Rachel Roy is trying her hand at something recent.

The designer has introduced a beauty brand — her first foray within the category — called Ancient India by Rachel Roy, which sells directly on its website. Prices range from $68 for a moisturizer to $129 for a facial oil. The opposite two products include a serum mask and a facial serum with niacinamide and hyaluronic acid.

The brand gains its name from the East-West modalities it combines. “Ancient India is rooted in science, but it surely’s also deeply rooted in ayurvedic Indian tradition,” Roy said. “I even have studied with Deepak Chopra for probably 15 years now, and I take into consideration what our relationship is with the passage of time, how that shows up on our face, how we damage,” she said, referring to how skin shows damage over time.

Her journey began after a scleroderma diagnosis left her with “en coup de sabre,” the medical term for a thickening line down the middle of her brow. Combining modalities was Roy’s strategy for reversing the disease’s effects, which worked almost completely. “I began pouring over Western medicine and it didn’t give me any answers. I combined that with Eastern medicine, as in Ayurveda, and have had almost a full recovery,” Roy said. 

“Indian skincare is about hydration and anti-inflammation. Western skincare is about removing the highest layer of skin and asking it to rejuvenate itself,” Roy continued. “I’ve never had one laser, not one peel, just because my skin type can’t handle it. That is what I’ve been learning once I did a deep dive into how I scar, and the way I regenerate my very own skin cells.”

Roy has tapped into her designer side in considering through the creative details, including the Italian glass packaging and organic ingredients. The face cream, for instance, includes squalane, turmeric, lotus flower, ginger root, carrot root and pentapeptide; the serum mask features babchi, triphala, ginger root and snow mushroom.

Future products include a cleanser, a body cream, and a watch shadow smudge stick for smoky eyes. She didn’t rule out retail expansion, but doesn’t see it within the immediate future. “I’m direct-to-consumer currently, I plan on being for some time, until I either go into a serious retailer, or I’m also taken with spas,” Roy said.

A percentage of profits will go to a bevy of charities: The Chopra Foundation, Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation, Operation Underground Railroad and the Care Organization. That percentage will vary depending on the brand’s performance, Roy said. “With each thing that I do, with every decision I make, whether it’s packaging, or the way to interact with my consumers, the stories that I tell — I would like that each one to be with an angle of conscious give-back,” she added.

A part of what’s given her the liberty to comprehend her vision, Roy said, was making the choice to start out out self-funded.

“Through the years, I’ve had different partners, some have shared values, some haven’t. And any time you’re opening yourself as much as having partners, you’re opening yourself as much as be watered down. So, I made a decision to do that with no partners.”

She’s also taken a grassroots approach to marketing, which follows her organic approach to growing the brand. “I’ve given myself a 12 months to place one foot in front of the opposite to garner followers on social media, and to see if I can construct a community the old-fashioned way — not buying followers or paying for ads,” Roy said. 

“It is maybe a naive assessment of business to go in there following your heart, not needing a marketing strategy, not having any investors. At one 12 months, I’ll start making business decisions that proper CEOs or CFOs can be happier with. But I’m going to be flexible and do the things I’ve learned in my Indian tradition of yoga, which is to be flexible enough to bend like water, and water matches into places which can be uncomfortable.”