The Maker.
Growing up, food in our house was simple and good. Mum cooked meat and vegetables most nights, and anything baked — cakes, biscuits, slices — was always made from scratch. Same at Nan and Pop's. Nobody thought twice about it. That was just how food worked.
Somewhere along the way, things changed. Food got complicated, packaged, processed and frozen — all of it marketed as healthier, more convenient, better for us. And yet somehow, everyone seemed to be getting sicker. Myself included. In 2016 I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that stopped me in my tracks and forced me to ask some hard questions about what I was putting into my body.
The answer, it turned out, was simpler than I expected. Whole foods. Real ingredients. Back to basics. The kind of food that had been sitting quietly in my family's kitchen all along. I worked my way through every style of cooking I could find, always drawn back to the same principles — food made from scratch, with good quality local ingredients wherever possible.
Then in 2023 I discovered Ayurveda — the ancient Indian science of life — and something clicked. I threw myself into studying it properly, became qualified, and through that journey came an unexpected obsession: ghee. Golden, clarified, gloriously simple ghee. Tallow came a little later, and perhaps less gracefully. Friends and clients kept asking for it, so I tracked down some suet from local grass-fed cows, rendered my first batch, and that was that. A second love, almost by accident.
It wasn't long before people started asking for something to put on their skin too. I knew tallow skin care had found its moment, and through my Ayurvedic studies I already understood how deeply nourishing ghee could be — but if I was going to make something, it had to be something I loved using myself. Something rooted in the principle that not all skin is the same, that each of us has our own unique constitution, and that what we put on our bodies deserves the same thought as what we put in them. Skin Nectar and Skin Elixir are the result. I'm proud of them in the same way I'm proud of everything I make — slowly, carefully, and with a lot of heart.
The Method.
The Tallow.
Good tallow starts long before the rendering pot. It starts with the cow.
Suet from grass-fed cattle that have been raised with little to no exposure to chemicals, antibiotics or artificial interventions produces a fundamentally different fat to anything coming out of a feedlot. The animal's diet and quality of life is written into the fat itself — and that's not something you can fix at the rendering stage.
I source my suet from local farmers in the Gunnedah region who share that same belief. These are people who take genuine pride in caring for their animals and their land, and who are passionate about good quality food reaching Australian families. I know where my suet comes from, and that matters to me.
Once the suet arrives, the rendering begins — and there's no rushing it. I start with just a small amount of water to protect the suet from scorching in the early stages, then let time do the work. Over 12 to 14 hours the fat slowly melts down, and throughout the process I remove anything that isn't pure fat, purifying it in stages. The final purification happens right before the tallow goes into jars, ensuring what you receive is as clean as it can possibly be.
One of the more interesting things I've discovered along the way — the shade of white varies depending on which farm the suet came from. Every batch tells its own quiet story.
The Ghee.
Ghee sounds simple — and in method, it is. But sourcing the right butter to start with? That's where it gets complicated.
Australian butter production has declined significantly over the past decade. Fresh liquid milk takes priority, which means less cream is available for large-scale butter churning. True 100% grass-fed butter is also deeply seasonal here — during droughts or harsh winters, pastures fail and farmers have little choice but to supplement with grain or hay to maintain the health and milk yield of their herd. Year-round 100% grass-fed certification in Australia is genuinely rare, not a marketing gap but a climatic reality.
New Zealand is a different story. Its mild climate and fertile soils mean cows graze outdoors on fresh grass every single day of the year. There are no harsh winters forcing cattle indoors, no reliance on grain-based feed to get through the cold months. Grass-fed butter there isn't a premium product — it's simply the standard. For this reason, I source my unsalted butter from New Zealand. It's 100% grass-fed, high in fat, and makes the most extraordinary ghee.
The process from there is slow and deliberate. The butter is rendered over low heat for a long period of time, long enough for all the water content to evaporate and the milk solids to gather and separate from the pure butterfat beneath. What's left is a rich, deeply golden liquid with a smell that will stop you in your tracks.
The Products.
Skin Nectar Tallow
Skin Nectar started with a simple question: if tallow is one of the most skin-compatible fats available - structurally close to our own sebum, packed with fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K - why were so few people making it with intention? Most tallow balms on the market stop there. I wanted to go further.
Tallow is the base, and it earns that position. Its fatty acid profile mirrors the lipids naturally found in human skin, which is why it absorbs without sitting on the surface. It doesn't just moisturise - it works with the skin's own biology. Rich in vitamins A, D, E and K, it supports cell renewal, skin barrier function, and resilience over time. In Ayurvedic terms, tallow is warming and grounding - a natural fit for Vata skin types, which tend toward dryness, roughness, and sensitivity to cold and wind.
The second ingredient is cold-pressed black sesame oil - and this is where Skin Nectar parts ways with most tallow balms. Black sesame oil is one of Ayurveda's most prized skin oils. Deeply warming and nourishing, it has been used for thousands of years in Abhyanga - the traditional Ayurvedic self-massage practice - precisely because of its ability to penetrate deeply into the tissues rather than sitting on the skin's surface. It's rich in linoleic acid, vitamin E, and natural antioxidants and brings a grounding, strengthening quality that complements tallow beautifully. Together, these two ingredients are particularly powerful for dry, depleted, or ageing skin.
Frankincense essential oil completes the blend. Revered across ancient medicine traditions for its ability to support skin cell regeneration and even skin tone, frankincense also brings a subtle, resinous warmth to the scent. In Ayurveda, it is considered tridoshic - balancing for all three doshas - and has long been used to support mature, scarred, or uneven skin.
Together, these three ingredients make Skin Nectar particularly well suited to dry, sensitive, ageing, or Vata-dominant skin - and to anyone who simply wants fewer, better ingredients doing more of the work.
Skin Elixir Ghee
Skin Elixir came from a truth I kept coming back to in my Ayurvedic studies: ghee isn't just food. It has been used on the skin for thousands of years across Indian, Egyptian and Greco-Roman traditions - applied to burns, wounds, dry and inflamed skin - long before modern skincare existed. If I trusted it enough to eat every day, it made complete sense to put it on my skin.
Ghee is the foundation, and in Ayurveda, it holds a unique position among all oils and fats. It is considered cooling, calming, and deeply nourishing - a natural remedy for Pitta skin types, which tend toward heat, redness, reactivity, and inflammation. Unlike many oils that sit on the skin's surface, ghee is believed in Ayurvedic tradition to penetrate the deeper layers of tissue, carrying its nutrients with it. Rich in fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K, butyric acid, and naturally occurring antioxidants, it supports the skin barrier, calms irritation, and brings a softness that is genuinely difficult to replicate.
Fractionated coconut oil is the second ingredient, chosen deliberately for what it doesn't do as much as what it does. Lighter than regular coconut oil, it absorbs readily without heaviness, making the overall blend feel silky rather than rich. It brings its own antimicrobial properties and a softening effect, and in Ayurvedic terms, its cooling quality reinforces the ghee's naturally calming nature - two ingredients working in the same direction.
Lavender essential oil brings both function and familiarity. One of the most well-researched essential oils for skin, lavender has a long history of calming reactive, irritated, and sensitive skin. It pairs naturally with the cooling, Pitta-pacifying character of the base - soothing on the surface the same way ghee soothes beneath it.
Sandalwood essential oil is the final piece, and perhaps the most Ayurvedic of all. Prized for centuries for its ability to calm inflammation, even skin tone, and support mature or sun-stressed skin, sandalwood has a grounding, cooling quality that brings the whole blend together. The scent alone - warm, woody, quietly luxurious - makes this a product worth taking a moment with.
Together, these four ingredients make Skin Elixir particularly well suited to sensitive, reactive, combination, or Pitta-dominant skin - and to anyone whose skin runs hot, flushes easily, or simply needs to be treated gently.
Beef Dripping.
My Mum grew up in a household where nothing was wasted — especially not fat. After cooking meat, the drippings went straight into a pot on the bench and were used for everything. Cooking, frying, spreading. Yes, spreading — dripping sandwiches were apparently a household staple, and by all accounts absolutely delicious. What's old is new again, and what your grandparents kept on the bench turns out to be one of the most nutritionally valuable cooking fats available.
Tallow is packed with fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K along with essential omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. This isn't empty fat. It's fat that works.
With a smoke point of 215°C, tallow holds its structure under high heat — unlike seed oils that oxidise and break down — making it ideal for frying, roasting and searing without producing harmful compounds.
Tallow closely mimics the natural oils found in human skin, which is why it absorbs so readily without leaving a greasy residue. People have used animal fat on their skin for thousands of years, and modern dermatology is slowly catching up.
A nose-to-tail byproduct of beef production, tallow means less waste, no industrial processing, no vast monoculture crops. Just a byproduct put to genuinely good use.
Grass-fed tallow contains natural antioxidants and CLA, both of which support the body's inflammatory response. What you feed the cow ends up in the fat — and grass-fed makes all the difference.
Ancient Butter.
Ghee found me the same way Ayurveda did — quietly, then all at once.
Ayurveda is one of the world's oldest healing systems, originating in India over 5,000 years ago. The word translates from Sanskrit as the science of life, covering everything from digestion and sleep to seasonal eating and daily ritual. As a qualified Ayurvedic Practitioner, I've studied this science deeply, and it continues to shape not just how I make my products but how I live my life. In a world tired of quick fixes, its ancient principles hold up remarkably well under modern scrutiny.
At the heart of Ayurvedic cooking and medicine sits ghee — not just a cooking fat but a living medicine. Used therapeutically to support digestion, reduce inflammation and nourish the nervous system, it also serves as a vehicle for medicinal herbs, carrying their healing properties deeper into the body's tissues. Fascinatingly, the older ghee becomes the more potent its medicinal value. A fat that gets better with age.
In the kitchen, ghee handles heat without burning, is free of milk solids and most lactose, and is far gentler on digestion than butter. Spread it on sourdough, use it in baking, stir it through warm rice or melt it over roasted vegetables. Many people who struggle with dairy find they tolerate ghee beautifully.
Butter is lovely. Ghee is butter that's been made better.