Life Instyle sat down with Mamave, a premium skincare brand for mums and bubs, specialising in natural skincare products, formulated and founded by cosmetic chemist, Georgie. With ingredients backed by science, Mamave's products are meticulously crafted to provide gentle and effective skincare solutions for mothers and their little ones. With a passion for combining nature and science, Georgie's expertise as a cosmetic chemist shines through in Mamave's commitment to quality, efficacy, and sustainability.

What inspired the idea for your business? 

After working with children for over 10 years and being a cosmetic chemist, I realised there was a very common theme among their skincare products, they were constantly using ingredients labelled as “safe” for baby/kids skin, but never focusing on effective ingredients.  I definitely saw there was a big opportunity to create products that were safe and effective!  I also stumbled upon an oil in my research called Borage Seed Oil, which is not very well known, however it has some of the best benefits for dry skin of any oil available on the market – that’s when I knew it would be fantastic for baby and pregnancy skincare.

Where is the business now? And where is it headed? 

Currently, Mamave is just a baby – we launched back in July 2023, so we are just starting to find our feet and make a name for ourselves with a number of amazing feature pieces in magazines and online blogs.  We are gaining quite a bit of traction in our wholesale market as we are a great product that fits into a number of categories from gifting, self-care, baby/kids, maternity etc, so we are quite well placed!  We are hopefully launching some new products in the coming months and would love to secure some awards for our products…stay tuned for that!  Also, already gaining some traction in the Asian market with our products being presented at the International Beauty Expo in Malaysia this year, so you could say we have some big plans in mind…

How does your brand differentiate itself in the market? 

With a background in science, we love to focus on our ingredients and how many of them are scientifically studied and proven to reduce redness, dry skin etc.  But we also have a very unique selling point – which I’ve honestly not seen in the market, which is that our moisturisers and oils are all formulated to have a longer rub in time.  This means it takes longer for your skin to absorb the product and helps to facilitate massage.  This is SO important when it comes to belly massage as you are stimulating blood flow which helps to prevent stretch marks as it improves skin elasticity, but also for baby bonding and soothing.  

Can you share the challenges you've encountered and how you've navigated them? What have been your key strengths and weaknesses, and what have you learned from them? 

I think the biggest challenge we have encountered would be trying to differentiate ourselves in quite a saturated market and garner trust from our community of mums and parents.  It’s a tricky market to be placed in – especially when most of your business is online.  People can’t try your products before they buy to get the full experience, they’re simply buying based on what your website says and how it looks etc.  I think that’s why we put a lot of work into our wholesale community because it means people can try products in person when they see us at their local gift shop or baby store etc. 

Strengths – definitely the knowledge and research behind our products, what they contain, how these work on skin to improve certain issues.  This definitely comes from my background in science, so it’s great to educate people on what’s good for their skin vs what’s not.

Weaknesses – we have limited resources being a small one-woman company, we could never compete with the big baby brands on the market however this has made me realise we need to jump into every opportunity presented to us.  Just getting the brand out there and into people’s hands can make a huge impact.

What are the core values and principles that shape your brand's decision-making process 

Quality and transparency are very important for us.  When it comes to our raw materials, we don’t shop around for the cheapest product, we choose suppliers based on the quality of their materials, not the price and also aim to buy everything from Australian suppliers only (even supporting a number of other small Aussie businesses!!).  Transparency is also key – we wouldn’t use anything in our products that we wouldn’t put on our own skin as well as no tip ins (ingredients in tiny percentages e.g. 0.001%) just so we can write on the label it contains x,y,z.  

What advice would you give to someone aspiring to start their own business? 

Take every opportunity that comes your way (make sure it’s legit first) even if you have to pay a small amount to get something going e.g. sent to an influencer or an overseas wholesaler wants to try your product to see if it has potential etc.  Just jump in, it could flop (in that case, at least you know you tried) or it could go insanely well!  Also, network!! Make friends in the industry, you never know where one small connection could lead.

Also, don’t wait.  Get started right away, if you have an idea, start planning and thinking about how to bring it to market and don’t be afraid to ask people how they did it.

What achievement are you most proud of in your business journey? 

Our feature in Vogue!! This was by far the most exciting and proud moment for me.  Back in 2021 before I had launched Mamave (the day I actually registered the business) I wrote down that my goal was to be featured in Vogue.  Just over 2 years later and only 5 months after launching, Mamave’s “Mumma’s Soft Skin Set” was featured in their “The Best Gifts for New Mums 2023”.  It was a total shock!  I had all of this traffic coming to the site from Vogue and had no idea why until I googled and it popped up – I cried happy tears all day haha