We use it fresh because curcumin, the active compound, is at its strongest before drying. It works by blocking tyrosinase — the enzyme that tells your skin to produce melanin. Less signal, less pigmentation. It's also what gives Sona that warm amber colour.

Your dadi kept mulethi in the kitchen for a reason — turns out it's one of the most effective natural skin brighteners there is. Glabridin works at the pigmentation stage directly, slowing melanin production. Pair it with haldi working upstream at the inflammation stage and you're covering both ends of why dark spots form.

While haldi and mulethi work at the chemistry level, rice flour gently lifts the top layer of dead, pigmented skin cells so fresher skin can show through. It also carries ferulic acid — an antioxidant that slows the skin damage that pollution causes every day.

Mild AHAs and vitamin C precursors that help shed that outermost pigmented layer. It's the third piece of Sona's brightening stack — surface, enzyme, and inflammation all addressed in one bar.