About Us

WHO WE ARE: Rica products are inspired by a history of southern family beauty recipes dating back to the owner’s great, great grandmother, fondly known as “Big Mama”, who used fresh farmland ingredients to make healthy + effective beauty products. RICA products include natural ingredients that maintain this time-honored tradition of healing through nature and old-fashioned simplicity. When you enjoy one of our Rica creations, you are living our family history with us. We are not a trend; we are a tradition.

WHAT WE DO: RICA products are fresh-made to order, daily (we do not pull from an inventory), in Southold, NY. Mixed “farm to vanity” style with organic and local grown ingredients (when possible) and sourced from the farms of Long Island’s North Fork. Made without synthetic preservatives, colorants, parabens, sulfates or petroleum, everything is USA made in a Northfork, Long Island studio housing our production facility. The company is now run by Kristina and her husband, Ben, and a small staff. We mix, pack and ship hundreds of units daily to stores and customers all over the world. We love that our corporate headquarters is our kitchen table. Nothing makes us happier than our customers entrusting us to be their skincare personal chefs, mixing fresh helpings of comfort food for the skin.

Our History

Dr. Kristina Ivy, RICA’s owner, a holistic clinician specializing in women’s health, learned as a little girl growing up in Virginia to look towards nature for calming the mind and soothing the body. Her childhood was influenced by the generations of woman in her family, making natural beauty remedies by taking botanicals grown in their rich Virginian soil and mixing them with ingredients from their kitchen.

Her great, great grandmother, who everyone in the county called “Big Mama”, made perfume by infusing oil with rose and jasmine, cornmeal facial masks with honey, and bathed in goat’s milk and sage to improve skin tone. The later generations including Ivy, continued to use fresh helpings of ingredients from the garden and kitchen for their handmade bath + body recipes.

The woman in Ivy’s family have lived well into their 90’s; healthy, happy and with beautiful skin. Their anti-aging secret was that they knew how to close the door on daily demands, and find time for bathing rituals, kitchen concoctions in hand. Ivy recalls how they always emerged from the bath, beautiful, moisturized, and restored.

What started as a handful of Big Mama’s tried and true recipes, passed from generation to generation, later began Rica’s 4 core products, and the line has steadily grown into over 50 sku’s including candles, home accessories + bath linens. Rica products are inspired by memories of sitting at a kitchen table with loved ones laughing, mixing and sharing life’s lessons.

We are happy to welcome y’all to the RICA family, and hope that when you use these products, they help create new memories for you and the ones you love.

Warm Wishes,