As the beauty industry slowly wakes up to cruelty-free and eco-friendly ingredients, Bowral mum and eco-beauty expert, Erryn King is on a mission to find quality products that are better for you, the environment, and won't mean compromising on effectiveness.  

What got you started in eco-beauty and skincare? 

I have been working in the beauty industry for more than 15 years, travelling all over the country with companies such as Napoleon Perdis, Benefit and Bloom cosmetics. During my time with Bloom, I was introduced to an organic range and I just started to get really curious about how skincare was made and how it absorbs into your skin.  

I kept doing research and was just blown away with what I was learning and I thought: if someone with my experience and knowledge in the beauty industry had no idea, then what about the woman that's walking down the aisle at the supermarket going to think? 

What was the biggest surprise you found in your research? 

The chemical component. Your skin is the largest organ in your body and on average, a woman is exposed to at least 500 chemicals in a day from her shampoo and hair products, to make up and skincare, deodorants and perfumes.  

What is the most important thing to look for when buying beauty and personal care products? 

That it is vegan. Now, I know what image that word conjures up but really, it simply means you know what's in your product. 

There are two sides to vegan beauty: firstly, animal testing, which a lot of mainstream companies still do and they test on animals because it is too harmful to test on people and what does that tell you? 

The second side is the use of animal by-products. If the label marks it as being 'cruelty-free', meaning it isn't tested on animals, but is not labelled 100 per cent vegan, that's a bit of a red flag.  

There are many products which contain animal by-products, which is where an animal that is deemed inedible has gone through a process to be used in cosmetic products as a filler. You'll often find this in shampoo, body wash, anything where they need to fill up the bottle. 

What can people do to change their habits and routine? 

Start small. Start with the products you use and love every day – things like mascara, shampoo, toothpaste and as you use them up and go to buy replacements, choose a better, eco-friendly version.  

Some things to look out for: stay away from parabens, products with formaldehyde and petroleum derived ingredients. Mineral oil, sounds good but it's actually a distilled product from petrol.