My grandmother's ammikallu
Every morning before school, I watched my grandmother Kamalam kneel at a stone slab in our Chennai kitchen, grinding turmeric, sandalwood and rice into the ubtan that had kept three generations of our family's skin soft through Madras heat. She never measured anything. She didn't need to — the recipe lived in her hands.
I left India at nineteen to study cosmetic science in Sydney, certain I'd spend my career formulating in a lab. What I found instead was a shelf full of skincare that worked against skin, not with it — synthetic fragrance, stripping sulphates, marketing dressed up as science. None of it smelled like my grandmother's kitchen. None of it felt like home.
Prithvi — the Sanskrit word for Earth — started in 2019 in a rented Byron Bay kitchen, with her handwritten notes translated into something the modern world could trust: certified-organic sourcing, cold-pressed extraction, and formulas tested until they earned the right to sit next to hers.
From a stone slab to a small studio
Leaving Chennai
Ishita left for Sydney to study cosmetic science, a small tin of her grandmother's turmeric ubtan packed in her suitcase.
Learning what not to do
Five years formulating for other skincare labs taught her more about what to leave out of a bottle than what to put in.
The first Kumkumadi oil
In a rented Byron Bay kitchen, she began testing her grandmother Kamalam's handwritten saffron recipe against modern lab standards.
Prithvi launches
Three products — the cleanser, the serum, the moisturiser — sold from a single market stall on the Byron Bay foreshore.
The full ritual
The range grew to seven: SPF, lip balm and the Hydrating Glow Pack joined, alongside first stockists in Sydney and Melbourne.
A studio of our own
Prithvi opened a small certified-organic studio in Byron Bay and introduced The Earth Ritual gift set — still handwriting every card.
The principles behind every bottle
Earth-first formulas
Every ingredient is chosen the way Ayurveda chose it: for what it gives skin, not what it costs to source.
Small batch, always
We formulate in batches of under 200 units, mixed and bottled by hand in our Byron Bay studio.
Certified cruelty-free
Never tested on animals — always tested on the people who'll actually wear it.
Made for Australian skin
Ayurvedic wisdom, adjusted for a harsher sun and drier air than the one it was first written for.
I didn't want to build a skincare brand. I wanted to put my grandmother's hands back to work — just this time, for everyone.
Ishita RaoFounder, Prithvi
Small batch. Byron Bay. Still handwritten.
Every Prithvi product is still mixed, poured and labelled by a small team in our Byron Bay studio — never a contract manufacturer, never a formula we haven't tested on our own skin first. When you order the Earth Ritual gift set, the card inside is written by hand, the same way Kamalam would have wanted it: personally, and without hurry.