Founder & Organic Cosmetic Formulator

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

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

For more than 20 years I’ve been growing herbs, studying skin and cosmetic formulation, talking face-to-face with customers and formulating skincare from scratch on our regenerative organic farm in regional NSW.

I don’t buy a generic cream base and simply add different active ingredients.

I formulate each product individually, because a facial cream, hand cream, ointment, cleanser or scrub all have different jobs to do — and I believe the base of a product matters just as much as the ingredients we talk about on the label.

For me, skincare starts long before a cream reaches a jar.

It starts in the soil.

Saarinen Organics wasn’t created because I decided I wanted to start a skincare company.

It started because I became a mum.

When our daughter Gemma was around six months old, she was diagnosed with eczema.

At the time I was studying topical naturopathy and herb culture. Gregg and I had already built our straw-bale home, set up our stand-alone solar system and were growing certified organic herbs and vegetables on our farm.

As part of my studies, we had been learning about skin and making herbal preparations using many of the same herbs we were growing ourselves.

I had recently completed an assignment on eczema and received an A.

Then we walked out of the paediatrician’s office with a prescription for cortisone cream for our little baby.

I remember saying to Gregg:

“I’ve just studied this. Let me see what I can formulate.”

That moment changed the direction of my life.

I started with five creams.

Friends and family began trying them and asking me to make more, and slowly Saarinen Organics began to grow.

PHOTO: A Early family photo with our young daughter Gemma.

One of the most valuable parts of my education didn’t happen in a classroom.

It happened at markets.

For around 20 years I have stood at weekly markets talking directly with customers.

Thousands upon thousands of conversations about:

dry skin,

red and easily irritated skin,

mature skin,

pimple-prone skin,

sensitivity,

textures people love,

products they don’t like,

what they actually use,

and what gets left sitting in the bathroom cupboard.

That constant customer feedback has shaped the way I formulate.

I’m not developing skincare in isolation and wondering what customers might want.

I have spent decades listening to them.

This is one of the things I want people to understand about Saarinen Organics.

I don’t start with a large drum of ready-made cream base and turn it into ten different products by adding a different extract or essential oil.

Every formulation begins with the purpose of the product.

A rich night cream needs to behave differently to a hand and body cream.

A scrub needs a completely different structure.

An ointment doesn’t need to behave like an emulsion.

Different oils have different characteristics.

Different botanical ingredients need different methods of incorporation.

Preservation requirements change according to the formulation.

Texture, stability, pH and ingredient compatibility all matter.

So I formulate each product from the ground up.

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 know what can happen to a formulation over time.

And most 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 is why education, testing, preservation and good manufacturing practices matter so much to me.

From Our Soil to Your Skin

Many skincare brands talk about botanical ingredients.

We actually grow many of ours.

Calendula.

Chamomile.

Nettle.

Echinacea.

Lavender.

And so many more

Growing our own herbs means we get to choose what goes on our herbs, what is in the soil, when to harvest and how they are dried.

We use Permaculture and regenerative methods farming methods

We harvest them.

We dry them.

I prepare the botanical infusions.

Then I formulate the finished skincare.

There is something incredibly satisfying about holding a jar of cream and knowing that the herbs inside it were growing here, by us.

Saarinen Organics is manufactured in our dedicated stainless-steel cosmetic laboratory on the farm.

This is not skincare being mixed on a kitchen bench.

Our manufacturing space is designed specifically for producing cosmetics and we work using Good Manufacturing Practice principles.

Our processes include careful weighing, batch recording, cleaning and sanitisation, temperature control, pH testing, preservation, stability considerations and strict hygiene procedures.

I take this side of skincare very seriously.

Because what goes into the jar matters.

But how it gets into the jar matters too.

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

There is no middle person between the formulation and the customer.

We grow many of the herbs.

I formulate the products.

We manufacture them in our own lab.

We fill them.

We pack them.

We talk directly with our customers.

And when our glass jars come back through The Jar Journey, we inspect, clean and professionally sterilise approved jars so they can begin another skincare journey.

That connection to every part of the process is something I never want Saarinen Organics to lose.

[PHOTO: Kay + Gregg / farm + lab]

Long before “sustainability” became a marketing word, it was simply how Gregg and I chose to live.

We built our straw-bale home.

We created an off-grid solar system.

We grew our food and herbs.

We developed our farm around regenerative and permaculture principles.

And as Saarinen Organics grew, I wanted the business to reflect those same values.

That eventually led to The Jar Journey and our Eco Passionate Peeps community.

Approved glass jars come back to us, are inspected, professionally cleaned and sterilised, and prepared for another journey.

For me, sustainability isn’t about being perfect.

It’s about continually asking:

Can we do this better?

Customers.

Always customers.

I still love hearing someone tell me that they love the way a cream feels on their skin and how much it has helped them.

I love seeing familiar faces return to our market stall.

I love talking with customers online.

I love showing visitors around the farm.

I love walking past herbs growing outside and knowing they’ll eventually become part of something I formulate in the lab.

And I still get excited when a new formulation finally comes together exactly the way I imagined it.

This is more than a business to me.

It is my life’s work.

My dream is to build Saarinen Organics into one of Australia’s leading sustainable skincare companies without losing the things that make us different.

The farm.

The formulation.

The science.

The herbs.

The laboratory.

The customers.

The honesty.

And the belief that a business can grow without walking away from the values it was built on.

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

Because I believe skincare should be more than a beautiful label.

There should be knowledge, purpose and integrity behind what’s inside.

Meet Kay

Grower. Formulator. Manufacturer. Educator.

And still learning every day.

Thank you for trusting me with your skin.

Kay xx

Founder & Formulator

Saarinen Organics