Ramadan Beauty Perspective
Ali Bin Ali Beauty offers an innovative proposition to GCC beauty consumers, focussing on the true meaning of clean luxury beauty. For Ramadan, Brooke Bergé, Division Manager of Ali Bin Ali Beauty, gives her insights on how to care for your skin during the Holy Month.
OHLALA – Ali Bin Ali Beauty is bringing conscious luxury to the beauty scene in the GCC. Can you please explain this concept and how the company is innovating in the field?
Brooke Bergé – Ali Bin Ali Beauty was created to address the absence of true eco-luxury within the regional beauty landscape. While the GCC has long embraced luxury, there was an evident absence of platforms that combined rigorous science, ethical formulation and long-term skin health within a culturally relevant framework. Our vision is to introduce a more thoughtful approach to beauty, one rooted in integrity, education and discernment, without compromise or mitigating eco-luxury.
OHLALA – When we talk about science-led beauty and modern clean luxury, what exactly is behind these terms? Can you summarise today’s skincare context?
Brooke – The notion of clean luxury has evolved into a more thoughtful and responsible expression of beauty. In the context of today’s consumer, especially during a time defined by mindfulness such as Ramadan, it’s important to consider three elements: clinical efficacy, environmental responsibility and ethical accountability. Modern clean luxury is defined by balance. It is the intersection of clinical efficacy and ethical responsibility, where performance is achieved without compromising skin health, transparency or the environment. Especially during this period, clean luxury should feel reassuring, supporting the skin’s natural functions while aligning with the Holy Month’s values of restraint, care and accountability.
OHLALA – The Holy Month of Ramadan revolves around a period of fasting, with no food or water during daylight hours. How can this practice affect the health of the skin and what are the best tips to avoid skin issues during this period?
Brooke – Fasting is often celebrated for its detoxifying benefits, yet few acknowledge the subtle physiological shifts it induces beneath the skin. Reduced hydration, blood sugar fluctuations, caffeine withdrawal and changes in circulation might trigger micro-inflammation (a low-grade stress response that can manifest as tightness, redness, sensitivity and dullness). This inflammation can be cumulative and often misdiagnosed as dehydration or fatigue. The skin’s barrier becomes more reactive, its tolerance lower and its recovery slower. During Ramadan, skincare should act as a buffer: calming, insulating and reparative. Anti-inflammatory botanicals, biomimetic lipids and soothing peptides help neutralise this invisible stress while reinforcing the skin’s natural defences. Rather than pushing the skin to perform, Ramadan is a time to allow it to breathe, restoring equilibrium through formulas that comfort rather than stimulate.
OHLALA – Beauty routines vary according to the season, changes in personal habits and, in this case, fasting and lack of hydration. Can you highlight some beauty routines to look for during Ramadan?
Brooke – Skincare routines during this time, mainly for those embracing the spiritual month’s rituals, should preserve balance, resilience and radiance. Ramadan calls for a shift from correction to care. Beauty routines during this time should focus on supporting the skin rather than stimulating it, strengthening the barrier, maintaining hydration and allowing natural repair processes to unfold. Focus on simplifying routines and choose regenerative, calming formulas that allow the skin to restore its equilibrium, reflecting the wider spirit of renewal that defines the Holy Month.
OHLALA – It is also a period when people become more active at night, disrupting sleep schedules. How does this shift influence the skin and how should skincare adapt to support it?
Brooke – The circadian rhythm is a natural cycle of physical, mental and behavioural changes that the body goes through over a 24-hour period. It is mostly affected by light and darkness and is controlled by a small area in the middle of the brain. Disruption in the circadian rhythm directly affects the circadian skin rhythm, which plays a key role in cellular repair. During Ramadan, the evenings stretch longer, sleep patterns soften and the body adapts to a rhythm dictated by intention rather than habit. The skin, however, still follows its own internal clock, one that governs cellular repair, collagen synthesis and barrier regeneration. Scientific research confirms that skin repair peaks at night, when melatonin levels rise and cortisol drops. With a disruption in the bedtime routine, these repair windows often shift to later, coinciding with Suhour, night prayers and altered rest cycles. However, the result is not tired skin but irregularities in the complexion, such as uneven texture, that require recalibration rather than correction. The solution to avoid such issues lies in night-intelligent skincare: formulations designed to work with the skin’s circadian rhythm rather than against it. Lipid-rich serums, peptide complexes and slow-release actives support repair during unconventional hours, allowing the skin to restore itself even when sleep is fragmented.
OHLALA – Dehydration is a significant concern during this period. Can you clarify the concept of hydrated skin and explain how to achieve a healthy complexion?
Brooke – “Drink more water” is the most repeated beauty advice during Ramadan, but the skin-hydration paradox suggests that hydration needs a more considered approach. While hydration from within is essential, it does little to address trans-epidermal water loss, which accelerates during fasting due to reduced lipid production. True hydration is structural. It depends on the integrity of the skin barrier, which is supported by intercellular lipids that lock moisture in and protect against evaporation. Without these, even well-hydrated bodies can experience dehydrated skin. Luxury skincare reframes hydration as architecture rather than moisture. Intelligent humectants draw water into the skin, while ceramides, cholesterol and fatty acids seal it in. The result is not surface plumpness, but lasting resilience. During Ramadan, hydration becomes an act of design, creating a skin environment that retains moisture long after the last sip at Suhour.