Corinne’s story: we’ve got to look at the body holistically

After more than three decades of manufacturing non-toxic personal care products, Corinne says we’ve now got more choice in this area than ever before.

When I was pulling the book together and looking for a woman who reflected the habit of Turning to Nature First, she was an obvious pick.

Her interest in what we put on our bodies started as a schoolgirl. Her parents were hairdressers, and she saw that some of the ingredients in hair products were the same chemicals she had to wear protective clothing to handle in science classes.

She became obsessed with researching ingredients and hunting for healthier alternatives. Later, when she became the mother of a baby girl with digestive problems, she realised that organic food was as important as chemical-free skin and hair care.

Her research had also made her realise how badly consumers were being duped by labels such as ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ on retail products, and she started making her own. That was in the 1980s.

Word got around, demand grew, and after 10 years of working from a shed, she and husband Ray bought a shop where she could sell her wares. Handmade Naturals is now 26 years old.

In recent years, she says, the availability of chemical-free products has soared. Good quality ingredients have become more widely available, largely driven by growing demand.

But while it’s become easier to access raw materials, prices have soared.

“I don’t know why, but after covid freight charges went crazy,” Corinne says. There’s one product that within 12 months went from costing $25 in freight to $125.

“We can’t absorb all those extra costs, so we’ve had to cut a few products.”

At the same time, she’s been able to add some too. These include a basic make-up line comprising foundation, lipstick, eye shadow, eye liner and mascara.

Overall, chemical-free product lines have expanded.

She points out that: “A few years ago, we might’ve had three or four toothpastes. Now we have a whole shelf of them. Even mainstream companies are having to come up with non-toxic products. But that’s great because I can give people choices.

“When I started, people would ask: so what does this shop do? There was nothing like it.

“Now there’s plenty of competition, but I don’t mind. Ultimately, it means healthier people and a lot less crap going into our waterways.”

Since we spoke in 2016 her dad has died and her mum is in nursing home care because she’s prone to falling. We talk about how difficult, time-consuming, and often heart-wrenching that can be.

I mention that she also used to go to Queensland University markets to talk to the students. She called it ‘planting seeds’.

The beauty of making and selling her products for so long is that she’s seen generations of customers. The baby who first visited the shop in her mother’s arms is back trying on makeup 25 years later.

I ask how aware she thinks young people are about chemicals.

They are, she says, but notes they’re also influenced by what’s trending on social media.

“Sometimes I’ll have someone come in with a product they saw on Tik Tok and ask: ‘Is this any good?’ Usually I’ll say to them, ‘if you’re asking me would I stock it, well no’.

“My own granddaughter who’s 20 will say ‘I know this is full of rubbish’, but my hair feels great. I tell her that’s because at her age her hair is great.

“I think the awareness is there, but after a hairdresser has done your hair and it looks all shiny, what are you going to buy? The one the hairdresser sells.”

At 65 she’s as bubbly and energetic as ever, and her own health regime hasn’t changed.

She doesn’t eat meat or drink coffee because they don’t feel right for her. She walks on the beach and does her own version of aquarobics in the plunge pool at home.

I ask what she wishes more people understood about non-toxic products. She nominates two things.

One is that the body works together as one whole system.

She says, “I’ll have someone come in with dermatitis on their hands, looking for something to fix it. I ask them what they’re washing their hair with, and invariably it’ll be something they bought at the supermarket.

“I tell them the problem is not their hands. So we change their shampoo, and every single time, they come back and their dermatitis has gone. We’ve got to look at the body holistically.

“The other thing is that I wish people listened more to their bodies. Someone will take a medication and it gives them a rash.

“So they take something else to get rid of the rash, instead of recognising that their body is telling them that this medication doesn’t agree with them.

“We have to tune into our bodies and take notice of the messages it gives us.”

Photo Source: Corinne