For International Women’s Day, POPSUGAR Australia sat down with Aussie women excelling in the ever-evolving business of beauty. We picked up tips, tricks, and the secret to surviving and thriving in business.
Carla Oats is the founder, CEO, and creative director of The Beauty Chef, an author of three books on food and gut health, and an ex-wellness journalist. She spoke to POPSUGAR Australia about growing a business from your kitchen and finding your “boss voice.”
POPSUGAR Australia: What were your greatest interests growing up? Were you always passionate about beauty?
Carla Oates: I think my interests when I was growing up align with what I do now!
As a child, I loved mixing lotions and potions from my mum’s makeup and creams and pretending to make healing lotions. I also had a “business” when I was younger where I would give healing massages for $5 to all my family. I’ve always been interested in natural remedies.
As a teenager, I was interested in natural medicine, art, and design. I’ve managed to create a business where I can combine all of these passions!
PS: What was your background before starting in business?
CO: My mum was a fashion editor, so I grew up around fashion, beauty, and interiors. I started working when I was 13 on weekends at a cafe and a hairdressing salon so I could buy clothes! In my teens, I started getting asked by people in the industry to style shoots, so it was a seamless and easy job.
Then I transitioned into journalism and began working as a beauty editor for a mainstream newspaper, where I was inundated with beauty products from mass-market brands. After researching ingredients, my excitement about this dissipated. I became increasingly concerned about some of the toxic chemicals in skincare products.
Women from all over Australia were writing into my column and asking what products they should use for their eczema, psoriasis, acne, other chronic skin issues, and ageing skin.
I knew looking after your skin was an inside-out job from my own experience with eczema. I knew none of these chemical-laden products would rejuvenate skin. I decided to make it my mission to help change the beauty industry and educate women on how to look after their skin more holistically.
I left the newspaper, wrote a book with Penguin Books in 2004 called “Feeding Your Skin”, and became the natural beauty writer for Wellbeing Magazine.
I also penned a natural beauty column called DIY Beauty for the Sunday Telegraph newspaper for eight years, and during that time wrote hundreds of articles on natural health and beauty. I was the ambassador for organic skincare for the Biological Farmers of Australia for nearly two decades and am currently an ambassador for Australian Organic.
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PS: What was The Beauty Chef journey from concept to fruition?
CO: The Beauty Chef stemmed from my skin and gut health issues and my family’s. As a child, I suffered from eczema and allergies, and my mum took me to see a naturopath. They dramatically changed what I ate, and removed processed foods, gluten and dairy from my diet. My allergies and eczema subsided, so I experienced firsthand the connection between food and skin— and that what we eat can affect our skin.
Interestingly, my daughter also experienced eczema and allergies when she was about 10. I eliminated foods like dairy and gluten from her diet, but I also started researching the link between gut health and skin health and found some really interesting studies.
As I explored this link more closely, I decided to put my family on a gut-healing protocol which included eliminating certain foods from our diet but also introducing lots of lacto-fermented whole foods rich in probiotics.
These included foods like sauerkraut, kefir and kimchi. As I began experimenting in my kitchen at home, lacto-fermenting a variety of wholefoods, I realised I was onto something.
Friends and family also took notice, asking what I was doing differently as my skin was glowing — and I quickly became the local beauty pusher and supplier of these fermented foods. I was supplying neighbours, friends, and family!
They found they had better energy, happier tummies, and healthier, more radiant skin. From here, the first iteration of GLOW™ Inner Beauty Powder was born, my first inner beauty product containing 24 bio-fermented superfoods with prebiotics and probiotics for gut health, glowing skin and wellbeing.
When you’re a new brand, you don’t have the budget to create high volumes of products like the big players do. When I was starting out, it was challenging to convince manufacturers to work with us. But then I found my “boss voice”, and I said, “This is unprofessional, we’re a growing business, and we need support.” Once I stood up for myself, everything changed — suddenly, they turned around and said they could do it for us tomorrow.
Carlo Oates, CEO, Creative Director and Founder at The Beauty Chef
PS: What’s the day-to-day of your business like?
CO: As the Founder, CEO, and creative director of The Beauty Chef, no two days are the same. My role is very collaborative — I love working with my team. Every day is a mix of connecting and brainstorming on different projects, working on the execution of new products in development and giving input on marketing campaigns. Basically, everything we’re working on!
PS: What have been the proudest moments for you as a business owner?
CO: My proudest moments are when I get feedback from customers who have tried our products or books and said that they’ve been life-changing for them.
My other proudest moments come from working with our strong, cohesive team. It’s incredibly rewarding to watch people we’ve hired get along really well and enjoy their jobs! I think it’s really important to give people direction but also allow them enough space to feel empowered to make their own decisions.
Last, but not least, was creating our own exclusive fermentation plant. All of The Beauty Chef formulas are created locally at our fermentation plant in Sydney, and that’s something I’m really proud of. It took five years to create the plant, but it was so worth it.
PS: What has been the hardest thing about starting and running a business?
CO: One of the hardest things about starting The Beauty Chef was convincing manufacturers to support us, to begin with.
When you’re a new brand, you don’t have the budget to create high volumes of products like the big players do. When I was starting out, it was challenging to convince manufacturers to work with us. But then I found my “boss voice”, and I said, “This is unprofessional, we’re a growing business, and we need support.” Once I stood up for myself, everything changed — suddenly, they turned around and said they could do it for us tomorrow.
For me, community is really important, as well as speaking to other founders and CEOs who understand the unique challenges of running your own business. Sometimes, being a founder and CEO can feel quite isolating, but I’m lucky enough to know a few other female founders to who I can speak to about what’s going on at work. Using them as a soundboard helps me feel connected and more confident in my decisions. I also have a great team who are very supportive.
Carla Oates, CEO, Creative Director and Founder of The Beauty Chef
PS: What do you wish you’d anticipated when starting out?
CO: Looking back, I wouldn’t do anything differently because you learn and grow along the way. That’s part of the journey. Success is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration — you just have to keep moving and evolving as you go.
PS: People like to talk about work-life balance. Is that something you set store by?
CO: Every day, I try to get out for a walk. For me, walking is like a filing system for my brain. It helps me decompress, destress, and prepare for the day ahead. It’s also where I come up with my best creative ideas. I’ll usually walk for about an hour at a time.
PS: Would you describe yourself as a naturally confident person?
CO: Personal confidence is different to leadership confidence. I’ve always been confident in myself on a personal level, because I know that I always want the best for my friends and family.
When it comes to leadership in business, it’s something you need to keep working on, to continue to upskill yourself and gain that confidence.
For me, community is really important, as well as speaking to other founders and CEOs who understand the unique challenges of running your own business. Sometimes, being a founder and CEO can feel quite isolating, but I’m lucky enough to know a few other female founders to who I can speak to about what’s going on at work. Using them as a soundboard helps me feel connected and more confident in my decisions. I also have a great team who are very supportive.
