Ece Baltaci is the founder of SADE, a Dubai-born minimal essentials beauty brand, built on a simple idea: one thoughtfully designed product for each part of a modern woman’s life.
The name means “simple, pure, plain” in Turkish, a philosophy that shapes everything the brand creates. Launched in late 2025, SADE has quickly become one of the region’s most talked-about emerging beauty brands. Its barrier-focused skincare and silk-finish lip range are produced in Korea and Turkey and formulated specifically for Gulf climate conditions, including heat, air conditioning, and sun exposure.
Before founding SADE, Ece worked across startups in several countries, building brands at the intersection of growth, strategy, and product. An engineer turned beauty founder, she spent years observing the gap between what women actually use and what beauty brands continue to launch. SADE is her answer: shorter routines, sharper formulas, and products designed to move as easily as the women carrying them.
Outside of work, she trains daily and travels constantly in search of inspiration. She believes the best ideas come from staying in motion: long walks, longer flights, and a passport that rarely sees its drawer. She built SADE the same way: always moving, always editing, never adding for the sake of it. Dubai is home base, but the world is where the work gets sharper.
CORPUS Hand Cream in Amalgam 7
Airplane air destroys your hands. This is the hand cream I've been packing: plant-based, fast-absorbing, and it smells more like a chypre perfume than a traditional cream. Small enough for carry-on, dressed enough to leave on the hotel bedside.
SAR 141
Buy yours here
Aesop Resurrection Rinse-Free Hand Wash
A pocket-size non-negotiable. Plane bathrooms, the back of the car, between meetings – I don't love how regular sanitisers make my hands feel, and this is the opposite. Cedarwood, mandarin, lavender, no dryness.
SAR 210
Buy yours here
Apple EarPods (wired)
Yes, the cable ones. They never run out of battery on a long-haul, never disconnect, and there's something a bit more done-with-it-all about pulling a wire out of your bag instead of fishing around for two tiny pods. I've made peace with the look, and I actually think they are still super cool.
SAR 89
Buy yours here
SYP Hydration Electrolytes
Long flights, Gulf summers, hotel air-con, your skin and energy both pay for it. SYP is Dubai-born, plant-based, and the sachet I throw into my bag instead of reaching for a coffee. I love female founders, and I think founder-built brands tend to put more thought into the details. This one tastes like it.
From SAR 50
Buy yours here
SADE Glow Veil SPF50 PA++++ & Silk Lip Melt in Salted Vanilla Caramel
These two go into every bag together. The SPF sits invisibly under makeup and doesn’t pill or leave a white cast. I built it for Gulf weather and travel days, and it’s earned its passport – it travels through every airport scanner without leaking. If I had to pick one SADE product to take on a plane, this would be it. The Lip Melt is what I reach for on the plane and don’t think about again until landing. Soft caramel beige, glassy finish, zero stickiness. I keep Cherry Sorbet in the same pouch for dinner.
From Dhs 67, Buy the Glow Veil SPF50 here
From Dhs 60, Buy the Silk Lip Melt here
iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard
I run SADE off this when I travel. Lighter than a laptop, fast enough for everything from approving creative to answering buyer emails and doing Shopify check-ins, and it doubles as my in-flight reading device. The Magic Keyboard turns it into a real workstation in a hotel room.
iPad Pro starting from SAR 4699, Buy yours here
Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro from SAR 1363, Buy yours here
Two books: one for the brain, one for the soul I always pack two.
One about how great brands and companies were built – I'm obsessed with understanding what made them last. And one novel that has nothing to do with work, just to switch my brain off for an hour and disappear from the real world. Founders tend to overthink everything, and fiction or good storytelling is the only thing that actually makes it stop.
From SAR 80, Buy Atomic Habits here
https://www.amazon.sa/-/en 8.
Anker MagSafe Ultra Slim Power Bank
I'm the kind of person who charges everything the second it drops below 50%. A dead phone in a foreign city with Google Maps open is not an option. This clips magnetically onto the back of my phone – no cables, no fumbling – so I can keep navigating, replying, and moving without breaking stride.
From SAR 229,
Buy yours here
Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Patches & Slip Silk Eye Mask
I can sleep anywhere: planes, cars, hotel lobbies, you name it. The Slip mask is always on my face. Silk means no under-eye creases when I land, and it actually blocks light properly, which most sleep masks don’t. And if I need to show up looking remotely human after a red-eye, I put on a pair of Beauty of Joseon eye patches for the last hour of the flight. Ginseng, retinal, Korean-made, they de-puff in twenty minutes flat.
Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Patches, from SAR 90, Buy yours here
Slip Silk Eye Mask, from SAR 307, Buy yours here
Anya Hindmarch In-Flight Travel Bag
I'm an Anya Hindmarch organiser girl and I'm not sorry about it. The in-flight bag has labelled pockets for passport, liquids, technology, take-off, touchdown. It slides over the trolley handle, so it means I'm never digging through my carry-on at Gate F22. I also have a handy pills box from Anya Hindmarch, and the pills box lives inside my travel bag: a buttery burgundy, seven compartments for each day of the week, and yes, it happens to match SADE's brand colour perfectly. Vitamins, supplements, the occasional headache tablet, too many to leave to a ziplock.
From US$ 1060
Buy yours here
WHOOP
I wear it 24/7; flights, workouts, sleep. It tracks my recovery, strain, and sleep quality, which matters when you’re running a brand across time zones and still trying to make it to barre the morning after a red-eye. No screen, no notifications, just data I actually use. It's the reason I know when to push and when to stop pretending I'm fine on four hours of sleep.
Memberships starting from SAR 649,
Buy yours here
Diptyque Do Son Eau de Parfum Travel Spray
A fragrance reset between the airport and dinner. Tuberose and orange blossom, feminine without being heavy, and small enough to fit in my coat pocket. The fastest way to feel like yourself again after twelve hours in transit.
From SAR 960
Buy yours here
Shop SADE Skin here
Or shop via Powder Beauty in KSA here
@sadeskin.co @ecebaltaci
