Why Christy Turlington Is A Sundari

It might sound like a strange coincidence, but Christy Turlington, the svelte model with drop-dead looks, had her commercial tryst with India in a pub. Two other pretty girls with a Harvard Business School tag were discussing an India-inspired range of cosmetics. Turlington overheard and chipped in gingerly with an anxious ‘‘Can I be involved?’’ Ayla Hussain and Caven Mahony said a big yes.

That is how Sundari, which means beautiful woman in Hindi, was born. ‘‘I overhead them talking about their ayurvedic skin care line and was immediately interested,’’ Turlington says.

‘‘We connected on a spiritual level. We’re the same age, have the same values and, ironically, we had the same goal. We decided it was best to join forces.’’ Sundari, which made a splash at its opening last year, will complete a year of blending ancient Eastern art of beauty with the western way of life. Turlington got hooked to yoga as a teenager and studied Eastern philosophy at school. She also traveled to India for an extended period to study its history and research ayurveda.
‘‘I wanted to express my own opinions and philosophy and not just be the conduit to a designer’s or a photographer’s vision,’’ says Turlington. ‘‘Sundari is the result of that desire. It is a wholly natural, simple system.

Hussain too, who grew up in Pakistan, was not a stranger to herbal products. ‘‘As a Pakistani, I was extremely fortunate to grow up influenced by the spirituality of Ayurveda. I feel very strongly about translating the ancient wisdom of this 5,000 year old philosophy to women today through our skin care line by helping women achieve radiant skin while imparting Ayurvedic lessons of balance in our everyday lives.

Sundari is not just about skin care products, but about a holistic lifestyle philosophy that is universal and speaks directly to women from a variety of cultures’’, she says. Hussain met Cavan Mahony while attending Harvard Business School, where they first discussed the idea of developing an ayurvedic skin care line.

Both, however, first took up jobs in marketing to gain experience in the cosmetics industry. ‘‘My experience at Revlon dovetails perfectly into Cavan’s experience at Chanel,’’ Hussain observes. But they wanted to delve deep into the system before taking a plunge.

So they quit their jobs and travelled to India. ‘‘When I travelled to India with Ayla and really delved into the philosophy of ayurveda, I knew I had found something that I had been missing,’’ Mahony says. That something was the concept of promoting inner beauty and wellness in accordance with outward beauty, she says.

Sundari offers a three-step process (cleansing, nourishing and moisturising) for its users based on the ayuvedic principles of vata, pitta and kapha. Vata symbolises air, for people who have dry skin. Pitta means fire, for those with regular skin; and kapha is for people with oily skin, symbolising earth and water.

In addition to the nine basic products, there are three others that can be used in more than one dosha. One of them is a night cream containing a herb from the Himalayas that boasts detoxifying properties.

While the ingredients come from nature, the products are far from primitive, at least in price point. Cleansers are priced $25, moisturizers $52 and nourishing essential oils for $60 — totaling $137 for a three-step regimen. But the beauty regimen that the Mughal princess embraced way back in the 1500s is still finding a lot of takers in the Western world. And the trio are happy to have blended Manhattan chic with Himalayan herbs.

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