Hi, I'm Kay Saarinen, founder and formulator of Saarinen Organics.

My journey into skincare began almost 20 years ago when our daughter Gemma was a baby.

At the time, I was studying topical naturopathy and herb culture while Gregg and I were building our straw-bale home, living off-grid and growing certified organic herbs and vegetables on our farm.

When Gemma was diagnosed with eczema at six months old, we walked out of the paediatrician's office with a prescription for cortisone cream. I remember saying to Gregg:

“You know what? I've just studied this. I've got this.”

So I began putting what I had learned into practice, working with the herbs we were already growing.

Friends and family began asking me to make products for them too, and I started with just five creams.

That was the beginning of Saarinen Organics.

Almost 20 years later, I'm still growing, studying, formulating and manufacturing our skincare here on our farm.

I don’t buy ready-made skincare bases and simply add a hero ingredient.

I formulate our products from scratch because different products — and different skin needs — require different formulations.

I choose the oils, botanical ingredients, emulsifiers, gums and preservation systems, determine their percentages, and develop the formula itself.

I don’t just choose what goes into the product. I formulate how those ingredients are delivered to your skin.

That’s the difference between selling skincare and being a skincare formulator.

I love natural ingredients.

But one of the most important things I’ve learnt through my studies is that natural does not automatically mean safe.

Formulating skincare requires much more than finding a recipe online and mixing ingredients together.

You need to understand microbiology.

You need to understand preservation.

You need to understand ingredient compatibility.

You need to understand percentages, pH and stability.

You need to understand what can happen to a formulation over time.

And importantly, you need to manufacture in an environment designed for cosmetic production.

A cream can look and smell perfectly normal while microorganisms are growing inside it.

That’s why education, testing, preservation and good manufacturing practices matter so much to me.

One of the most valuable parts of my education hasn’t happened in a classroom.

It has happened face-to-face with customers.

For almost 20 years, I’ve attended weekly markets, speaking with tens of thousands of people about their skin — what they struggle with, what they’ve tried, what they love and what they actually want from their skincare.

Those conversations have helped shape the way I formulate.

I don’t formulate from trends. I formulate from education, experience and years of listening to the people who actually use our products.

And I still sell at markets today, because staying connected to our customers matters to me.

From Our Soil to Your Skin

Many skincare brands use botanical ingredients.

We actually grow many of ours.

We grow and harvest many of the herbs used in our skincare right here on our farm.

I see the entire journey — from planting and growing, to harvesting and drying, preparing our herbal infusions and finally formulating them into our skincare.

We know where these herbs came from, how they were grown and when they were harvested because we were there.

For me, that connection between the soil, the plant and the finished product is what Eco Seed to Skin is all about.

Saarinen Organics skincare is manufactured right here on our farm in our dedicated stainless-steel cosmetic laboratory.

This isn’t skincare made on a kitchen bench, and we don’t outsource our manufacturing to somebody else.

We follow Good Manufacturing Practice principles, with dedicated equipment, documented processes and careful attention to hygiene, preservation, stability and batch consistency.

Having our own lab means I remain involved from the formulation right through to the finished product.

The person who formulates your skincare is also here when it’s being made.

That’s something I’m incredibly proud of.

There is no large manufacturer somewhere else making Saarinen Organics skincare for us.

We grow many of the herbs. I formulate our products. And we manufacture them here in our own lab.

We fill them, pack them and sell them directly to our customers.

There is no long chain between the grower, the formulator, the manufacturer and you.

We are that chain.

That connection allows us to stay involved in every step — from our soil to your skin.

That’s what Eco Seed to Skin means to us.

Sustainability wasn’t added to Saarinen Organics because it became fashionable.

It’s how Gregg and I have chosen to live for decades.

We built our straw-bale home, embraced off-grid solar power, grew certified organic herbs and food, and built Saarinen Organics around those same values.

Today, that thinking continues through the way we grow, manufacture and package our skincare — including The Jar Journey, where suitable glass jars are returned to us, inspected and professionally sterilised so they can be used again.

We’re always looking at what we can improve and how we can reduce waste further.

For us, sustainability isn’t a marketing campaign. It’s simply how we choose to do business.

Customers. Always customers.

I still love hearing someone tell me how much they love one of my products.

I love seeing familiar faces return to my market stall, talking with customers online and welcoming visitors to our farm.

I still get excited walking through the herbs knowing that something growing in the soil today may eventually become part of a formulation in our lab.

And I still love that moment when a new formula finally comes together exactly as I imagined it.

Almost 20 years later, I’m still learning, still formulating and still excited about what comes next.

This isn’t just my business. It’s my life’s work — and I genuinely love what I do.

My dream is to build Saarinen Organics into Australia’s leading sustainable skincare brand without losing the things that made us different in the first place.

The farm.

The herbs.

The formulation.

The science.

Our own lab.

Our customers.

And our commitment to continually finding better ways to do business.

I want people to know who made their skincare, where it came from and why it was formulated the way it was.

As Saarinen Organics grows, I never want to lose that connection between the soil, the formulator and the person opening the jar.

We Grow It. I Formulate It. We Make It.

And that’s exactly how I intend to keep it.

Kay xx