Mother-daughter team Robyn and Amanda are the founders of Mayella Organic, a business inspired by their love for skincare and holistic health. They are passionate about botanical products that are good for our bodies, gentle on the environment and contain ingredients that can be sourced back to their ethical and natural origins. It’s been a year since we last talked to them so we caught up to reflect on the past 12 months and what the future holds for Mayella.
In your business profile a year ago, you talked to us about celebrating Mayella‘s 10-year anniversary. A year on, and amidst a global pandemic, how has your business changed/adapted?
Yes, wow, what a year the world has shared! Behind the scenes for a moment we were a bit lonely sometimes, as in-person meetings became history, but then we mastered the Zoom and people were back in our face, literally and close up! Shipping and freight became more than logistics. It involved a lot of innovation, persuasion, prayers and patience as the world stopped moving for a while. Less planes and people in courier despatch slowed the way things moved around the world quite a bit and, ironically, when the need for home delivery grew in demand. Silver linings abounded – the world became quieter and less polluted, and we were in contact with our suppliers a lot more to navigate delivery of our raw ingredients and to support our lovely customers as they waited for their goodies. Innovation born from necessity.
Awareness of health and wellness in a day-to-day sense has become a much more familiar friend for the general population, which is incredibly exciting. Growing past the usual percent of motivated people wanting to find and be choosing as first preference eco, sustainable, natural, chemical free, organic, pure and clean ingredients and products over the more processed commercial products. There has been an expansion of awareness by people in seeing the value of investing in clean skincare, nutrient rich health foods and the reward that comes with this = a realisation that health and wellness is a real and achievable thing by what you choose to do daily, and finding it’s not hard to do. It’s even fun, sensory, delicious and creative.
So to support this increased awareness, we have adapted to help educate people new to herbal teas, the blender, smoothies and smoothie bowls made at home. As well as with simple things such as the importance of your home skincare routine, this can be a dedicated time out or self-love meditation, helping people to connect with calm through their own TLC and sensory destress rituals. Being there for people and helping them to connect with healthy self-care amongst the pandemic has become a louder part of our business, and kind of brings us back full circle more strongly to our roots as a practitioner and our healthcare therapies focus, but on a global community level.
You produce a beautiful range of natural skin and wellbeing products. How often do you add new products and how do you decide what to include?
Thank you. Well our range is like a family in itself, all related in their function to support the inside and out “healthy is beautiful” connection and how they overlap in purpose. So a new product born into the family extends the ability of the family of products to support healthy living.
It takes a fair bit of energy and determination to bring a new product to life, a bit like a pregnancy I guess. It tends to start with an idea I have or a plant we find and then there’s the how, what, why process of R&D to test the potential and actual ‘does it work?’ incubation phase. Many steps of excitement, testing and drama combine to bring a product into reality.
Often, questions and discussions we have with customers will inspire a new product. The interactions we have with our extended family (customers) is a big part of what turns our wheel and drives what we do. It’s all about the people who are enjoying the healthy benefits of Mayella in their day and busy lives.
If you could choose three items that are must-haves from your range, which ones would they be and why?
Ooh that’s like asking which is your favourite child!
Well, a snapshot of our “inside & out” approach to good health and beauty would be these three popular amigos.
Acai Berry Beautiful Blend – filled with berry small but mighty superfoods that love making our bodies happy! Rich in vitamin C and nutrients that boost the immune system and promote strong connective tissue = skin, bones, joints, bright eyes, hair and nails by enhancing collagen and elastin production. Bonus: these superfruits get busy helping to balance the effects of aging free radicals and support recovery from sickness and poor health.
Mayella Olivane Repair Serum – Infusion Rose – one of three aromatic essential oil power blends. Infusion Rose helps to boost skin health enabling deeper hydration, plumping hyaluronic levels and brightening with Green Tea and Kakadu Plum. Our Olivane Serums are super antioxidant rich tonics to protect and nourish your skin to glowing beyoutiful health.
Rest Easy Tisane – from the range of our organic herbal teas, Rest Easy is the tea for these times. Licorice, valerian, chamomile to calm, destress and support breathing, liver and lungs. Blended with spearmint and orange to uplift and flush away the fog and set you up for a peaceful, deeply restful sleep.
What is most important to you as a business and what makes you unique?
That we remain true to our ethics and core values is so very essential to us as a business. Keeping the fire burning with the passion we had back in the beginning when we started on this journey, straight up that means everything to our creativity, hitting our goals, and simply getting up in the morning and getting started on the day.
A long time ago, I decided I wasn’t the type of person who could just “do” work, I had to feel connected, passionate, and believe in what I’m doing. So far so good and with the team we have around us, I feel incredibly blessed to be a part of this business/family. I guess in itself, that makes us unique to the standard business model. We don’t always follow the business plan or typical trending business model. I’ve heard many times over the years that Health Practitioners are often the worst business owners, not because of how good they are at what they’re doing but because they spend all their energy where it matters most – the client – and not in running the business or putting dollars first. Heart over head.
Whilst feeding the family and paying the bills is essential to staying in business and growing, doing more good, we’re here each day because we love what we do and believe in our brand’s ability to benefit people. So that drives us more than a dedication to prioritising being only a system of marketing a brand if that makes sense?
