Our Ethos
REDUCING CARBON FOOTPRINT BY NOT CREATING IT AT THE FIRST PLACE
Typically, the distance a cosmetic ingredient (no matter how natural) must travel from overseas to reach the final costumer in Australia is long and dirty.
We are committed to reducing the flight miles, carbon footprint & atmospheric pollution of our supply chain by avoiding a large number of transport steps. We work hard to decrease the distance between where our herbs and ingredients are grown and produced, where our formulations are manufactured, and where our final products are used. How do we do that?
By sourcing herbs and plants directly from Australian growers and Indigenous communities and by preparing our own extracts by hand! Additionally, we do NOT sell our products overseas!
NATURAL INGREDIENTS
Only natural ingredients accompany the more than 30 different medicinal herbs in our products. By “natural” we mean ingredients that have not been tampered with, ingredients that have been minimally processed, like beeswax, sea salt, kaolin clay, plant oils etc. Instead of isolating ingredients from plants, we choose to work with whole-plants. Did you know that most “natural” skin care ingredients although not truly synthetic, still undergo a series of chemical reactions in a lab?
TRADITION
As a herbalist working in the skincare industry, I have been faced with a number of disturbing topics over the years: from overharvesting of plants to create popular ingredients to outright false marketing. I feel like the natural skin care industry hijacked herbalism with terms like "plant-based", "extract" and "phytonutrient" which are often used in misleading, ineffective and unsustainable ways. We share herbal skin care that is made following the traditions of Western herbal medicine.
THE LEGACY OF THYLACINE
In honor of the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) Herbae Thylacini draws attention to our natural environment, particularly to the plants. We believe that by improving our knowledge of the plants around us, we can re-discover traditional medicines, and find better ways to live in harmony with nature. Herbae Thylacini aims to raise awareness of the interrelationship between the plant kingdom and humans. We focus on medicinal plants, particularly those native to Australia. Our herbal remedies and educational activities stand on the foundations of traditional knowledge and scientific research.
THE FOUNDER
Our Story
"Only a branding non-specialist can choose convoluted Latin words to name their business: Herbae Thylacini.
Herbs of Tasmanian Tiger.
That’s my business.
Or I would rather say: That’s me.
My name is Karolina (Kaja) and I am not a marketing professional. I am a herbalist, researcher and an honest plant lover.”
The tale of Herbae Thylacini starts when I was 11 years old. It was then that I started dreaming of running an old-style apothecary - a place sought after by people who need to reconnect with herbs to heal. This dream lived on during my studies of pharmacy* framed by my strong interest in herbal medicine. However, after I gained my degree in 2011, I was lured into science and embarked on a research trajectory. Those years saw me travel the world while working on a variety of research topics.
In 2014, one such journey brought me to Tasmania where I was hoping to learn about native medicinal plants. To my surprise I quickly discovered that Australian herbal medicine is almost entirely built on European traditions. “What an oversight of local botanical resources!”, I thought. I vowed to come back and change it.
I returned to Tasmania in March 2016, literally only a couple of days after completing my PhD**. Capitalizing on my research skills, I received a funding to study native Tasmanian plants. Herbae Thylacini was born later that year, setting in stone my path towards creating a bush apothecary – a place where Australian native and locally grown plants are prioritized to imported exotic herbs.
Herbae Thylacini took off with a modest range of native herbal remedies. Nowadays, I handcraft a growing collection of natural and herbal skin care that creatively ties native and locally grown medicinal plants.
It is in honour of the Tasmanian tiger that I bring attention to plants, herbs and trees alike, native and local, home-grown and foraged. For I believe that only when we know our environment, we can protect it and find ways of living in reciprocal harmony with(in) it.
Kaja
* Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
** Doctor's degree (PhD), Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, The Netherlands