Netflix’s “Mind Your Manners” Host Launches Intimate Care Brand Inspired By Traditional Chinese Medicine

With the launch of Antevorta, Sara Jane Ho wants to help you mind more than your manners. 

Since 2022, the author, international etiquette expert and founder of Institute Sarita, a finishing school that previously had locations in Beijing and Shanghai, has been the host of popular Netflix series “Mind Your Manners,” during which she coaches guests through empowering personal makeovers. Now, she’s leveraging her passion for empowerment to launch luxury traditional Chinese medicine intimate care brand Antevorta with her best friend Annie Ho.

Antevorta is named for the Roman goddess of the future, and it’s starting in direct-to-consumer distribution with four products: $19 The Intimate Wipe, $33 The Hydrating Intimate Cleansing Gel, $29 The Intimate Spray and $31 The Intimate Pocket Spray. The range is designed to target dryness, irritation, odor and other common intimate skin concerns. While it’s solely in DTC now, Antevorta has ambitions to expand to boutique online beauty and wellness retailers in the United States and China in the near future.

“They’re a daily care bundle because what we’re promoting, what TCM promotes, is prevention,” says Sara Jane. “We don’t wait for a problem to arise. You are your best self when you maintain the best environment for your intimate parts in order to fend off the main issues that women experience with their vulva. We have a rallying belief that we feel empowered when we’re comfortable in ourselves and in our own skin.”

The products are free of alcohol, parabens, phthalates, artificial fragrances, dyes, sulfates, silicones and mineral oils. However, what’s more interesting than what the products avoid is what they contain. Antevorta’s core ingredient, Wu Wei Xiao Du Yin, translated as “five ingredient decoction to eliminate toxin,” is in every product. Wu Wei Xiao Du Yin is an ancient TCM formula that’s been passed down through generations since the Qing dynasty. It’s made up of five herbs: Japanese honeysuckle, wild chrysanthemum flower, dandelion, Chinese violet herb and semiaquilegia root tubers.

“There have been multiple studies that have shown it’s a super herb for wound healing,” says Sara Jane. “Applying it, especially to the sensitive area that is our vulva, helps with a lot of prevention.”

Herbal wisdom has been passed down within Annie’s family. Her grandfather opened his first TCM clinic in Taiwan in the 1940s, and it’s currently operated by her cousins. She knew from day one of working on Antevorta that ancient TCM formulas—many still used today—would be central to the brand.  

“Most [formulas are used] for ingestion and not for incorporation into beauty and wellness products,” she says. “When I began ideating on product development, I started with an imaginary customer and began to research her needs. I then put myself in the shoes of a TCM doctor, recommending the best ancient formula within the repertoire of my knowledge, and then topped it off with a few additional TCM herbs that have different function-boosting purposes, wrapped in the latest biotech.” 

Annie brings luxury consumer brand experience to Antevorta. Prior to launching the intimate care brand, she spent years running the Asian markets for luxury fashion brands like Stella McCartney and Shanghai Tang.

Antevorta’s website features editorial content, including city guides à la early Goop that focus specifically on the best TCM destinations for gua sha facials, acupuncture, herb shopping and more. “For us, it’s about more than just the brand,” says Sara Jane. “We want to be the go-to authority for TCM that makes it easy and simple, almost like the source of truth for TCM.”

After graduating from Harvard Business School, Sara Jane moved to Beijing and opened Institute Sarita. She taught a hostess course to women in China beginning in 2013 as the country was becoming established as a power player in the luxury market. A theme that Antevorta is building upon, the hostess course was designed to help women move through the world with confidence.

Sara Jane says, “It’s a confidence that you don’t see because etiquette is more about how you behave, how you’re able to bring your best self to different situations.”

Sara Jane and Annie declined to share how much they’ve spent to launch Antevorta, but divulged they provided funding along with funding from what they described as a small friends and family round. Sara Jane says the brand would “absolutely” be interested in a strategic investment down the line.