Jalue

The ice queen's beauty secret

Russia's most famous empress was said to have applied an ice cube to her face, neck and décolletage every morning to preserve her beauty and refresh her complexion. Russians later improved upon this ritual by adding different skin beautifying herbs to the ice for the ultimate skincare treatment.

A family tradition

Jalue is the brainchild of Azerbaijani entrepreneur Jale Demirchi, who was immersed in Russian skincare heritage

and the traditions of herbalism from birth. For many years, to cure allergies and skincare ailments, Jale’s grandmother and mother visited a herbalist who finally, on her deathbed, shared her secret recipes with the family. Jale’s mother, whilst studying to be a doctor, was also taught by a professor who was a herbalist, further developing her interest in all things herbal.

As Jale explains:

"I know lots of very beautiful women with amazing skin who have been using herbal remedies for decades. My mother used to spend hours in the kitchen trying to make masks and creams from natural ingredients.

One of her reference sources, and mine, was Ivan Dubrovin's 'Cosmetics from the Summer House'. It became absolutely normal to make our own skincare. We know eating well is good for our skin, and history tells us that Cleopatra's beauty secret was a bath of milk and ancient Greeks swore by olive oil so it makes perfect sense but many of us have lost that close relationship with nature.

One morning a few years ago I was using a chemical skin serum and it suddenly dawned on me that this was wrong, or at least there could be a more natural method of looking after my skin that would be equally effective.

So combining what I already knew about herbs and what I had learned about Catherine the Great I created Jalue, but did so with busy modern lifestyles in mind. The idea was to create something very natural and very effective that was easy to use. Not all of us want to spend hours brewing herbal potions. Jalue is ready to go. All you need is a freezer."