Earth Lab Origins #2: My First Formulas

I was ready to come back to Melbourne. I gathered enough strength. I started leaning upon my inner guidance more. I am back, I have no money, no plan and lots of bills. A time for panic, but I chose to lean upon my inner peace. Everything should work out. I cannot come back to the job I used to do. I am determined, even with very little resources, to change my life, to start steering it toward the route where I felt my worth, where I expressed my authentic self, where I shined my light and it made people better.

I gave myself 10 months to make it happen. If it fails I would go back to working as I used to. By this point it was clear it is going to be skincare. But what? Where should I start? What product?

And the first thought that came to me was let’s create deodorants. Did I know anything about the market? The demand? The need? No. I was flowing and using my intuition. Nothing else. So I took more courses, learned more, experimented for months and I came up with my first product, May Chang natural deodorant.

I made it in small batches in my kitchen, melting butters, blending oils, stirring with my hands. I used organic coconut oil, shea butter, olive oil, and beeswax. Every ingredient was natural, raw, clean. I wanted it to be effective but also kind to the skin.

At first, I only made the bicarb soda version. And it worked brilliantly. Friends and early testers loved it. Just a tiny pea sized amount was enough to stay fresh all day. Some tins lasted them up to six months. That felt amazing.

But after a while, a few people started to experience irritation. About 10% of testers. That really mattered to me. If someone was trusting my product and it didn’t feel good on their skin, I could not just ignore it. So I went back to learning, reading, researching.

That’s when I came across magnesium hydroxide, a gentler alternative that works beautifully as a deodoriser, without disrupting the skin's natural pH the way bicarb soda sometimes can. And so I created a sensitive version of the deodorant, completely bicarb free, for those with delicate skin.

That is how Earth Lab’s two deodorant lines were born — one with bicarb and one with magnesium.

It felt like me, more me than anything else. I was still scared, unsure, timid. But did I want it to work? You bet I did.

So I registered the business. And now, I had to sell. Fast. I was running out of money.

Adrenaline and survival, multiplied by a deep desire to make this new life work, gave me energy. I started selling deodorants wholesale to organic shops.

Was it difficult exposing myself like that? More than you can imagine. But I had no choice. Without sales, there is no business.

I spent endless hours driving from shop to shop, talking to managers, convincing them they needed the product. And they did. A lot of them did.

The closest shop to where I lived was Oasis in Moorabbin. When they took my products and displayed them, I used to come in every second day just to look at the deodorants sitting on the shelf. I could not believe it.

That was me in every tin. I was visible. It was terrifying and exciting.

The next step was craft markets.