NILLY+BOOTH X THE FASHION HEIST INTERVIEW*

Discovering and learning the journey of Australian emerging creatives is such a glorious event to witness, it’s so important to look at what is happening in your own hometown. And when you do, you’ll be overjoyed with what treasures you can find, this is how I stumbled upon Nilly + Booth’s organic handmade Apothecary by Sharn from Melbourne. Her passion for infusing the beauty of all natural and beneficial ingredients with a innovative twist, is simply irresistible! Just by looking at her Aniseed soap, that looks like luxurious marble and her dual action lip balms (that double as a cheek stain!), you can see Sharn knows what she is talking about!

My favourite picks from her range is Berry Vanilla Organic Lip/Cheek Stain (get yours here),  Mandarin Chamomile Organic Cleansing Balm (get yours here) and Aniseed Organic Soap (get yours here). And every single piece I love and use so much, the cleaning balm is out of this world! I highly recommend it for those with dry skin like mine that needs that extra love and care. I managed to steal a moment of Sharn’s time to share her winter beauty tips and what magic brought Nilly+Booth together.

 

TFH: I admire your love for organic skincare, how did you know this had to be apart of your product range?
N+B: I wanted to create a line of products that was as close to nature and as unprocessed as possible, which with today’s ambiguity on what “natural” actually constitutes, meant the natural step was to use as many certified organic ingredients as I could find.  Organic ingredients are the way nature intended them to be, retaining the minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and other skin loving benefits that make them amazing, they also have the added benefit of being environmentally friendly and utilise sustainable practises that help to ensure we protect the wonderful world we live in.

TFH: What is your dream holiday location?
N+B: Italy has been at the top of my list of got to places for years now and I cannot wait to experience the beautiful and simple handmade food, wine from vineyards that have been around for centuries, the countryside, the culture and the exotic language that is Italian.  Swoon!!

TFH: What is the creation process behind one of your soaps?
N+B: It took me a while to come up with my base soap recipe, lots of trial and error.  So when I create a new soap I generally start with either a scent combination or an additive that has great skin benefits and work from that initial seed of an idea forward.  I like to compliment the look of the soap with the ‘flavour’, so it can be a nice creative outlet for me as I am always tweaking the look of them each time I make a fresh batch.  It’s always fun to cut up a new batch of soap to see what it has turned out like inside, can be a surprising mystery sometimes.

TFH: Why skincare products?
N+B: I actually started making skin care products for myself a couple of years before I started NILLY+BOOTH, as I had decided that I just didn’t want to use chemicals that I couldn’t even pronounce to try and make my skin healthy.  I began with things like using a honey mask on my face, coconut oil hair treatments, an all natural deodorant, and of course my first ever cleansing oil.  From here, my trial and error experiments and researching lead me wanting to learn more and more, to the point where I decided I wanted to create a whole line of natural skin care products that other people could use and that was just natural, simple, and took people back to basics.

TFH: Nilly + Booth’s lip balm/stain products are so innovative how did you come up with this combination?
N+B: Besides soaps, lip balms were one of the first NILLY+BOOTH products I formulated.  I think I went through about 20-30 test batches before I was finally happy.  I started adding essential oils for flavour/scent to these and then one day I realised that the natural colourant I was using in a soap (i.e. alkanet root), was also great to infuse into oils to create a rich burgundy like colour.  From here the lip/cheek stain was also created.

TFH: How do you come up with each products ingredient combinations?N+B: Generally the combinations tend to occur naturally throughout the creation process.  Everything has to have a purpose in my products, so if it is in there you know it has been chosen for a reason.  The creation process starts with an idea about what type of skin care product I want to create and then I go on the hunt for organic ingredients that will make it effective and uniquely special.

TFH: Number one song on your playlist right now?
N+B: Oh, I have two favourite’s which I will always turn up whenever they come on at the moment:
Sam Smith – Lay Me Down
Vallis Alps – Young

TFH: Hot tip for winter skincare?
N+B: Winter can be so harsh and drying on your skin that it’s all about staying hydrated, from the inside-out.  Lots of water is essential in winter and using intensely hydrating face masks you can make from products found in your kitchen, are great for your skin and fun too. Use ingredients like honey, avocado, oats, banana, or almond oil and you can’t go wrong.

TFH: Which Nilly + Booth product/s can you have with you at all times?
N+B: The NILLY+BOOTH Lip Balms and the Lip/Cheek Stain are great to keep in your bag or clutch to re-apply and use as needed, and the Face Tonics can be kept on hand to use as a skin refresher/pick me up throughout the day.

TFH: Finally what is next for Nilly + Booth?
N+B: I have been working on creating a range of Organic Face Masks that I can’t wait to have perfected so that I can share them with everyone.

Make sure to check out Nilly+Booth on the website, Facebook & Instagram @nillyandbooth