From our table to yours: a letter from the family behind S&R

Dear you,

We have wanted to write this for a while. Not a brand story with a timeline and a logo reveal, but the one we tell when someone messages us late at night on WhatsApp and asks, quite simply: who are you?

So here it is.

It began with a conversation

It began at home, around the table, the way most of our important decisions still do. We were a family who wanted to make something together. Not just a business that sells things, but something different, something with a little meaning in it, something we would be proud to put our name on.

For years we had been going to beauty exhibitions, in Egypt and outside it, Dubai among them. And every time, the same thing held our attention. Not the glossy stands or the famous names, but the making. Watching a plant become an oil, an oil become a cream, and realising how much care goes into a jar before anyone ever opens it.

The gap on the shelf

Our founder had always loved that part. She wanted to make something she would use herself, every day, without thinking twice. But whenever she went looking, she found the same gap: what was good was priced like a luxury, and what was affordable felt limited.

That gap is the reason S&R exists. We wanted good, natural care that a family in Egypt can come back to every month, not keep on a high shelf for special occasions.

Care you use every day, not save for special occasions.

A name that was already ours

When it came to choosing where to start, there was nothing to discuss. Our family name is Riyhan, ريحان, the Arabic word for basil. The herb was already ours.

So we started as Basil & Co, and basil went into everything we made. It is still there today: in the face cleanser, with lemon and peppermint; in the body lotion, with honey; in the body oil, with coconut; and in the glycerin soaps we shape by hand.

If there is an old bottle with a Basil & Co label somewhere in your bathroom, keep it. It was made by the same family.

When you asked for more

Then something lovely happened. People liked what we made, and they told us what else they wished we made. More for their hair. More for their scalp. More for every kind of skin in the house.

Basil could not do all of that alone, so our garden grew. Argan and jojoba for hair that needs repair and moisture. Rosemary for the scalp. Tea tree to keep it clean. Vitamin E, quietly, almost everywhere. Coconut, aloe vera, shea butter, oat, licorice, almond oil. Each one chosen because it does a job, never just so it can be printed on a label.

A garden that size needed a bigger name. Basil & Co became S&R Beauty. Same family, same basil at the root. Just a longer table.

• Argan
• Jojoba
• Rosemary
• Tea tree
• Vitamin E
• Coconut
• Aloe vera
• Shea butter
• Oat and licorice

The things we will not bend on

Growing meant making more, and making more meant deciding, out loud, what we would never compromise. There are four.

1. Natural first. More than 90% of what goes into our products is natural. Every ingredient has to earn its place.
2. Made properly. We only manufacture in licensed, ISO-certified facilities, every raw material we use is licensed and certified, and our products are registered with the Ministry of Health. As we grew, production expanded from Egypt to Dubai, and the standards went with it.
3. For everyone at home. Every product is made to suit all skin types, sensitive skin included, and all hair types. One shelf should be able to look after the whole family.
4. A fair price. A face cleanser is EGP 230. A natural loofah starts at EGP 30. That was the promise at the start, and it still is.

The details are where we live

Ask us what makes S&R different, beyond the plants, and the answer is small things. The way a texture feels the first time it meets your skin. A scent that stays with you after you have left the bathroom. The weight of a jar in your hand. The moment you lift the lid of a gift box and see how carefully everything has been placed, because every box leaves us packed by hand.

None of that is complicated. It just takes attention, and attention is the one thing we have never tried to make cheaper.

From our table to yours

We are still a family business. New products are still talked through around the same table. And we still read every message.

So if you are not sure what suits your skin, or your mother's, or the beard in the house, write to us on WhatsApp. We would honestly rather help you choose the right thing than sell you the wrong one. Or take our one-minute routine finder and let it suggest a start.

Thank you for letting us into your bathroom, your routine, and sometimes your gift-giving. It means more than a label can say.

With love, from our table to yours. The S&R family

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