Lemon Myrtle Essentials is a Certified Organic Australian Body care with a lemony twist. Personally, I simply adore personal care products that utilize the innate fresh qualities of lemon, lime and lemongrass. Aileen Peer, founder of Lemon Myrtle seems to share my lemony sentiments.
Aileen has created a beautiful skincare line that meets the stringent Australian Organic Standards. So what exactly is lemon myrtle? Great question. Lemon myrtle is one of nature’s gifts in that it not only smells fantastic it is is known for its calming and uplifting properties AND has antibacterial and anti-fungal qualities as well.
Here is my Interview with Aileen Peer Founder and Formulator of Lemon Myrtle Essentials:
EcoDiva: What does your logo and company name symbolize?
Aileen: Simply that we’re about lemon myrtle, Australia’s native plant, which is refreshing and uplifting.
EcoDiva: Tell me about your personal journey to green:
Aileen: It is difficult to pinpoint where it began – it feels like something that’s been present most of my adult life. Having suffered from sensitive skin and eczema, I was always very aware of the quality of ingredients I put on my skin, as even “standard” products could cause a skin reaction. From there I learnt about skincare ingredients. 20+ years ago before SLS and parabens and Propylene Glycol were the common fiends they are today, I was already avoiding these in the skincare & personal care items I used. I noticed almost all the “natural” products out there contained these ingredients at the time, but this is changing nowadays.
10 years ago, I started a company with my then husband, importing and selling a natural health product into Australia. Not long after, I fell in love with the unique citrusy scent of Australian Lemon Myrtle, and found myself buying everything I could find on shop shelves that had that scent. But I couldn’t find any lemon myrtle products that were truly natural, so in one of those “aha” moments a couple of years later, all the factors (love of lemon myrtle, love of natural skincare, an awareness of organic) came together to give me the idea to create Lemon Myrtle Essentials and make it truly Certified Organic, so that customers would have the guarantee of a truly natural product.
EcoDiva: In this new market of green beauty and skincare, what makes your products and your company unique?
Aileen: We have put everything behind one star ingredient – lemon myrtle – a unique and relatively new essential oil from Australia. It has only been in commercial plantations since the 1990s. And we’ve gone all the way to make it Certified Organic by ACO, the most stringent organic certifying body in Australia. It took us 2 years of intense work to get this certification. To be certified organic 95% of the ingredients have to be certified organic and verifiable, plus the other 5% including processing aids have to be natural and not use any unapproved processes in manufacture. It’s the 5% that makes the difference – the organic certifying body I’m with does not allow some common ingredients that the other certifying bodies allow. So I had to go outside the cosmetics industry and ventured into the food industry. Not all the certifying bodies are as stringent, but why not start at the best? So now, many of the products in the Lemon Myrtle Essentials range are literally good enough to eat!
EcoDiva: What are your some of your “green” personal and business practices?
Aileen: For the range, we use recyclable glass packaging where possible, organic/biodynamic and/or locally sourced ingredients predominantly. We go beyond organic in many cases because we focus on whole, virgin, unrefined ingredients, as close to Mother Nature intended. Personally without being militant and obsessive about “organic” I eat a mixture of organic and non-organic food, use my own self-made products, avoid heavily processed and packaged foods, create minimal rubbish, recycle bags and boxes, feed all vegetable off cuts and organic kitchen stuff to my happy goats, avoid all pharmaceuticals like the plague (even antibiotics and aspirins) and enjoy a wonderful lifestyle in Victoria’s spa capital in the Central Highlands, on 10 acres, with my wood heater, mud brick home, lots of glass windows and sweeping views!
EcoDiva: Why is this important to you personally?
Aileen: I’d like to know that there was a net positive gain from my presence in this world, rather than a cost to the earth. However I think it’s also important to be balanced about it, and I’m not militant about organic. I just think it’s important to practice awareness, consideration, and to look at the bigger picture of why we’re here! And enjoy!
EcoDiva: What would your friends/other people be surprised to learn about you?
Aileen: My friends have become accustomed to being constantly surprised with all the new (and sometimes eccentric) ideas, projects or interests I get into, so I think they’d more likely show an indulgent amusement rather than surprise.
EcoDiva: What organic beauty/fashion products do you use & recommend?
Aileen: I don’t have any particular brand – I just use mineral makeup of different brands, my own self-made lip glosses and luxury skin-active creams; I experiment with lots of organic shampoos – still haven’t found the ideal one (aha! Another opportunity).
EcoDiva: What books, movies, or CDs have been most helpful or inspiring to you?
Aileen: Well, for awhile I subscribed to Spiritual Cinema – a very interesting DVD movie club with interesting movies sent monthly, but I found that I don’t have time for TV or DVDs so I stopped. I still have a stack of DVDs waiting to be seen! But one mainstream movie – Sliding Doors starring Gwyneth Paltrow stayed on my mind for a long time. It was about parallel lives, how taking a different train, or missing something by a few minutes can cause one to step into a different time track, and one’s life to take on a different trajectory. It sort of appeals to my “What if” imagination and my questions about Destiny vs. Self-Determination.
EcoDiva: Who formulates the line and what is the inspiration?
Aileen: I am the formulator. Inspiration is the main ingredient – lemon myrtle. After working with lemon myrtle day in day out for several years, I am still as much in love with it as I was at the beginning. It’d be nice to have a marriage like this! The other inspiration is the “energetic” quality of its ingredients. Hence the freshness, the organic aspect because it’s good to have the “life force” still present. Of course it’ll not be as fresh as something just plucked off a tree, but it is incomparably fresher than the products of multinational companies who say Natural but aren’t, whose logistics require them to do mega production, store in mega warehouses and use strong chemicals to preserve.
Therefore you’ll also find Australian Bushflower Essences in some of the products too. ABFE is the Australian equivalent of Bach Flower Remedies, very subtle but powerful remedies for balancing mental and emotional states.
EcoDiva: Where to buy your products?
Aileen: http://www.lemonmyrtleessentials.com
EcoDiva: What’s your current obsession?
Aileen: That’s a good question – obsession is a good descriptor of my interests, sometimes! I’m afraid it’s Facebook and Twitter which I discovered only recently and that’s why I’m communicating with you! After awhile I’m sure this obsession will fade to normal and I will be able to have regular mealtimes and bedtimes again. My other obsessions – food, travel books, books about travel and food, books about almost anything, parrots, clothes designed for adults with children’s designs/colors (why do we have to wear serious colours like black, black, brown, navy, grey, and more black?), iPhone apps, netbooks.
EcoDiva: Who inspires you?
Aileen: Mahatma Gandhi, my rich/successful/sexy/healthy girlfriends who seem to lead such effortlessly happy lives, Walt Disney, and a host of other people that I can’t seem to remember right at this moment.
EcoDiva: How do you get things done?
Aileen: I don’t start until I know I can finish, and once I start I don’t stop until the finish line.
EcoDiva: What would you like to revolutionize?
Aileen: People’s blind and unconscious belief in authority, in doctors and pharmaceuticals, in what they read in newspapers and hear/watch on TV – it’d be nice to have a mass awakening from automatic unconscious mode, the slavish adoption of unexamined beliefs.
EcoDiva: What’s the biggest change you’d like to make in your life—even if it’s impossible right now?
Aileen: Balance! It feels quite achievable right now, I think I’m on the right track if I can get away from my keyboard and mouse.
EcoDiva: What’s the best green advice you ever received—and who gave it to you?
Aileen: “Eat organic because it’s richer in nutrients, flavour and energy” – Friends who obtain their vegetable supplies almost exclusively from their own vegetable garden almost all year round.
The Offer
Here is your chance to experience Lemon Myrtle Essentials for yourself.
You will receive 1 FREE organic Lemon Myrtle Soothing Balm with any purchase over $25.
Simply mention ECODIVA in the notes section of your shopping cart.
Enjoy!
Signing off…EcoDiva
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
What a great resource!