New Prestige Body Care Brand Nerra Brings Bathhouse Culture To Beauty Consumers’ Homes

Growing up in Carthage, Tunisia, Teyma Touati visited hammams once a week with her grandmother. “[Hammam] is a place where we go to laugh. There are young and old ladies, and it is a place where we cleanse our bodies and socialize,” she says. “When a friend gets married, you all go to the hammam.”

When Touati left Carthage for Dubai in 2020, she left behind the hammam and the cleansing ritual she practiced in it—and the texture of the skin all over her body changed for the worse as a result. Western-style skincare products were part of the problem.

“The Western world is very focused on their facial skin. They invest in serums, tonics, moisturizers, essences and at-home peels. They know about AHA, BHA, retinol and more. So, why is the same care and detail not done for the body?” she says. “I grew up with something really powerful by exfoliating and caring for my body the same way I would my face. In North Africa, your body is not clean until you exfoliate.”

Along with her professional and personal partner Fares Benouhiba, she decided to start a brand that would care for people’s bodies similarly to how many skincare brands care for their face. Touati and Benouhiba invested $300,000 from their savings and raised an additional $500,000 from friends and family to develop Nerra, a body care brand launching Tuesday that’s dedicated to bringing ancient hammam rituals to modern customers.

Traditional bathhouses rely on local ingredients, and that approach was blended with modern active ingredients to devise Nerra’s formulas. The brand revolves around a four-step ritual encompassing cleansing, exfoliating, detoxifying and moisturizing. The four products constituting the complete ritual are priced at $175 together and designed to last for two months.

Priced at $26 on its own, Pre-Exfoliating Foam is the initial step. The product is inspired by the ubiquitous olive oil-based green soap found inside Mediterranean bathhouses. It features hyaluronic acid, microalgae extract and amino acids and is intended to prepare the skin for exfoliation. Exfoliating Body Glove is the second step. Described as biodegradable, the $28 glove was tested for over a year to get it right. In what Nerra calls a first for an exfoliating glove, it’s certified as friendly for the skin microbiome.

Body Wash is the third step. The $36 product blends pink clay with hyaluronic acid, squalane, vegan collagen and algae probiotics. The pink clay was chosen to mimic traditional clay body masks done in the hammam. The fourth and final step is $85 Dry Body Oil. Showcasing Nerra’s hallmark jasmine wood aroma, it’s constructed to balance the hydrating effects of traditional olive and argan oils with fast-absorbing botanical oils such as omega 3-6-9.

In a nod to the brand’s commitment to sustainability, its name Nerra stands for “new responsible era.” Its products are crafted in France, and they’re certified as organic in line with the COSMOS standard, vegan and cruelty-free. Its outer packaging is certified as made from sustainably sourced materials by the Forest Stewardship Council. Touati points out that Nerra’s products undergo stability and compatibility testing for three months. The agency Numbered Studio guided its elegant, minimalistic look.

“Earning the trust of customers takes time and is built upon consistently delivering high-quality, effective products.”

“For Nerra, we don’t say sustainability, we say responsibility. We are focused on the responsibility to honor traditional practices, responsibility in our packaging and responsibility to the planet,” says Touati, a former financial coordinator who obtained a certificate in advanced cosmetic science from the Institute of Personal Care Science. “I think you need to know everything that goes into creating nice products, you need to understand your product, the packaging and the branding.”

Nerra’s choice of the term “ritual” over “routine” is purposeful. “We see skincare as more than a daily task. It’s a practice for both skin and spirit,” says Touati. “’Ritual’ emphasizes the idea of care and mindfulness that is at the heart of Nerra. It accelerates the idea of connecting with oneself through these practices.”

In 2024, Nerra projects it could hit $4 million in sales. The brand is breaking into a beauty industry that’s woken up to the potential of body care, previously considered an afterthought and commodity-heavy category. Brands like Nécessaire and Saltair are reimagining the body care space. Market research firm ReportLinker forecasts sales in the global luxury bath and products market will advance at a compound annual growth rate of 9.7% to go from $14.98 billion in 2022 to $21.66 billion in 2026.

However, Touati emphasizes she and Benouhiba are fully aware consumers won’t necessarily grasp its body care ritual overnight. “In an industry flooded with claims and promises, earning the trust of customers takes time and is built upon consistently delivering high-quality, effective products,” she says. “This is why we opted to have clinical results by conducting our consumer panel tests and doing our certifications like the microbiome-friendly glove, the COSMOS Ecocert certification and vegan certification.”

A 21-day clinical study of Nerra’s products with 36 participants showed that 97% of them reported smoother skin, 95% reported an enhanced glow and more youthful appearance, and 89% reported their skin felt softer and appeared healthier. To spread the message about its effectiveness and body care ritual, Nerra plans to seed hundreds of influencers on a monthly basis as it gets underway and hop on social media platforms. It will also throw in-person events.

Out of the gate, Nerra will sell in direct-to-consumer distribution on its website. The brand hosted its launch event at the spa Aman in New York, and it’s on its list of dream spas to enter. Spas and hotels are an important target distribution and awareness channel for the brand, but it expects to be placed at major retailers in the near future, too. Touati says, “We just want to focus on building the brand and educating our customers before we look at expansion.”