'PAMPERING is out and nurturing is in,' says Megan Larsen, founder of Sodashi,a line of totally natural, therapeutic spa products. 'We need to look after ourskin because it stays with us forever.'

Ms Larsen has found a niche at the high end of the spa industry. One of thevery few all-natural spa brands, Sodashi skincare products have been picked upby the exclusive Four Seasons Hotel & Resort in Malaysia, George V Hotel inParis and Six Senses Resorts & Spas in the Maldives, Dubai and Thailand.

Sodashi - Sanskrit for 'wholeness, purity and radiance' - packs in as muchmeaning as there are ingredients in the products. The ingredient list on eachbottle even reads a bit like a menu - take its Nourishing Treatment cream,touted to slow visible ageing, which includes avocado oil, macadamia oil,apricot kernel oil and frankincense.

'We're very prescriptive in the ingredients we use,' says Ms Larsen.Sodashi's active materials are powerful essential oils that are 70 times morepotent than the actual plant. These oils have aromatic soothing qualities andhelp rejuvenate and smooth the skin.

Ms Larsen herself is cool and deliberate over afternoon tea. She remembersher start in the beauty business: 'I fast-tracked through life. I went throughall the emotions of life between ages 18 and 24. It wasn't a particularly happytime.' But her life came together just as her self-made beauty regime did. Shereorganised her life with the help of an aunt and dived into the wellnessbusiness, backed by her formal training in beauty therapy, aromatherapy andnatural therapies.

In 1994, she opened a natural therapy centre, but refused to use any of theproducts she sold on her own skin. Instead, she concocted jars of soothinglotions and skin cleansers in her kitchen. She laughs at selling her littleunlabelled bottles to friends, but therein began the Sodashi line, which hasnow grown to 140 products.

Sodashi skincare products are 30 per cent organic and uniquely 100 per centnatural, leaving out chemicals and harmful paraben preservatives.

Ms Larsen says: 'It is our top quality preservative coupled with a very highgrade therapeutic essential oil that gives the products a two-year shelf life.'

Sodashi hires consulting biochemists, but draws on its founder's own formaltraining in beauty therapy, natural therapies and aromatherapy. Ms Larsenwrites her own formulas, mixing in ingredients that a biochemist would not.

Ms Larsen likes to source her own raw materials from around the world forthe best active ingredients from the best climates. She has just returned froma rose oil distillery in Turkey. 'Rose oil must be absolutely pure,' sheexplains. 'It is very rejuvenating, very anti ageing, and it's great forbalancing the heart.'

With the price of rose oil at $2 to $3 a drop, the products become expensivewhen each bottle contains several high-end ingredients.

She believes that personal and business life should be run by the sameprinciples of good ethics, top quality and care. In all things, what works wellis the most relaxing.

'You can feel the bad tension in a company,'she says. 'We don't want anymental toxins in our company employees or company philosophy that couldultimately end up in the products.' That is why all Sodashi key spa staff andtherapist trainers practise Transcendental Meditation, a consciousness-basedform of meditation developed to promote well-being and reduce stress.

For more information on products and spa locations see www.sodashi.com