Jenni Gilbert We’re so mindful now (even if we don’t always act on it) of what we put in our bodies via mouth. Such as: does this food or that drink contain preservatives, GMOs, artificial or overly processed ingredients, too much sodium or the “bad” sugars or fats, ingredients that potentially trigger allergies or intolerances … ??? And so on … and on … and on.
It gets to a point, if you’re anything like me, of having a gutful of trying to work out what’s good for the gut and, thereby, overall health. And a similar gutful of born-again (or first born) health foodies preaching at you. Like, gimme a meat pie!
Then there’s what stuff comes packaged in. For instance, we’re reliably told plastic is not fantastic in this context, as some types are potential endocrine (hormone) disruptors, meaning they can mimic the body’s natural hormones and thereby cause a raft of health problems, according to the Australian consumer watchdog organisation Choice.
We spend so much time focusing on what we ingest, but are we really mindful enough of what we put ON our bodies? After all, about 60 percent of what we apply to our skin, hair and nails is absorbed into the body’s ecosystem.
This was the epiphany that changed Irene Falcone’s life and fortunes, literally. She is now the mastermind behind Nourished Life, an interactive website and e-tailer of more than 3000 toxin-free, eco-friendly organic personal care products.
Winner of the 2016 Telstra Business Women’s NSW Entrepreneur Award in October, Irene says her focus for the moment is to target the 69 percent of Australian women who have no idea what chemicals they are applying to their body every day.
One day in 2009, while working as a marketing executive for Universal Pictures in Sydney, Irene had trouble putting one foot in front of the other – actually having trouble putting one foot in front of the other.
“I’d not been feeling great for months, and then one day I was walking upstairs at the office and my legs started feeling like lead,” she recalls.
“First reflex: I pulled a moisturiser from my handbag and started rubbing it in. Then it just hit me – what am I putting on my body? Why do I feel like this?”
You could say the episode stopped Irene in her tracks and made her reassess her life.
The self confessed “beauty addict” subsequently became obsessed with learning more about the toxins in mainstream beauty products, which she had herself promoted as an advertising account director for Revlon Australasia (2004-2007).
What Irene discovered shocked her. She recently told the Australian Financial Review that we are in a “Mad Men age” of promotion for mainstream cosmetics which will one day be looked down on like old cigarette ads.
She soon threw out everything with ingredients that have been linked anecdotally, if not scientifically, to cancer and are believed to be endocrine disruptors – parabens, trichlosans, talc and artificial fragrances.
She replaced them with natural and organic products, extending to what she cleaned her home with, and started a Facebook page documenting her quest to find replacements for what she’d thrown away.
Traction with her “community” was such that, by mid-2012, Irene was confident enough to try selling the organic replacement products she had been recommending.
She bought 100 cherry-coloured lip balms from Hurraw, a family business in Whitefish, Montana, which used cold-pressed jojoba oil and shea butter instead of petroleum jelly.
“The exchange rate was near parity,” she says. “I paid 95 cents a stick ($1 landed), and sold them all in two days for $5.95 with free shipping.”
This was a sign that encouraged Irene, by then a mother of three (now four, aged 10 and under), to sell her house and Alfa Romeo and plough the resulting $30,000 into Nourished Life, quitting her Universal Pictures job by mid-2013.
The business turned over more than $2 million in 2014-15, more than double the previous year, employing four people full time at its warehouse in Sydney’s Belrose.
The rapid growth of Nourished Life is also a factor of being in the right head space at the right time: according to IBISWorld, the organic cosmetics and toiletries industry has grown at a 17.4 per cent annual clip in Australia between 2010 and 2015.
Irene likens the Nourished Life experience as like “getting a recommendation from a girlfriend … it needs to be a genuine conversation from a genuine place, it can’t be programmed.
“If I find, say, a good deodorant without aluminium in it, I’ll let people know about it – it shouldn’t matter whether I’m selling it or not.
“Every summer, for example, there’ll be something about toxic ingredients in insect repellent or sunscreen. I like to be able to come straight out and say ‘well here’s the natural version’.”
Irene has amassed 30,000 Facebook followers and nearly 10,000 Instagram followers for Nourished Life, while a Google search for “organic skin care” sees it topped only by Miranda Kerr’s KORA Organics in the organic rankings.
“My goal is to be a $10 million business but I’m not doing this to get rich,” she says.
“I still haven’t replaced my corporate wage. People are getting sick, and it’s not fair that the cosmetic companies get these huge ad budgets and trick us into thinking these are awesome products that will make you beautiful.
“My business is also really based on sustainability and making sure Australian women have access to beautiful products while reducing their carbon footprint.
“A lot of people say I should focus on the international market but that is not what this is about for me. I feel very passionately about helping Australian women.
“Everyone that works [at Nourished Life HQ] are mums. They work school hours, they live locally. And my customers are Australian mums.
“I have absolutely no formal education, I come from a really poor family. I’ve never had money and I couldn’t afford to go to uni but I started this business with $100 and if I can do it, anyone can.”
BABY STEPS
Irene understands that you can’t just throw the baby out with the (albeit toxic) bathwater.
You and your clients may have spent a lot of money on products that you’re naturally loathe to just throw out.
Irene suggests using them up and then replacing them gradually with natural and organic products that are free of “the three big baddies”: parabens, trichlosans (found in many anti-bacterial hand washes, soaps and also toothpastes; now banned in the US) and artificial fragrances.
If your New Year resolution is to start cleaning up your act, consider these baby steps from Irene to ease into a chemical cocktail-free personal care regimen:
- Start by replacing the products you and your family use most frequently on the largest areas of the body, as more than 60 percent of toxins are absorbed this way. Look at what your soaps, body washes and moisturisers or fake tans, for instance, contain. When you have replaced those you can move on to skincare and makeup used on face, neck and dec.
- And don’t forget to check the ingredients in hair care and nail products.
- There are now many excellent professional skin, hair and nail brands whose products are natural and/or organic and “baddie” free, some of which are sold on Nourished Life. As a salon, spa or clinic owner, manager or therapist you have a wonderful opportunity to introduce natural and/or organic brands to your clients for home use as well as in their treatments (and it doesn’t hurt that that in turn will boost your bottom line!). While it’s not savvy to actively encouraging clients to make purchases elsewhere, it’s unlikely you can provide all their cosmetic needs (or that they will buy everything from you). Remind them that quality, non-toxic skin, hair and nail products can now be purchased in good health food stores.
- Commercial perfumes, many chokka with synthetic fragrances and other artificial ingredients, are a big culprit in the chemical cocktail war, according to Irene. She urges women to do their research about what’s in perfumes in general and specifically their favourites. She also suggests spritzing or dabbing perfume onto clothes instead of directly onto the skin. She stocks a range of natural organic perfumes on Nourished Life.
- What we clean our homes and workplaces with is just as crucial – conventional cleaning products are chemical cocktails on steroids. Irene points out that research has shown that the eco environment created indoors by chemically loaded cleaning products is more toxic that pollution outdoors. She sells an Australian “green cleaning” brand, Abode, on Nourished Life, developed by building biology expert Nicole Bijlsma and her partner Mark Netherway. “We set out to create a range of products that would revolutionise the industry and set a benchmark for products in health food stores,” they explain. “We have gone to extreme lengths to ensure our products work as well as the leading brands without the use of nasty chemicals. They are made here in Australia to stringent standards, using the best natural ingredients [such as tea tree and eucalyptus oils] money can buy, and comply with the new European REACH Directive.” Nicole realised early on that there were a lot of discrepancies with the cleaning products marketed as “natural”. “For a start, most of them do not perform up to their claims, they are considerably more expensive than supermarket brands, and they contain toxic chemicals that are known lung, skin and eye irritants. Why would you put them on your body or in your clothes?” she says.
- Irene singles out dishwashing liquid for special mention in the cleaning category: “Remember that we are also ingesting the chemical residue left on our glassware, crockery and cutlery when we eat or drink.”
