Organic Care All Part Of The Gran Plan

The Age

Wednesday January 31, 2007

PAUL EDWARDS

GROWING up with women who enjoyed making their own skin-care products has inspired Samantha Molineux to set up Lily Loves Pearl, a boutique range of natural skin-care products that won the $10,000 TAFE prize at this year's Swinburne Venture Cup.

She says she was inspired by family as well as Body Shop founder Anita Roddick."

When I was growing up, my gran, Pearl and Aunt Lil used to cook up their own skin-care products in the kitchen, so I've always been interested in working with natural ingredients.

I have an extensive retail background working with commercial skin-care products but was drawn to the concept of organic natural skin care."

Ms Molineux says she has worked with leading brands in the market and is convinced people are paying inflated prices for cheap, harsh ingredients."

I think what we have here is skin food in a jar, rather than hope in a jar," she says. "Our target market wants it all and needs to look good, so our packaging - glass - works with the product. To house it in plastic would contaminate the product since chemical leaching occurs.

Our packaging is recyclable yet is boutique, quirky, edgy, perhaps daring."

Samantha, husband Troy and fellow TAFE student Tania Wisel have been developing the business for six years. Their product range is certified organic with a base ingredient of cold-pressed rosehip oil. No chemicals are used in the extraction process.

Their business plan has been a work in progress, evolving and needing regular updates."

I began the plan in 2005 and then deferred uni and completed the NEIS program (New Enterprise Incentive Scheme), which gave me a solid structure to work with," Ms Molineux says. "To get the plan where it is today has taken just under two years. The NEIS program really emphasised the importance of market research and establishing our core target market. Quite a lengthy process."

The three stores that have picked us up are way ahead of their time. They can feel the shift towards organic products and know that times are changing and customers are demanding more."

A challenge is to impact stores that are reluctant to take on new products that don't yet have market presence - we are working on getting our brand into them."

A five-year plan projects the brand to be a market leader with about 10 per cent of the boutique skin-care industry. It calls for global exports, expanding product range and significant job creation in Australia."

There may be a move towards farming our own organic ingredients," Ms Molineux says."

We want to bring public awareness to the lax regulations in the skin-care industry and push for change to ban many dangerous ingredients, just as Sweden has done." -- PAUL EDWARDS

lilylovespearl.com

© 2007 The Age

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