What's So Great About Australian Brands?

People often ask us "why do you focus on Australian brands & products?’ It’s a good question as these days there are literally thousands of great natural beauty brands from all over the world. The reason behind our decision to focus on Australian & Kiwi brands (New Zealand is pretty much Australia’s little sister) is actually three-fold:

1. I am Australian.

I take a huge amount of pride in being Aussie, and being able to share the best of my country with my second home, the Netherlands. After spending a number of years living & working  in the Netherlands I feel such an affinity with the country, the culture & of course the people.

2. Nourished was born in Australia!

Floor and I met in Amsterdam whilst both working at a health care practice in the Oud Zuid. We had an instant bond over all things natural and she became so sick of hearing me complain about the lack of natural skincare and beauty products that worked and were beautiful!

It wasn’t until she visited me in Australia 2 years ago that she really understood what I was talking about. One day she came out of my bathroom said to me “babe I have just been trying on your deodorant!” It’s so nice! And it’s natural? And all of the things in your bathroom are natural?!! I have been trying them all!”  

Floor loved all of my products so much that she asked where she could get the products from and I opened up one of the many online boutiques I shopped from in Australia at the time. Floor looked at me shocked and said “ I can get all of these beautiful brands in the one place online? And they will deliver to me??!! We HAVE to do this in the Netherlands.!“ And so Nourished was born.

3. Australia produces the BEST natural brands in the world.

We really have become the leader in the natural beauty industry as we have had the advantage of time and a very scary motivating factor.

Australian culture and identity is strongly based around our connection to nature. We love to work & play outdoors and we love our native flora & fauna. Which is why the discovery that we had a giant hole in the ozone layer above us in 1985 was such a shock. This hole meant that we were far less protected from the harmful rays of the sun and that our outdoor lifestyle, culture & identity was compromised. That hole in the ozone started an awareness of the importance of natural beauty as it was CFC’s (chlorofluorocarbons) contained in aerosol cans of hairspray, deodorant & other beauty products that damaged the ozone so severely.

In the very same year it was discovered that one of the great natural wonders of the world & an Australian icon, The Great Barrier Reef was dying largely due to the impacts of pollution (including CFC’s) & global warming.

These two major environmental catastrophes happened on our doorstep and gave us a big kick up the back-side to clean up our act. Over the past 25 years the industry has grown to support thousands of Aussie natural brands and along with this healthy competition, there is a significant amount of pressure from the highly educated Australian consumer for brands to be continually innovating & improving both their environmental footprint, the safety of the products for individual health and also in their effectiveness and aesthetics. This has created a market full of not only the cleanest, most effective products in the world, but also the most luscious and beautiful to use.

We are proudly the first people to bring Ere Perez, Sans [ceuticals], Bondi Wash and Kester Black to the Netherlands. We will continue to bring you incredible natural brands and products from Australia, New Zealand (& occasionally beyond) as it is truly our passion & our gift to you.

Love & sunshine, Erin x