Story
A laboratory in Lisbon.
Aura was founded in 2019 by Dr. Yara Haddad, a dermatologist trained at Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut with a postdoctoral fellowship at iMed.ULisboa. Her published work focuses on lipid-barrier repair and the cutaneous response to chronic UV exposure in Mediterranean populations.
The brand emerged from a frustration with her own prescription pad. Pharmacy formulations were either over-medicalized or aestheticized into uselessness; the in-between — a small set of well-dosed actives, honestly explained — did not exist. Aura is that small set.
We are a team of eleven, working out of a single laboratory in the Beato district. We make eight products and we will not make a ninth until the data demands it.
Founder
Dr. Yara Haddad
Dermatologist, formulator, founder.
Dr. Haddad trained in medicine and dermatology at Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut before moving to Lisbon in 2017 for a postdoctoral fellowship at iMed.ULisboa.
Her research focuses on lipid-barrier repair and Mediterranean photobiology. She maintains a part-time clinical practice in the Chiado district.
Timeline
Ten years on the bench.
- 2015Dr. Haddad begins prescribing a three-step protocol in her Beirut clinic.
- 2018Postdoctoral fellowship at iMed.ULisboa; first stability trials of retinaldehyde encapsulation.
- 2019Aura is founded in Lisbon with four products.
- 2022Open-label 12-week trial of Serum 01 published in JEADV.
- 2024Catalog stabilizes at eight products. Refill program begins.