YOU LITTLE BEAUTIES
As consumers continue to demand transparency and efficacy from products, Australian beauty brands are front and centre, showing the world how it’s done. Meet A-beauty, the latest global craze that started on our doorstep. By Janna Johnson O’Toole.
As consumers continue to demand transparency and efficacy from products, Australian beauty brands are front and centre, showing the world how it’s done. Meet A-beauty, the latest global craze that started on our doorstep.
IT’S MID-YEAR 2013. Prime Minister Julia Gillard is about to ousted, Lorde’s Royals dominates the airwaves and Phoebe Philo is making hearts swoon at Céline. In the beauty industry the Australian market is experiencing an overhaul towards global price parity and insiders are abuzz with rumours of Sephora finally descending on our shores. I’ve just arrived in Sydney, a beauty journalist from New York whose knowledge of the Australian market is more or less limited to Jurlique and Aesop. Thanks in large part to social media, the local consumer focus isn’t on Aussie brands, but rather on keeping up with the hot products and trends launching overseas.
But six years later, there’s been a distinct turn inwards, as the number of celebrated homegrown beauty brands has multiplied. The original, trailblazing guard – the likes of Jurlique, Aesop and Kevin Murphy – remain strong, but there’s a new crop experiencing groundswell support. From Rationale, the Melbourne-based cuttingedge skincare line with an evangelical following, to female-founded success stories like Go-To, Frank Body, Lano and The Beauty Chef, Australian brands are fast becoming hometown heroes, garnering the loyalty of local consumers and overseas markets. And with this success we’ve joined the ranks of Korean and Japanese beauty with our own clickbait moniker: A-beauty.
“It’s funny, this concept of ‘A-beauty’ was probably considered pretty daggy just a few years ago, the whole ‘cultural cringe’ thing,” says Ava Matthews, co-founder of Melbourne-based sunscreen line Ultra Violette. “Australian brands typically found success by launching internationally first and the recognition from overseas markets was proof that it worked. Now that’s been reversed.”
“Up until recently there was no ‘A-beauty’, but now there’s a nice gang of us,” agrees Kirsten Carriol, founder of Lano. “And we are all, in our own way, going out with similar core messages about simplicity with a multipurpose element to our products. This really amplifies our desirable, laid-back Aussie lifestyle.”
Perhaps it’s the antidote to long, involved K-beauty routines, a sign of Marie Kondo’s decluttering times or consumers’ growing scepticism of marketing ploys, but simplicity is having a moment. Carriol notes her sales are up 35 per cent this year and that most of her international retailers have curated A-beauty initiatives. But don’t confuse simple for unsophisticated. You don’t have to look further than the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s restrictions on SPF to know Australia takes regulations and results seriously. A preventative approach has always been Australia’s MO, and with a host of natural, native
ingredients to chose from, A-beauty has created its niche as no-fuss formulas that deliver. “A-beauty is built on natural, easy, no-nonsense products you can really trust,” says Carriol. “There are no gimmicks.”
Matthews believes this is no better highlighted than in sunscreens. “The mind-set has changed and I think the fact that products are Australian-made is a real endorsement – especially when it comes to SPF. We have some of the toughest regulations and testing standards. It’s not an easy job making a sunscreen in Australia, in fact, it’s incredibly hard,” she says. “The French are considered world leaders in fragrance, Korea is leading the innovation in skincare and Americans are known for great colour cosmetic brands. Australia should be where the rest of the world looks for sunscreen and SPF development – our climate dictates it! For Ultra Violette, it’s a definite advantage to be Australian-made. It’s a proof point rather than a marketing spiel.”
While scientific credibility is an undeniable asset, so are the fresh-faced Aussies exporting our less-is-more aesthetic overseas, including the likes of Nicole Warne, Charlee Fraser and Adut Akech. (FYI: Warne swears by The Beauty Chef’s Glow Powder, Fraser loves lanolin and Akech is partial to classic pawpaw.) Even our signature preventative approach is taking hold, as evidenced in the seemingly unstoppable overseas success of facialist Melanie Grant, who this year expanded her growing empire out of Australia with a clinic in LA.
“The definition of beauty is changing to include the ethos of health, wellness and authenticity. The idea that beauty starts from within is a big change from the idea that beauty starts at the make-up counter,” says Grant, whose softly-softly approach includes bespoke facials with LED therapy rather than injectables or harsh lasers.
“Australian beauty has always been about this ethos, a natural look, and a voice that supports education so people can make up their own minds. We’re now realising that what we thought was uniquely Australian is actually a global and modern ideal of beauty.”
Matthews, Carriol and Grant all agree that social media has largely bolstered the A-beauty boom. “The tyranny of distance that’s kept Australian voices quiet in the global world of beauty has been conquered with technology and social media,” says Grant.
“The continued interest in Australian brands from international customers and retailers is only snowballing,” adds Matthews, who has seen a 50 per cent growth in international sales since they launched earlier this year. Perhaps what’s most rewarding for her, however, is seeing her home market embrace Ultra Violette products. “Finally consumers want to buy local. Consumers are more receptive than ever to new, smaller brands with a great story to tell.”