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Meet the Maker - Eco Tan's Founder Sonya Driver

Meet the Maker - Eco Tan's Founder Sonya Driver

In 2010 Sonya's life as she knew it was turned upside down after her husband walked out, leaving her alone to raise her two daughters.

It was when Sonya's sister received a devastating melanoma diagnosis that created a desire and determination in Sonya to create a new life and become uplifting support for her sister.

After a two-week volunteer stint in East Timor, caring for people with literally nothing but a shining outlook on life, Sonya felt a new appreciation for her own life and returned to her home on the Gold Coast, determined to make a positive change and support her sister, whose cancerous growth had been cut from her arm, leaving a horrible scar.

Still wanting to get a tan without the risk of harmful UV rays, they sought the next best thing. Sonya and her sister began getting regular spray tans but soon became concerned about the ingredients they were constantly covering themselves with. Sonya began to research the ingredients used by many different brands, regardless of their claims. She says it only took her a few minutes to decide not to use their products anymore. After all, our skin is our largest organ, and much of what we put on it is absorbed into our bloodstream.

Sonya started buying in samples of cacao, flower essence, chamomile; all things natural and organic and started mixing batches out of her tiny kitchen in her Currumbin house.

Eco Tan made Australian history in 2011 by becoming the country’s first certified organic tanning manufacturer. Named Best Organic Beauty Brand of 2017 and Best Cruelty-Free Beauty Brand of 2018 by LUX Magazine’s Global Excellence Awards, Eco Tan continues to be a stand out global leader in the organic beauty industry.

More from Eco Tan:

A GROWING GLOBAL PRESENCE

Today, in the organic beauty industry, we are considered a global leader! We have has 30 passionate Gold Coast staff members and thousands of stockists and distributors globally. Our products are now stocked as far and remotely as Madagascar, Vanuatu, Dubai, and New Caledonia. 

STAUNCH IN THEIR VALUES AND BELIEFS

Despite our global reach, we refuse to consider entry into the Chinese market. China’s woeful animal cruelty practices mean no amount of money will ever lure us away from our mission of ending animal cruelty.

INDUSTRY RECOGNITION 

Australian organic brand Eco Tan and Eco By Sonya have won Best Self Tanner and Best Body Scrub at the Healing Lifestyles’ 10th Annual Earth Day Beauty Awards with their cult favourites Winter Skin™ and Pink Himalayan Salt Scrub. Following on from last years’ win for cult product Face Tan Water™.Winter Skin™ gradual self-tanning moisturiser has previously won multiple awards for its incredible formula including the Best Self Tanner for Body at the 2018 Beauty Shortlist Awards in the UK, Aussie Cosmo Top Pick Beauty Award and SHOP Til You Drop Genius Award. With no artificial or synthetic ingredients, this vegan, certified organic lotion gives people their summer glow all year round. With the inclusion of organic rose geranium, it also smells incredible. Nothing synthetic only certified organic and natural ingredients straight from mother nature.

Pink Himalayan Salt Scrub is also an award-winning formula, previously taking Gold in the UK Janey Loves Platinum Awards and Best Body Scrub Scrub in Nature & Health's natural Beauty Awards in Australia. Its revolutionary certified organic and vegan formula feature pink Himalayan salt, organic lemongrass to give you deeply hydrated and silky smooth skin.

A COMPANY THAT GIVES BACK

We LOVE to ‘give back’! We regularly sponsor animal refuses… And we even paid for surgery for homeless dogs! Sonya is also passionate about sponsoring a Romanian woman and children, a cause close to her heart. 

Despite their growing success Sonya Driver Eco Tan Founder remains grounded, grateful and focused on their bright future. She maintains that…

“Eco Tan is evolving at a rapid rate, but my motivation will always come from the same place it began… Creating ecologically friendly, toxic free and cruelty free beauty products that provide people with a healthier alternative”. 

ON A FINAL NOTE, WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR ECO TRIBE – WE WOULDN’T BE AT WHERE WE ARE TODAY, WITHOUT YOU XX

 

 

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