The Ritual of Ayurveda by Rituals: What an Expert Really Thinks

The sweet almond and Indian rose line has put the word Ayurveda in thousands of bathrooms. As an expert, here is what you are actually buying when you buy it.

August 20, 2026  ·  7 min read  ·  Elsa Ramos Elías

If you landed here searching for "rituals ayurveda", you probably have one of its bottles in your shower or you are about to buy one. The Ritual of Ayurveda line by the brand Rituals smells wonderful, dresses up a bathroom beautifully and has achieved something I am grateful for: thousands of women saying the word Ayurveda for the first time. As an expert in this medicine, it seems fair to review it with the same honesty I bring to reading a label in consultation: what is truly Ayurvedic about it, what is well-crafted marketing, and how to get the most out of it if it is already on your shelf.

Full disclosure: this is an independent review. I have no commercial relationship with Rituals.

What the Rituals Ayurveda line is

It is one of the Dutch brand's classic collections: body cream, a dry oil named "Vata", a rich body oil, shower foam, a body scrub, shampoo and several gift sets, priced roughly between 9 and 30 euros. The flagship ingredients are sweet almond oil and Indian rose, joined depending on the product by sunflower, moringa or coconut, with the promise of "balancing body, mind and soul" and 91% ingredients of natural origin, according to the brand's own claims.

What the line gets right

I will be the first to say it: the ingredient choices have real grounding. Sweet almond oil is one of Ayurveda's classic oils for calming vata, the dosha of air: dry skin, feeling cold, restlessness. Rose is cooling and has been used for centuries to soften pitta and settle the senses. The line's dry oil being named "Vata" is no accident: someone at Rituals did their homework.

They also get something deeper right: the idea of ritual. Ayurveda treats body care as a daily moment of full attention rather than a chore to rush through, and that is precisely what the brand sells. As a sensory gateway into this tradition, the Rituals Ayurveda line works.

What a bottle cannot give you

Here comes the part no campaign will tell you. Ayurveda works because it personalizes: the same cream that suits dry, cold skin (vata) can be too much for oily, congestion-prone skin (kapha), which needs stimulating and draining rather than more nourishment. A mass-produced line, however good, is formulated for the majority's nose, and your skin has its own type, something I map in the Ayurvedic skin types. In the tradition, "vata" is a diagnosis that decides the oil, its temperature, the pressure of the massage and even the time of day, and not a fragrance name.

There is a deeper limit too: Ayurvedic beauty is built from the inside as much as the outside. Skin reflects digestion, sleep and the state of the nervous system, which I explain in what Ayurveda understands by beauty. No cosmetic, from any brand, replaces that part.

"Your skin absorbs what you put on it, just as your gut absorbs what you eat: it is the gut-skin axis working in both directions. If you would not put it in your stomach, do not put it on your skin." — Elsa Ramos

The ingredients: what the label says

I went through the INCI of the Rituals Ayurveda body cream. In its favor: no parabens, no silicones, no sulfates and no phthalates declared. Now, the full list of the synthetics:

• Synthetic perfume (Parfum) with nine fragrance allergens the EU requires brands to declare: linalool, limonene, citronellol, geraniol, hexyl cinnamal, coumarin, cinnamyl alcohol, citral and benzyl benzoate. On sensitive skin, or with eczema or rosacea, it is the ingredient most likely to irritate.
• Synthetic preservatives: phenoxyethanol, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate and benzyl alcohol.
• PEGs and ethoxylated derivatives: PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil, ceteareth-12 and ceteareth-20, synthetic emulsifiers questioned in clean beauty for their manufacturing process.
• Other synthetics: propylene glycol, carbomer and sodium polyacrylate.

And on the question I get asked most, hormone disruption: research has been pointing for years at two families tied to synthetic perfume, the phthalates used as fixatives and synthetic musks such as galaxolide, as documented or suspected endocrine disruptors. The structural problem is that "parfum" is a trade secret: the label only has to declare the allergens, so you cannot know what else any product's perfume contains, from this brand or any other. That is why, for daily use over the whole body, my professional criterion is conservative: unscented 100% plant oils as the base, and perfume, if you enjoy it, on specific points rather than daily all over.

My position as a professional is clear: a formula with this much synthetic load cannot be sold as Ayurveda. In the tradition, what goes on the skin is food grade: oils you could eat, herbs and little else. This is conventional cosmetics with Ayurvedic inspiration, and that is what it should be called: Ayurvedic inspiration yes, Ayurveda no.

How to use the products the Ayurvedic way

If the Rituals Ayurveda line is already in your bathroom, three gestures turn it into something much closer to real Ayurveda:

• Use the oil as abhyanga, not as express moisturizer. Warm the oil between your hands (or the bottle in warm water), apply it with long, firm strokes toward the heart for 5 to 10 minutes and let it rest before the shower. Here is the full technique of the abhyanga self-massage.
• Choose the moment. Morning suits racing skins and minds (vata), with the water on the warm side; the scrub works best on kapha skin, and once or twice a week at most on dry skin.
• Support it from the inside. Warm water in sips, early dinners and a steady sleep schedule do more for your skin than any second layer of cream.

From the scent to the full ritual

My professional conclusion: the Rituals Ayurveda line is a lovely gateway and a sensory pleasure, and it stops right where Ayurveda starts to become transformative, which is personalization. The logical next step is knowing what your skin needs according to your constitution, and choosing oils, habits and routine with your own criteria from there. That complete method, with the formulas and routines I use with my patients, is what I teach in GLOW, my Ayurvedic beauty course.

Enjoy the line if you like it, knowing now what it is: a sensory pleasure rather than skincare. And when you want to move from the scent to the method, start by knowing your skin and build your own Ayurvedic skincare routine around it.