Where the Tata Harper Magic Happens

Tata Harper famously does much of the manufacturing for her all-natural clean skin care on her farm in Vermont, where until recently she also lived. When the single mom and her family moved south to Connecticut (the farm is as busy as ever making products, and the family still stays there often), she embarked on decorating her new space—with special attention to an intentionally sprawling bath area. “I have a home office in another part of the house,” she says. “But this is where the real research goes on.”

It’s a private space, reached through Harper’s bedroom and full of light from the enormous windows, with trees just outside. “Natural light is important, and so is feeling in touch with nature,” she says. Harper mapped out spaces according to her routines, so there’s a wonderful sense of ease throughout. “Even though it serves me as something of a laboratory, this is the place for downtime,” she says. “I really relax here, and I get my best ideas when I’m in that state.”

Like many of us, Harper says her best ideas come when she’s in the shower, a large walk-in stocked with Grown Alchemist and Sangre de Fruta hair products (there’s a tub of goop scalp scrub, too) that sits just behind the window-ringed bath and meditation area. “When I’m my most relaxed, I’m able to solve many problems,” she says.

Harper believes massaging the scalp can help with hair health, so she focuses on it—in and out of the shower.

Much of the skin care—existing and potential future Tata Harper skin miracles—sits along a double-sink area. “All the cleansing and exfoliating and experimenting goes on here,” she says. “There’s a big mirror, some hair ties—you can just give yourself the full treatment.”

“At night, I love to double cleanse. I remove my SPF, dirt, and traces of makeup with my oil cleanser, and for the second cleanse, I go deeper with our purifying cleanser, our mask for detox,” she says.

The center of the space is a big bathtub surrounded by windows and fronted by a plush meditation area. Once out of the shower, Harper often lands here next. “I was obsessed with this Italian meditation chair, and then I ended up putting a little table near it, so I use it for meditation and also for trying out or working with product,” she says. She clusters bath oils, body creams, and an ultrahydrating face mask by the tub: “I love an indulgent bath,” she says.

Harper uses the table by the meditation chair for a midday routine. “If I’m home, I do this right after lunch, and it’s like a pick-me-up,” she says. “Rather than having a coffee or something along those lines, I sit down and apply an essence like our brightening essence, or a tonic like the goop one. I then apply our Restorative Eye Crème and add a few drops of our retinoic face oil.”

Tucked off to one side, the vanity area is where Harper loves to put on many of her serums and skin creams, as well as her famous lip and cheek tints and, if she’s going out, a little makeup. “I’ve always had a separate area different from the sink,” she says. “So did my mother and grandmother. I think it’s important to have a place that’s separate from the area where you wash your hands and brush your teeth where you can sit down in a nice chair and do your skin-care routine. It’s relaxing.”

Harper’s favorites are all clean and super chic.