Why Australian ingredients have always mattered to me

When I started The Australian Natural Soap Company, I was still working at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

By day, I was a speechwriter — writing for the Trade Minister, shaping speeches about Australia’s place in the world, and listening closely as the same themes came up again and again.

Australia, he’d say, needs to focus on niche manufacturing.

Not competing on volume or price, but on quality.

On the things we do better than anyone else.

On our world-class ingredients.

At the time, I don’t think I realised how deeply that idea lodged itself in my brain.

Who would have thought those speeches would end up shaping a soap business?

Around that same time, Anthony and I were experimenting at home. Nothing formal. Just curiosity.

After a trip to Indonesia, Anthony became mildly obsessed with coconut oil. He’d seen how widely it was used there — for cooking, for skin, for hair — and was convinced it was an incredible moisturiser.

When we were in Indonesia, we started buying coconut oil that was normally used for cooking and using it on our skin. The reaction we got from shop owners was hilarious. We were laughed at — gently, but very clearly — for buying something so ordinary, so everyday, and using it for skincare.

To them, it was obvious.

To us, it was a revelation.

They weren’t wrong — it was beautiful on the skin.

Still, being the researcher I am, I couldn’t stop there.

Once I started reading properly, I had a bigger question:

Why are we so quick to look overseas for ingredients…

when we live in a country that produces exceptional plant oils?

That’s when I started looking seriously at Australian oils — olive, macadamia, avocado — and later, our essential oils.

And suddenly, everything clicked.

This wasn’t just soap-making.

This was exactly the niche manufacturing I’d been hearing about at DFAT.

High-quality.

Region-specific.

Impossible to replicate elsewhere.

Grounded in place.

Australia doesn’t just grow ingredients — it grows them exceptionally well.

Our climate, soils and growing conditions create plant oils and essential oils that are potent, clean and incredibly effective.

Once I understood that, there was no going back.

We source our olive oil from Western Australia because WA produces some of the best olive oils in the world.

The Mediterranean-style climate, hot dry summers and low humidity produce a food-grade oil with an excellent fatty acid profile.

In soap, that matters.

Olive oil creates a gentle, conditioning bar that supports the skin rather than stripping it. The quality of the oil directly affects how the soap feels — and there’s no hiding poor ingredients in soap.

We don’t use olive oil because it sounds nice.

We use it because it works.

Tasmania’s cooler climate produces lavender with a cleaner, more balanced essential oil profile.

Cooler growing conditions slow plant growth, concentrating aromatic compounds and creating an oil that smells soft, rounded and familiar — not sharp or perfumey.

This is lavender as it should smell.

Not engineered. Not overpowering. Just right.

Eucalyptus is native to Australia, and NSW is one of the best regions for producing high-quality eucalyptus essential oil.

The oil has a crisp, authentic aroma — not medicinal, not artificial — and it’s a scent Australians instinctively trust.

There’s a reason eucalyptus has always belonged in Australian bathrooms.

Lemon Myrtle might be my favourite example of why Australian ingredients matter.

NSW-grown Lemon Myrtle produces an essential oil with an exceptionally high citral content. The result is a bright, clean, unmistakably fresh scent — without any artificial fragrance boosters.

When customers say our Lemon Myrtle smells “properly clean”, this is why.

It’s not clever formulation.

It’s quality raw material.

Of course, it would be cheaper to:

But cheap has never sat well with me.

Using Australian ingredients takes longer.

It costs more.

Supply isn’t always predictable.

But it also means knowing where things come from. Supporting growers here at home. And creating products that actually reflect the place we live.

For me, that trade-off has always been worth it.

When I think back to those early days at DFAT — writing speeches about niche manufacturing and Australia’s competitive advantage — it still surprises me how directly that thinking shaped this business.

The Australian Natural Soap Company exists because I genuinely believe Australia produces some of the best ingredients in the world.

And if we’re going to make things here, we should make them properly.

That belief is behind everything we do — and it’s exactly why we’ve created The Australian Favourites Edit.

Not as a loud celebration.

But as a quiet appreciation of what grows here.