Gourmet Skincare from Sabatino & Co. Roma


By: Hannah Sheinberg

One of Newbury street’s newest shops, Sabatino & Co. Roma, specializes in gourmet Mediterranean ingredients with an emphasis on truffles. Not to be confused with the chocolate confectionaries, these rare underground mushrooms are imported from farms in Italy. Sabatino & Co. is hoping to bring the gourmet ingredient not just to your table, but to your toiletries as well.

Launched last month, the company’s skincare branch, Skin&Co., features extracts of rosemary, mint, almond, olive oil, lavender, Sicilian orange, and, of course, truffle. Besides the benefit of an organic product that isn’t mass-produced, truffles have an anti-aging element with tightening properties that’s sure to rival your old Olay.

“[Customers] have a right to have a product that’s good for them,” says Gabriel Balestra, CEO of Sabatino & Co. Balestra is focusing on expanding his family’s 100-year-old legacy while also trying to make truffle products more accessible. Products containing black truffle extract, like Bagnodoccia di Tarfuto ($35), an exfoliating shower gel, and Latte di Tartufo ($45), a body milk, are exclusive enough for the decadent but priced moderately enough for the curious.

Sabatino & Co. also sells all types of Mediterranean ingredients for your kitchen, such as olive oil (either plain or infused with fruits and spices), vinegars, pasta sauces, condiments, salts, and sugars. A major part of the company is still the prized truffles and truffle-infused products, such as honey, aged balsamic vinegar (infused with white truffles, the rarest of all the ‘shrooms), sea salt, butter, and honey mustard.

So maybe truffle skincare can’t guarantee a transformation into Venus herself ? but it couldn’t hurt to try, right?

130 Newbury St., Boston, 617-236-7111, sabatinoandco.com.