Charlotte Devereux, co-founder of Girl Undiscovered. Image supplied.
Girl Undiscovered captured our hearts late last year with their beautiful products and inspiring imagery so we were keen to find out more about this new natural beauty brand. Charlotte Devereux co-founded the brand with Sara Orme and Philly Gebbie and it has gained a loyal following since it was launched in December 2016. We chatted to Charlotte about how the brand came to be, the importance of being an ethical business and the amazing hero ingredients in their Girl Undiscovered products.
Where did the idea for Girl Undiscovered come from and what’s the inspiration for the name?
I first conceived the idea, as my eldest daughter Jasmine had problem skin, however she couldn’t find any natural ingredients that not only worked but looked and smelled beautiful too! As I started to do more research on natural active solutions, one ingredient, Thanaka, kept coming up and even though relatively unknown in the west I believed that it would be well received due to its unique healing properties and ancient history.
After researching Thanaka in more depth, I started conceptualizing a skincare range that could be developed in New Zealand to be loved and shared by daughters, mothers, sisters, grandmothers everywhere.
Girl Undiscovered is a whole idea. It’s a journey. At GU we are aiming to create a global community through a common ideology, and the name Girl Undiscovered is all about the ‘inner girl,’ and ‘the undiscovered girl’ that is in us all!
Ethical, sustainable products are in the public consciousness much more than they used to be, why was it important to you to adopt those principles with your business?
There is a limited voice for women combining natural beauty products, sustainability and a philosophy of real beauty. Although there are many brands exploring the natural skincare market, we felt that there was still a shortage of brands combining a strong philosophy of ‘real beauty’ with ethical responsibilities to make the world a better place, which is why we placed such a major focus on the ethical and sustainable side of our brand.
We have worked very hard to ensure that our key ingredients are ethically sourced and our packaging has been designed to be recycled or reused, whilst at the same time ensuring that it remains feminine, beautiful and unique.
It’s refreshing to see your suppliers photos and names as well as info about them on your website especially as it reflects the transparency of your supply chain, what made you decide to publish that information?
We are really proud of the short supply chain that we have created and have worked hard to go direct to source for our key ingredients to ensure that we are getting the best in quality and that we know exactly where they are coming from.
We also wanted our editorial content to reflect our brand philosophy, which is one of empowerment for all women. By capturing gorgeous imagery and statements from a diverse range of women all over the world – whether they are our customers, suppliers or just bystanders – we were able to create strong content to bring our brand alive. As part of this, we believe that the stories of our suppliers are as important as the stories of our consumers and through our strong relationships with them it has also helped enable us to be transparent with our customers. Quite simply, we view our suppliers as our partners and they play a hugely important role in our brand.
Girl Undiscovered’s product range.
What are the key ingredients that you work with for your products and why did you choose them?
Girl Undiscovered always seeks to source the best raw ingredients, grown in the purest environments. That our ingredients are ‘100% WILD’ goes beyond organic as they are literally grown in the wild without the use of any fertilizers and pesticides. We have actually trademarked the tagline and it is one of our strongest USP’s…100% WILD, just like you.
Our key ingredients are; Thanaka, a skin superfood which is new to the western world, yet an ancient ritual for women in Myanmar; Virgin cold pressed Coconut Oil from Bali; Kanuka Honey from Kawau Island and the purest of water from Matakana.
Who do you think is the Girl Undiscovered customer and what is she looking for from your brand?
She is a more natural woman who lives all over the world. She cares about her skin and cares enough to seek only natural products. She could have perfect skin or problem skin. She is strong and independent but also enjoys her femininity.
She could be your mother, your grandmother, your aunt, your friend, your sister or your daughter.
You’ve created three rather impressive hero products that cover a range of beauty needs, can you tell us what makes them so special?
All of our products have that extra magic – our Cleansing Water contains rose quartz and citrine crystals to purify your aura and our elixir oil is infused with calendula flowers, whilst our mask smells absolutely delicious!
Our hero products all contain three of our key ingredients; Thanaka, which is a very powerful anti-oxidant for the skin that also works superbly well to even out skin tone; Balinese pure virgin Coconut oil that has been harvested from the wilds and cold-pressed to retain the intensive levels of vitamin E and our wild island Kanuka honey that soothes and hydrates with antioxidants to restore and heal your skin.
Where did the idea come from for your lovely packaging? We love that you’ve used recycled elements as well.
For us it was incredibly important that the packaging could be recycled or reused – why throw away something that is so beautiful! Right from the word go we wanted to create a brand that you fall in love with from the moment you set eyes on the packaging to actually using the product. We wanted to create a ‘surprise and delight’ experience for our customers!
Dani Hayes in Girl Undiscovered’s campaign imagery.
Dani Hayes is one of our favourite local models here at FashioNZ, why was she your choice for the face of your campaign?
To launch our brand and to embrace the ‘NZ owned and made’ side of the business, it was really important that we worked with local girls – both models and non-models – but who most importantly projected a strong spirit and sense of self. We believe that Dani, Zippora, Phoebe and Savannah are a great representation for us!
What was the inspiration behind the campaign imagery?
We wanted to move away from the typical emphasis of sexuality, ideal beauty and selling unobtainable dreams that is so often seen, therefore in-line with our brand we focus on creating imagery that helps to evoke a sense of real beauty, raw beauty, natural beauty, freedom, discovery as well as keeping true to our 100% WILD philosophy.
Where do you see Girl Undiscovered heading and what’s next for you?
This is just the beginning for Girl Undiscovered! Now that our brand is up and live and our customers are in love with our products, I’m busy working alongside our lab scientists developing three gorgeous new products to add to our range! We’re really excited about them, so watch this space and be the first to know…
Images supplied.