About Nurturing Skin
About Nurturing Skin
Every Wednesday I render tallow.
It’s a simple enough ritual — beef trimmings from my butcher, roasted slowly, strained into jars. I’ve done it for years as part of how I think about food and nourishment.
The problem was I always made too much. My husband would quietly take the excess outside and tip it into the garden. Week after week. Good tallow. Gone.
One Wednesday I looked at the overflow and thought — what a waste. What can I do with this that’s actually useful?
The answer came from my own bathroom cabinet.
I have psoriasis…
Anyone who has lived with it knows the particular misery of 3am — the itch that wakes you, the skin that won't settle, the reaching for something, anything, that will calm it down enough to go back to sleep.
As a naturopath and herbalist, and someone who is particularly reactive, I have rarely relied on pharmaceutical creams for my psoriasis. I already had considerable experience making topical creams and balms, both for myself and for my patients.
In my clinical practice, I can tailor a topical formulation to an individual patient, taking into account their symptoms, skin condition and clinical history. That allows me to choose botanicals according to what that particular person's skin needs.
So I decided to make something for myself.
I combined botanicals I knew well and made a small batch.
I couldn't believe how much more comfortable my skin became. The itching, burning and dryness improved, and I'm now beginning to see an improvement in the appearance of my psoriasis. I'm still using that cream today.
Of course, as a naturopath, I understand that managing a skin condition involves much more than applying a cream or balm. There may be underlying factors that need to be investigated and addressed. Topical preparations can play a valuable role in comforting and supporting the skin, but they are only one part of the picture.
What I Wanted Nurturing Skin to Be
What I Wanted Nurturing Skin to Be
As a naturopath, I spend a great deal of time thinking about what we put into our bodies — the food we eat, the environment we live in and the unnecessary exposures we can reduce along the way. Over time, I began thinking just as carefully about what we put on our bodies.
I wanted Nurturing Skin to reflect that thinking. Not products built around long ingredient lists simply because that is how skincare is usually made, but thoughtful formulations in which each ingredient has a reason for being there.
Tallow became part of that story, but it isn't the whole story. I use botanical infusions, carefully selected oils, herbs and Australian Bush Flower Essences, and some formulations are entirely plant-based. Where a product can be made beautifully without animal-derived ingredients, I am happy to offer that choice too.
What matters to me is not whether an ingredient fits neatly into a particular marketing category. It is whether I understand why I am using it, whether it contributes something worthwhile to the formulation, and whether I am comfortable putting the finished product on my own skin.
From Clinical Practice to Nurturing Skin
From Clinical Practice to Nurturing Skin
When I began thinking about making skincare products for the public, I recognised something important.
I couldn't formulate individually for people I hadn't met, whose clinical histories I didn't know.
So rather than developing products for particular diagnosed conditions, I've formulated the Nurturing Skin range around common skin concerns — dryness, flaking, itching, burning, sensitivity and blemishes.
My aim is to offer products that help comfort and care for skin experiencing those difficulties, while recognising that a diagnosed or persistent skin condition may need a much broader, individualised approach.
And when I found myself wondering what I could do with all that beautiful excess tallow, using it in balms felt like a natural progression.
That was the beginning of Nurturing Skin.
Recognition
2026 Quality Business Award Winner
Naturopath Solutions — Naturopathic Service, City of Glen Eira
Recognising the clinical practice from which Nurturing Skin grew.
Professional Background
Professional Background
I came to naturopathy through science.
My formal training began with a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Microbiology and Biochemistry, followed by several years working as a bacteriologist at a leading Melbourne hospital. My journey subsequently took me into clinical practice, initially as a kinesiologist, before I completed a Bachelor of Health Science in Naturopathy. Altogether, I've spent nearly 50 years working in health, including more than 30 years in clinical practice.
That background has shaped the way I approach almost everything. I have always been a question asker. I want to know why something is happening, not simply give it a name and stop there. If, for example, someone's thyroid isn't functioning as it should, my next question is why? What is contributing to it? What else might be going on?
That determination to understand what lies beneath the surface is why my naturopathic practice has become so focused on root-cause assessment and testing. Functional pathology, blood chemistry, genetics, mineral analysis and digestive testing are not separate interests for me. They are different ways of asking the same question: what is actually going on here?
And that same way of thinking followed me into Nurturing Skin. I want to know why an ingredient is there, what useful job it is doing, whether it is really necessary — and whether I can get the result I need without adding more than I need.
Continuing Professional Education
Nearly 50 years in health has not stopped me asking questions — or learning.
Functional Blood Chemistry
ODX Academy — ODX Academy — full certification and ongoing professional education. One of only a handful of practitioners in Australia to have achieved full certification through the Academy.
Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis
Malter Institute — certification and ongoing personal mentorship with Dr Rick Malter, a leading expert in hair tissue mineral analysis.
Genetic Pathway Assessment
MTHFR Support with Caroline Ledowsky — ongoing education since 2017
SIBO & Digestive Health
The SIBO Doctor (sibodoctor.com) — Mastery Level training with Dr Nirala Jacobi. Listed on sibotest.com among a relatively small group of practitioners in Victoria with a particular interest in SIBO and digestive health.
Other Functional Pathology Testing
Ongoing professional education and clinical application across a range of functional pathology investigations.
Health Conditions
Ongoing professional education to deepen my understanding of complex and chronic health conditions and their underlying contributing factors.
Nearly 50 years in health has not stopped me asking questions — or learning.
Functional Blood Chemistry
ODX Academy — ODX Academy — full certification and ongoing professional education. One of only a handful of practitioners in Australia to have achieved full certification through the Academy.
Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis
Malter Institute — certification and ongoing personal mentorship with Dr Rick Malter, a leading expert in hair tissue mineral analysis.
Genetic Pathway Assessment
MTHFR Support with Caroline Ledowsky — ongoing education since 2017
SIBO & Digestive Health
The SIBO Doctor (sibodoctor.com) — Mastery Level training with Dr Nirala Jacobi. Listed on sibotest.com among a relatively small group of practitioners in Victoria with a particular interest in SIBO and digestive health.
Other Functional Pathology Testing
Health Conditions
What My Patients Say
What My Patients Say
If you'd like to learn more about other people's experiences of my naturopathic care, you're welcome to read the reviews left on Google for Naturopath Solutions.
And the tallow?
There is a certain irony in how it all turned out.
Nurturing Skin began, in part, because I was looking for something useful to do with all that excess tallow. Today, the range has grown to include skincare, lip care, personal care and household products — and quite a few of them don't contain tallow at all.
And after all that?
I still sometimes have more tallow than I need.
So some of it still ends up in the garden.
Perhaps that's the best illustration of how Nurturing Skin grew. I didn't set out to build a range around an ingredient. I simply kept making the products I wanted and needed, and let each one become what made sense for its purpose.
