The Start Up Files is a series that aims to find out where good ideas come from and how they happen. Each fortnight we chronicle the journey of someone who brought their idea to life through the Renew Adelaide program. In this article, we chat to Tina Walsh from OmMade Organic Skincare, an all natural skincare company.
Tina first got into skincare when she became pregnant and decided she wanted to start looking after her skin. She wanted to use products with all natural ingredients but when she looked in stores she couldn’t seem to find what she wanted.
“I wasn’t able to find products that were as natural or organic as they were saying they were. I found there was a lot of greenwashing going on.”
As the products she wanted didn’t exist, the only solution was to make them herself.
As it turned out, Tina wasn’t the only person that had been searching for natural skincare. Soon after she started making her own products her friends started asking for their own. As demand increased, she grew to selling at markets and an online store, eventually landing a retail space at Raj House through the Renew Adelaide program.
It’s been 7 years since Tina first started OmMade Organic Skincare and she notes that it’s only recently bigger brands have started to catch on to the demand for natural ingredients.
“I had the charcoal and turmeric toothpaste back in 2013. So it’s interesting now to see the likes of Colgate now coming out with a charcoal toothpaste. It only took them 6 years but the market speaks and that’s what they want. It’s interesting to be doing that for so long and then the big brands come out with it.”
One of the ingredients that features heavily in the OmMade range is Kakadu Plum. Native to Australia, Kakadu Plum is the highest naturally occurring source of Vitamin C as well as offering antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-acne benefits. Despite being a bit of a miracle ingredient, Kakadu Plum is still fairly unknown to the rest of the skincare industry and isn’t seen in a lot of commercial skincare products.
Tina finds a lot of OmMade’s success is due to the research she puts in to her products, discovering new ingredients and experimenting to find the optimal formulation.
“I went to the Sydney Expo last year and the amount of skincare brands that literally launched that week, that had invested $50,000, got it all contract manufactured with the best packaging and the best labels and yet they’re not around this year. If you’re genuine about your product and genuine about your business ethos it should naturally progress as opposed to just being all about wanting a side business and wanting to make a million.”
Being an ethical and sustainable business is an important part of OmMade Organic Skincare. Having a physical location has meant she could set up a refill station so customers can bring in their own reusable containers and reduce packaging waste.
“One thing that makes us different to any other skincare, is that you can bring in your empty containers and refill. When you refill you get $1 off the purchase price and we donate $1 to Jane Goodall’s roots and shoots program, which is an environmental program for youth.”
Tina has since moved on from her initial retail space at Raj House, you can now find OmMade Organic Skincare on Port Road and at Shop 52 at the Central Markets.
