Sugarcane

Sugarcane is native to Southeast Asia and has been cultivated for its sweet juice for thousands of years. The Charaka Saṃhitā, a first century Sanskrit text on Ayurvedic medicine, refers to the earliest known use of sugarcane wine in India. The wine (Sidhu) was used as a health remedy and facial tonic known for its ability to improve the complexion. In the traditional Ayurvedic system, herbal wines were highly regarded as valuable therapeutics.

Wine has a long history of use in medicinal and cosmetic preparations going back more than five thousand years. In ancient Egypt, wine was used to extract the healing virtues from a wide range of botanical ingredients including herbs, flowers and tree resins. At the sacred city of Abydos, rosemary constituents were found in herbal wine dating back to 3150 BCE. In the 13th century, Villanova introduced the West to the virtues of herbal wine along with the healing properties and formula for rosemary wine, an elixir of youth and beauty that later came to be known as Queen of Hungary Water.

In re-envisioning the ancient beauty elixir, we use organic sugarcane alcohol at a low concentration to mimic wine. The alcohol functions as a solubilizer of botanical compounds, preservative and penetration enhancer that allows antioxidants, nutrients and other active constituents to penetrate into the skin more readily. Due to its low concentration and high volatility, the alcohol quickly evaporates without drying the skin. In addition to its many functional benefits, sugarcane alcohol is a powerful active botanical ingredient with astringent and clarifying properties.