Who am I?
I started formulating natural skin care products as a hobby in my kitchen in 1995. In 1998, I launched my first cosmetic brand at a local market. In 2001, I revolutionised the beauty industry by creating the world’s first certified organic skin care range, Miessence. Since then, I’ve formulated over 100 products in the health and beauty space that have achieved over $100M in sales.
Now, after more than 20 years of devotion to Miessence, and declining the many requests I received to formulate for competitors, I decided it was time for a change! I’m now turning my attention to the next generation of health and beauty entrepreneurs. I’m excited to be in the creative phase again, and am offering consulting to budding entrepreneurs, new brands and established companies wanting to be a part of the multi- trillion dollar global wellness market.
The innovation:
I help health and beauty entrepreneurs bring their big ideas to life! There are so many creative people out there that have an amazing idea for a product in the health and beauty space, but no idea how to bring it to life, or they’re making a great product in their kitchen and are looking for the next step in manufacturing. Or they want to reverse-engineer a product they really love so they can make it theirs. Or entrepreneurs who dream to launch an organic beauty and wellness brand with a complete range of organic skincare and superfood / supplement powders, but don’t know where to start. Or even brands that would like to take their existing not-so-natural product range to a whole new level by upgrading to truly natural or even certified organic. I can do all of this. After 25 years in the health and beauty space, focusing on one brand, I’m so excited to share my experience and knowledge with entrepreneurs who desire a unique brand proposition in line with the clean beauty, clean label, local and free from trends in the global wellness movement.
The benefits of being Australian made…
I’m based on the Gold Coast but have clients all over Australia and the world. With the focus on clean, green and organic in the wellness sector, many brands are moving away from cheap, overseas private label products and are now searching for skincare solutions a little closer to home. A-beauty is the latest skin care trend! Australia has so many unique native plants and we are just starting to discover how amazingly potent they are. Aussie skin care is all about multi-tasking and simplicity.
Biggest lesson I have learnt being an innovator…
The biggest lesson I’ve learnt about being an innovator is to be grateful for the imitators, instead of being upset or offended at the bandwagon jumpers. The market is big enough for all of us. I’m just happy to have played a part in the evolution of the skin care industry towards clean, green and organic. Although, there’s still plenty of green-washing happening in the beauty industry – I do look forward to the day that the peddlers of toxic garbage disguised as natural products are called out for what they are by educated consumers and are forced to make formulation changes to keep their market share. This is happening, slowly but surely, but there’s still a long way to go.
Plans for the year ahead…
Help make more entrepreneurial dreams come true.
This article appears in the current issue of Professional Beauty.
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