Why Australian Beauty Is The New French Beauty – & The Brand Spearheading The Movement

There’s a good chance that part, if not all, of your beauty routine has come from abroad. We’ve borrowed from Korea, slathering on snail mucus in the morning and camel milk at night in 10-step skincare routines that promise flawless, poreless skin. We jumped into Japan’s beauty ring, attempting the refined skin rituals of the Japanese with their streamlined, luxurious products. And we’ve spent years following France’s lead; from micellar water to the perfect rouge, French girl beauty has long fascinated us, at once highly coveted yet seemingly impossible to emulate (even for the greatest Francophiles among us).

The last decade saw cultural beauty phenomenons transcend borders to become worldwide trends, cultivating a new wave of innovation like never before. Yet while all these wonderful, culturally rich proponents of beauty will forever hold a place in our hearts (and cabinets), the last couple of years have ushered in a new, more laissez-faire approach. Enter A-Beauty (or Australian Beauty for the uninitiated): a one-stop shop for natural beauty, pioneered by all-Aussie brands such as Sukin.

Unlike the complex routines of Korea or France’s pharmaceutical-heavy products, A-Beauty is blissfully unfussy, hardworking and natural — much like the Aussie way of life. For Australians, life’s simple pleasures — the beach, the sun, the great outdoors — are beauty’s unsung heroes. According to Irene Falcone, clean lifestyle expert and founder of Nourished Life, “A-Beauty is all about simple, pared back regimes featuring naturally beautiful products loaded with powerful ingredients that do what they say they do.” Aussies are famous for their “no worries” attitude, and it’s exactly this “stress-free approach to life which is thought to have a positive impact on the skin’s appearance,” Falcone adds.

For those who aren’t lucky enough to call Australia home, A-Beauty is the perfect substitute, reflecting these values and distilling that laid-back lifestyle into both ritual and product.

With nature and the environment at its core, A-Beauty’s growing popularity reflects a broader cultural shift into a greener gear: we’re becoming more invested in what we put on our skin and consuming beauty in a way which is sensitive to global environmental issues like sustainability and climate change. Falcone calls the move towards A-Beauty “an evolution that ties perfectly into current trends of transparency, minimalism and the expectation of ingredient efficacy.” It’s a shift that aligns perfectly with Sukin’s mantra: to focus on natural ingredients and processes that are kind to you and the environment, with full transparency along the way.

The Aussie-born brand is the perfect entry point into A-Beauty as it boasts everything the movement stands for: simple, affordable yet effective formulas, down-to-earth ingredients, an eco-sensibility and a deep affinity for nature. Australia abounds in rare, precious geography unlike anywhere else in the world. From sand to sea, forest to desert, its natural spoils are many. Herein lies both its beauty and power; the country’s unique landscape makes for some pretty cool (and highly innovative) ingredients that our skin loves. Harnessing this flourishing, diverse landscape, Sukin is made not just in Australia but from Australia – and is 98.8% naturally derived.

“Sukin is continuously working to increase the percentage of natural in its formulas and to elevate the standard of what it means to be natural,” explains Lauren Oetomo, Marketing Director, Sukin. “We strive to influence the definition and transparency of ‘natural’ to protect our industry from greenwashing.”

The brand uses no synthetic chemicals, no sulphates, no synthetic fragrances – just real, natural ingredients that are good for you, your wallet and the environment (its formulas are even safe for the seas and won’t damage rivers and plant life once they head down the drain). It’s also vegan, cruelty-free and, since 2008, carbon neutral, offsetting 100% of its emissions and supporting renewable energy production. Add recyclable packaging and Great Barrier Reef Aid efforts into the mix and Sukin wins green beauty star status.

But why A-Beauty, and why now? Given the unrelenting and unprecedented chaos of the world, it’s fitting really. 

While 2020 saw us up the self-care in spades, it also saw us strip back in many ways, returning to the simpler things in life. We sought solace across the board, which inevitably saw the beauty sector also do a reset: hair regained its natural texture and colour (voluntarily or not), nails went bare and skin enjoyed a well-earned break. We began to turn our backs on overcomplicated, fussy routines in favour of a simpler beauty life.

That simpler beauty life is A-Beauty. As COVID continues to shift our perceptions, easy-breezy but totally efficacious brands like Sukin satiate this desire for simpler (skin) pleasures. In fact, global research by McKinsey has seen that the pandemic has only increased the desire for natural, sustainable beauty, with 57% of consumers stating that they had made significant changes to their lifestyle to lessen their environmental impacts.

So with a range that spans everything from skin to scalp, head to toe, where do you begin? A good place to start is the Signature Facial Foaming Cleanser, a lovely foamy gel cleanser which purifies the skin without stripping it of its natural oils. Plus, it actually lathers — a beauty miracle given the lack of sud-inducing sulphates (the ingredient that creates frothy foam). 

For a deeper clean, we love the Super Greens Detoxifying Facial Scrub. Like a green juice for your face, this scrub blends all the good green stuff (kale, spirulina and parsley) with natural jojoba beads and bamboo to polish the skin and give you a glow. For added exfoliation, Australian pineapple and licorice root help balance excess oils and tone skin’s appearance, gently yet effectively sloughing off dead skin surface cells.

A serum is a skincare sine qua non and the Purely Ageless Intensive Firming Serum is the perfect thing to pat in post-cleanse. This little bottle is packed with powerhouse natural actives like pure ribose and acacia gum, which work together like botanical best friends to firm, tighten and refine the skin, and are clinically proven to perform just as well as synthetic ingredients. It’s super light but super hydrating, with rosehip oil and cocoa butter tag-teaming to lock in moisture and protect you from environmental stressors.

Rosehip oil is an all-time beauty hero and one of Sukin’s star ingredients, bottled in the Rosehip Hydrating Day Cream. A dream for dehydrated skin, this cream contains a potent blend of rosehip oil infused with antioxidant-rich pomegranate to help quench thirsty skin and, in turn, prevent the signs of premature ageing. The Australian indigenous superfruit, kakadu plum, also stars — and for good reason: it’s the richest food source of radiance-boosting vitamin C in the world. The result? Radiant skin that wouldn’t look out of place on Bondi Beach.

So with 2020 behind us and the promise of brighter horizons ahead, why not begin the year right, starting with your skin? Beloved (Sukin is Australia’s number one natural beauty brand) and downright brilliant, Sukin is as quintessentially Aussie as Vegemite, mangoes and avocado on toast. With a trip down under off the cards for now, Sukin is the next best alternative for achieving that iconic Aussie glow. Trust us, there’s never been a better time to say g’day to A-Beauty.

Explore and shop the Sukin range online today.