I spent years working in skincare before I started making my own.

Where I started

The skincare company I worked for was actually really good. They cared about what went into the product. The formulations were thoughtful and intentional. I learned a lot there. And honestly, that is where I fell in love with making skincare.

What I saw

But the wider industry? That is a different story. You see brand after brand on social media promising things that no cream can actually do; overnight results, transformation in one application. An ingredient gets popular and suddenly it is in everything, whether it does anything at that concentration or not. Nobody seems to care how much is in the formula. Just that the name is on the label.

If I put something in the formula, I want you to know exactly why it is there, what it does, and what it does not do. And honestly, you should expect that from every brand you buy from.

What I wanted to understand

I did not set out to create a balm. I wanted to understand why some skin appears calm, resilient and healthy and why that same skin can gradually lose that ability over time. So I trained as a botanical formulator. I wanted to understand what skin naturally needs. What the barrier is made from. What holds it together. What it loses over time, what can be put back, and how to do that using only natural ingredients.

What I found

The answer kept coming back to lipids. Specific ones. Seed oils with fatty acid profiles that match what skin already uses. Six seed oils remained, each chosen for a different role within the formula and for what it contributes to the skin’s surface and barrier. A small group of botanical actives adds further support for skin quality over time.

How I make it

Right now, I make every batch by hand, in small runs. The entire process from raw ingredients to finished product is in my hands. Every oil, every ratio, every decision about how it behaves on the skin. It took me months to get it right. I started with far too many ingredients, then gradually began leaving things out. What remained was the formula that eventually became The Six Seed Balm.

What it means

Skin Architecture is not simply a name for the AUREN philosophy. It describes the way I approach formulation: by looking at how skin is built, how its layers depend on one another and what each formula can realistically do to support them.

That is what the balm is for.

Lara, founder and formulator AUREN Botanicals