Our products avoid comedogenic (pore-clogging) ingredients and harsh chemical irritants. The herbal and modern science ingredients we do include can help soothe the skin and repair the skin barrier.

Our products are formulated for sensitive skin and made without fragrance, alcohol, essential oils, and more—ingredients that the National Eczema Association recommends avoiding. To learn more about ingredients we exclude, visit our blacklist here.

Our products are carefully designed to hydrate, nourish, and strengthen the skin barrier without overburdening the skin. Our lightweight formulations are clinically tested, sensitive-skin friendly, and National Eczema Association approved.

Our products are not formulated with harsh ingredients however everyone’s body and skin chemistry is different. We suggest you consult a physician before use.

While your skin is reactive, it’s best to use only gentle, fragrance-free, and essential-oil free moisturizers to soothe and protect. Skip strong ingredients like scrubs or acids.

Our Recovery Serum and Everyday Cream are gentle formulas for sensitive skin, and have undergone HRIPT testing through an independent consumer trial including 100 users. 100% of users agreed they would use our cream and serum for sensitive or compromised skin, however if your skin situation is serious, we recommend you consult a doctor prior to use.

Our products are formulated with lightweight, oil-free ingredients that are less likely to clog pores based on their properties. We’ve designed our formulas to be sensitive skin-friendly, however everyone's skin can react differently, so we recommend patch testing before full use—especially if you're acne-prone.

At Terra Roots, our skincare formulas take inspiration from Traditional Chinese Medicine herbs and natural remedies, looking towards hero ingredients that are from the earth and have a rich heritage. Named after the heart of our philosophy—of the earth, “Terra”, and with history, “Roots”—we hope to pay homage to centuries of tradition and continue learning from what nature has to teach us. 

The long dash (—) in our logo has a few meanings. The dash, often used as a connector, is a metaphor for our formulation approach, which pairs heritage herbal ingredients with modern skin science, where we connect, combine, and complement heritage learnings with the latest technologies. But we can also see the long dash as a representation of balance, a key Traditional Chinese Medicine principle. We strive for balance, in our skincare formulas, to help nurture our skin, and to move through the world.

Our founder, Lily, was on a journey to heal her own sensitive skin in the early 2020s. She began exploring Traditional Chinese Medicine to better understand the efficacy of natural herbs and the history behind certain formulas. This inspired her to create Terra Roots to redefine modern herbal skincare, pairing heritage wisdom with modern science. Looking beyond efficacy, Terra Roots is also interested in thinking holistically about skincare. Traditional Chinese Medicine learnings ask us to consider not only how our skin is balanced, but also our bodies and minds.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a 3,000-year-old holistic system using herbs, acupuncture, and diet to restore balance in the body’s energy, also known as qi, 氣. Many TCM herbs—like licorice root (anti-inflammatory) and Scutelleria baicalensis (antioxidant)—are known for their multi-functional skincare benefits. The herbs we’ve selected for our formulations each have contemporary clinical research and studies proving their efficacy and safety. To learn more about our formulations, see here. 

All of the herbal ingredients in our products meet cosmetic safety standards for topical use. Safety is one of the core principles of our formulation approach. 

The herbal ingredients in our formulas are used in cosmetic-grade concentrations for soothing benefits, not medical treatment. Consult a doctor if you have specific health concerns or allergies.

Huang Qin Tang (黃芩湯), also known as Scutelleria Decoction, is a well-known classical TCM remedy originating over 2,000 years ago. It was created by Zhang Zhongjing (張仲景), a philosopher and physician in the Han Dynasty, and documented in the Shang Han Lun (傷寒論), Treatise on Cold Damage. Since then, there have been numerous studies on the efficacy of Huang Qin Tang, and investigations into how to translate and bring it into modern medicinal and scientific practices. Research has shown that classical Chinese recipes such as Huang Qin Tang, are indeed still relevant and effective formulations we can reference.

The TCM herbs in our formulations are selected based on research and efficacy. The ancient remedies we reference have been around for centuries, and numerous studies have shown their effectiveness. TCM recipes are often a combination of herbs—balancing each other, amplifying benefits and mollifying any side effects—and we have taken that learning to also add in modern science ingredients and learnings to create our skin care products.

We combine herbal ingredients and learnings from Traditional Chinese Medicine with modern skin science technology. All of our products are clean (without harsh ingredients), safe (made for sensitive skin), effective (backed by research), and holistic (balanced formulas). To learn more about our formulation approach, see here.

We believe in no harm and our products are vegan and cruelty-free. We do not test on animals.

Our journey began with our own sensitive skin. We strove to understand the underlying causes for sensitive skin (weak skin barriers, sensitivity to ingredients, allergic reactions, etc), and formulated our products with those learnings in mind. We have an extensive blacklist of ingredients that we avoid, including alcohol, sulfates, and synthetic fragrances, to help ensure our formulas are not irritating. We’re also careful to exclude comedogenic oils, opting for no-clogging alternatives which are safer for acne-prone skin. Learn more about our blacklist here.