When you started Skin Juice in 1996, your approach was quite different to what was on trend in the world of skincare at the time. Can you tell us a bit about that?
The concept of Skin Juice was quite rebellious at the time – back in the 90s it was very much about the French or overseas products and the glam and luxe.
What really drove me was to create a product that would benefit my clients. I had my own beauty salon on Darby Street Newcastle, called Revel in Beauty where I was mostly doing facials. I wanted to create something that worked naturally with the skin, and its natural biological functions.
I had studied aromatherapy and herbal therapy, so I understood the value of those ingredients and how they could work with the skin, so I applied my knowledge to create some beautiful oil cleansers and face oils, which was quite a new and different concept at the time and a lot of people didn’t really understand what I was doing. I would say this was the hardest push – promoting oil-based skincare products at a time when most brands were promoting oil-free products, as well as educating customers about the benefits of natural essential oils when they were conditioned to synthetic fragrances.
You describe Skin Juice as skincare that nourishes your skin the way that a healthy diet nourishes your body. How is this achieved?
Just like the body, the skin needs certain nutrients, proteins, minerals, vitamins and essential fatty acids for it to be healthy and glowing. Skin Juice products are full of nutritious natural and organic bio-compatible ingredients that have been selected for their ability to be metabolised to balance, repair and feed the skin at a deep cellular level.
Our skin-loving formulas are designed to weave their way through the intercellular channels within your skin, providing a healthy botanical diet to nurture the full range of skin types and conditions, while working harmoniously with the skin to help it thrive.
The Skin Juice approach to skincare is to work with the natural biological functions and actions of the skin to promote balance and strengthen the skin’s own natural defence systems, rather than inhibiting them.
The world of skincare can be a bit overwhelming and many people get confused about the products they actually need. If you were going to recommend three steps that shouldn’t be missed in a daily routine – what would they be?
I would probably say the three steps would be to cleanse, hydrate and nourish.
Cleansing is such an important step in a skincare routine, but more so from the point of view that you are doing what is right for your skin. At Skin Juice we advocate cleansing once a day – cleansing at night to remove the dirt and impurities that your skin is exposed to throughout the day. Overnight, your skin goes through a rebalancing process and rebuilds its natural protective layer for the next day ahead, so we really don’t want to wash that away with a cleanser in the morning. A splash of water is enough for most people.
Hydration is the second step at night, and right after rinsing your face in the morning. Hydrated skin is healthy skin. It also helps keep your skin plump, juicy and bouncy. We like to use skin drinks for this – our ‘Bio Juice’ is one of our top-selling products because it’s like a big drink for your skin.
Lastly, nourishing your skin is important. Using face oils and oil-based balms at night to replenish the skin, while also allowing it to breathe and go through that rebalancing process is what we recommend. And then in the morning, using face creams rich in plant butter and nutrients to lock in that hydration and help protect the skin from environmental damage throughout the day…I’m going to be cheeky and sneak SPF into this step too 😊
As we head into the warmer months, we all know that we should be using SPF every day. But are there any other important things we should be considering to take care of our skin during the harsh Australian summer?
I would say maintaining hydration in your skin. Water is essential for many of the biological functions in our bodies and the same goes for our skin. Hydration helps our skin do things such as shed dead skin cells, but also defend itself against environmental stressors. But I would also suggest backing up your efforts to hydrate your skin with some lipid-rich protection. Lipids oil molecules and fatty acids that are responsible for helping to lock hydration into the layers of the skin, sitting on top of the skin as a waterproof layer, reducing the amount of water that is lost from cells below it.
Skin Juice started in Newcastle when you were working in a salon – what do your operations look like today? How big is the team, is everything manufactured locally etc?
We’re a relatively small and nimble team of nine that takes care of everything from warehouse, customer care, marketing, production etc. We recently moved our head office and Juice Lab to a new location in Heatherbrae. We still produce the majority of our products locally here in our Juicy HQ and anything that we do need to outsource is manufactured within Australia – this is something we’re very passionate about. We’re still in the process of setting up our showroom so people can experience our products but we welcome people to pop in and pick up their favourite squeezes.
Are there any new products that you’d like to give a little shout out to?
We’ve just launched a limited-edition version of our much-loved cleansing balm. Our new Raspberry Smudge Budge is beautiful, fresh, zingy and creamy. It’s been very popular already!
And of course, Christmas is around the corner and we have some more surprises for our customers but I can’t say too much just yet!
Don’t forget that all new Swell subscribers receive a free Plum Power face mask thanks to Skin Juice. Limited stock left so be sure to get in quick!
