5000 Years of Glow: Decoding Ayurveda With Sahajan's Lisa Mattam and Practitioner Ananta Ripa Ajmera

Carlene Higgins (0:01)

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Welcome to Breaking Beauty, the podcast all about the breakthrough people, products and moments in beauty.

Jill Dunn (0:14)

We're your hosts, Jill Dunn and Carlene Higgins.

Carlene Higgins (0:21)

Welcome back to Breaking Beauty Podcast. I'm Carlene Higgins and I'm here with my co-host with the most, Jill Dunn.

Jill Dunn (0:28)

Hey everyone and of course we are two long time magazine beauty editors turned beauty podcasters and we're serving up the breakthrough people, products and moments in beauty every single week. Today we are diving into the world of Ayurveda, something a topic that we have been wanting to cover for ages. And it's really incredible because this is a practice that has stood the test of time quite literally it's 5000 years old and it's the traditional system of medicine from India that's focused on natural healing and holistic health and really just all about balance in your life.

Carlene Higgins (1:02)

And the word comes from Sanskrit combining air, life and Vata, knowledge or science and how these ancient rituals are shaking up modern science-backed skin care. So to break it down, we brought in two power houses. First Lisa Mattam, founder and CEO of Sahajan and a longtime friend of our podcast. Hi Lisa. Hi.

Lisa Mattam (1:22)

It's so good to be here.

Jill Dunn (1:23)

Thank you so much. Lisa spent more than 15 years in Big Pharma before blending her clinical background with her South Asian heritage to build one of the most respected Ayurvedic beauty brands in the world and now it's at Sephora too. Clock it.

Carlene Higgins (1:38)

She's also celebrating a major moment this year. Sahajan was just tapped by Air Canada to supply the amenities products in their signature class amenities kits and we're so proud to be Canadian to have a Canadian beauty brand in there.

Jill Dunn (1:52)

Finally, it just makes sense. And so that lip karma bomb, everybody, that you're applying at 35,000 feet, we have Lisa to thank for hydrated lips at that altitude. Thank you so much for that.

Carlene Higgins (2:02)

We're also joined by a true Ayurvedic expert who Lisa has collaborated with and leaned on for her expertise and that is Ananta Ripa Ajmera, an award-winning author and host of the True To Yourself podcast and advisor of Ayurveda at The Well in Miami. Welcome, Ananta.

Ananta Ripa Ajmera (2:22)

Thank you so much for having me. It's wonderful to be here.

Jill Dunn (2:25)

Ananta comes from a lineage of Ayurvedic healers in ancient India. She has spoken at Stanford, at NYU, at Columbia, and she consults on some of Sahajan's skincare formulations, including this year's sacred flower oil.

Carlene Higgins (2:40)

And just ahead, our guests are going to help us better understand how we can apply these ancient rituals to serve our wellness and skincare goals. Everything from defining your doshas, Pitta, Kapha, and Vata, and the rituals now going TikTok famous.

Jill Dunn (2:54)

I mean, these things I've never even heard of, but they probably have been around forever. Oiling your ears, everybody. Oiling your navel. I need to know absolutely everything about it. And there's like a console wand. Like, what is that? I need to know more.

Carlene Higgins (3:08)

Plus Lisa shares how she's bringing Ayurveda into the science of clinical trials and our guest's top three tips to have you glowing as we kick off 2027

Jill Dunn (3:18)

So with all of that, officially, welcome to Breaking Beauty Podcast to the both of you. Ananta, you come from this long line of Ayurvedic healers, like I mentioned. So for anyone that's new to the practice, what do you say it's all about?

Ananta Ripa Ajmera (3:32)

Ayurveda is the science of life. So there's actually no part of life that Ayurveda doesn't touch. It teaches us how to achieve well-being at four different levels. Everyone's heard of mind, body, spirit. It's almost cliche, right? Especially in the magazine world. But Ayurveda also looks at your five senses as a really important aspect of overall health and well-being, and also a source of where we find the root causes of what is creating our health imbalances. And in Ayurveda, it's all about attaining a state of balance or harmony between your body, mind, spirit, and your five senses.

Beautiful.

Carlene Higgins (4:12)

I love that. I love that. We've chatted before, Lisa, about how you grew up in a household where Ayurveda was naturally woven into your daily life. Maybe you can tell us some of your earliest memories and what has stayed with you.

Lisa Mattam (4:28)

Yeah, for sure. It is funny because we never use the word Ayurveda growing up. It was not a word that I was familiar with or heard. But as I look back in my life, what I find funny is I realized when I was visiting India with my family, I've seen Ayurvedic doctors, all the things. But I would say some of the practices as I think of my life growing up, one that I don't think we've ever talked about Ananta, my parents used to have us take milk baths. Oh, wow. Which was at the time not feeling very cool at all. I feel like all the things that particularly my dad made us do, there was a time where I was like, okay, I'm done. I no longer want to go to school with oily hair.