrit, her most personal, creative endeavour yet. Launched with 18 products which includes lotions, serum gels, mists, and cleansers, the brand combines Himalayan botanicals and scientific research. “I took nearly six years to study, learn and experiment. I see Iti as a passion project; one that offers what I consider is the safest, finest and most effective skincare for people from their teenage to old age,” she says.

Anita Lal says she sees Iti as a passion project that offers safe, effective skincare for people of all ages
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Anita is of the firm belief that skin doesn’t need too much pushing or prodding. Iti’s biometric formulations, which have been developed after rigorous research, draw on ingredients that mimic molecules naturally present in the skin, she says. “The ingredients are all what the skin recognises. It is important to examine the long term effect that certain ingredients may have on the skin, and our idea with Iti is to keep safety on top of everything,” she says. 

. As dermatologists continue to advocate the use of science-backed skincare, Anita too alludes to recent remarks she had made about how she does not use SPF and the concerns it raised. While she speaks of balancing ayurveda, science and vedic wellbeing, the founder emphasises on not wanting to preach just one way to go about skincare, apart from the need to keep things simple. She is in fact, in the thick of developing a safe, mineral based SPF she says. 

“Everybody has their own needs so I am not going to say what is good or bad. I highly respect all scientific research that has happened, and for us, it was a question of a long term and quieter approach that balances the best of all worlds,” she says. 

Beauty potions

Anita speaks about working with traditional knowledge, natural ingredients and science as going hand-in-hand. “To make one serum or cream for Iti, we must have made at least a hundred iterations or more. The products then had to go through stability tests and many more steps. Research here is the key; I wanted to learn, I worked with Margaret Pawlaczyk-Karlinski, a chemist and aromatherapist, and wanted to be sure of what exactly went into these products,” she explains. 

Iti’s ingredients are sourced from the Himalayas, and made in small batches at their atelier in Ballabgarh
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Everything is made in their “large, lovely atelier” in Ballabgarh , Anita says, with ingredients sourced from the Himalayas. “I cannot ever outsource making skincare to factories where they make standard formulations. These days you can put together hyaluronic acid, or retinol and make a serum in three minutes. This is not what I am interested in making,” she says. 

The first line of products Iti has rolled out includes the Amalaki micellar cleansing oil, Kamala toning lotion, Padma biome drench for hydration, a centifolia rose serum gel and a leh berry rescue oil to soothe the skin, an all-in-one wild peach butter, a rosehip night elixir and a kewra(fragrant screwpine) clay to bring balance to oily skin. Every ingredient used, ranging from from leh berry and lavender to spilanthes acmella (spotflowers, famed for containing a natural, bio-botox), is COSMOS (Cosmetic Organic Standard which is an independent standard for natural and organic cosmetics) certified. 

There seems to have been an almost conscious decision to not go fragrance free. Instead they use rose, pure jasmine patchouli and geranium oils, she says. “When you apply something, it feels like you are doing a ritual for yourself. It must uplift your inner self. Unless you have a medical or a skin issue which requires you to go fragrance free, why deny yourself the joy that comes with this?”

Iti is currently available online, as well as out of their stores in Delhi and Mumbai. Prices upwards of Rs 5,500.

Published – June 05, 2026 01:04 pm IST