If you have been looking for a product that truly moisturises your skin & fixes so many skin complaints without chemicals & all that nonsense, then MooGoo Skin Care is the product for you!
I have just got home from another hospital stint, & arrived back to a spoil box from them. And boy oh boy was it stuffed full of gorgeous products! They have everything from facial creams; to shampoo & conditioner; body wash; & skin udder cream. They have a starter pack that you can purchase to try their basic products & see what you really think. Their social media will make you swoon (check out their FB page & Instagram to see what I mean!)
My aunt & uncle used to own a dairy farm & I remember them telling me how moisturising & nourishing the products were that they used on their cows, so when I signed up for MooGoo’s newsletter & read up more about what was in their products I knew I could truly believe this. Their customer service is out of this world, & they really took time to answer all my questions & put research into what I was asking & whether their products were safe to use with all my current medication & treatment.
In the beginning…The MOOGOO Memoirs
Once upon a time, on a dairy farm in Perth back in 2005, the MooGoo story began. The Head of the Herd (founder Craig Jones) noticed that his mum was using a white paste, intended for use on cows, to help manage a skin problem. The cream was formulated to help keep the skin on cow’s udders in good condition for milking, and although it worked, it was thick and hard to apply. As you can imagine, cow’s udders need to be kept soft and supple, not dry and cracked. No one likes an angry cow.
Since mum didn’t particularly like being lathered in a thick cream made for cows, Craig took on the task of reformulating it to be lighter and non-greasy to help mum out. The name “Udder Cream” was a bit crass for a lady, so they referred to it lovingly as Moo-Goo, (goo for the cows) and the name stuck. Starting a skin care company wasn’t the initial idea, but eventually friends and family found out about it, tried it and kept asking for more. But it didn’t stop there.
Since then MooGoo has grown to over 40 products to help with lots of different problems, from dealing with irritable skin and itchy scalps, to natural sun care products and a Baby Range for the little ones. Our ingredient philosophy remains the same: To make effective products using healthy ingredients, that we are comfortable using on ourselves and our loved ones.
Everyone has a skin problem
Anytime we mention skin problems, it seemed that everyone had a story to tell:
When developing a new product, first we do the hard yards and research what ingredients, in theory, should be the best to help with a specific problem. After much trial and error we settle on a formula, and start the testing process on ourselves. If we like it, then we ask friends and family to give it a go. If they like it too, then we put it into a bottle or a tube and call it MooGoo. If they don’t like it, we either ditch it or make some tweaks. Obviously a lot more goes into it than just that, but you get the idea. This is the process for all of our products.
Why we wake up in the morning
Our goal with our products is to make something that works. Understandably, not everything we make will work for every single person (because we are all so different), and there is no such thing as a miracle cure – except those that claim to be on morning television *insert eye roll here*. But we do the research and our ingredient philosophy is simple:
As edible as possible although we don’t recommend eating it.
Natural over synthetic any day of the week, even if it costs us a little bit more.
Non-irritating because we don’t need more irritating things in our lives.
Quality, and family first since our family and friends use our products, we don’t skimp on the ingredients.
Safe for every-body we choose ingredients that are safe for everyone to use, including children, newborns and mum-to-be during pregnancy.
Effective amounts we use ingredients in a concentration that is actually effective.
Ethical product testing we don’t test on animals, and we don’t export to any countries that might test on animals (you know who you are!).
Made in Australia we aren’t made by a multinational company, but rather make all of our products in Australia.
Why we choose what we use
Just because something is natural, doesn’t automatically make it safe and effective. Many poisons are naturally derived, but that doesn’t mean we would ingest them. Many essential oils are sensitizing to the skin, although naturally derived. Science has concentrated some of the best compounds found in nature, and for that we are grateful. We choose to use natural ingredients because, for a number of reasons, we think they are the best options.
Where natural ingredients are concerned, we recommend patch-testing all products. Many people have allergies to natural compounds such as fruits, nuts, dairy products and seafood, while virtually nobody is allergic to Cola. This doesn’t mean that Cola is good for us and that fruit is bad, it just means we need to be conscious and aware that people can have reactions to specific ingredients in our products that can be beneficial and helpful to many others.
What’s in it is just as important as what’s not
Lists showing ingredients that are not included in products (“Free From…”), while conveniently ignoring other harmful ingredients that are in products, really grinds our gears. Sure, it might be free from Parabens, but what’s that Phenxyethanol doing tucked away at the bottom of the ingredient list? There is lots of stuff we don’t use (like Parabens and Phenoxyethanol just to name a few). It’s easy to list fancy ingredients on the label (great for marketing), but do these ingredients actually make a difference to your skin, and if so, is there enough of it actually in the product to be effective?
We aren’t about label-dressing with fancy pants ingredients, misleading gimmick marketing, or selling promises of false hope. Instead we prefer to tell it like it is, and we just aren’t fans of the BS. We are proud to show all our ingredients on our website, not just the pretty sounding ones. We take pride in our formulas, and researching new ingredient developments really spins our tires *nerd alert*.
Always do your homework (or just ask us)
We invite and encourage everyone to look into the ingredients that are in the products they use or are thinking about buying. When it comes to skin care, the information out there can be overwhelming (understatement of the year), especially when so many websites say things like “XXXXX is a poison/harsh/causes cancer etc. without any evidence.
If you have a question about anything, just give us a ring or shoot us an email. Everything ingredient has a story and a reason why we use it. Our formulator loves to bang on about ingredients, so this will give him something to do.
Don’t believe the hype
There are many ingredients we choose not to use simply because they’re outdated. Technology and science have come a long way and we choose to evolve alongside it. We believe that using newer, natural alternatives instead of old-fashioned synthetic ingredients that were invented in the 1950’s is not only better for everyone, but also more aligned with the times (can you believe it’s almost 2020!?). And just because something comes in fancy, futuristic packaging, doesn’t automatically make it technologically advanced. This is particularly true for toothpaste, which is why we recently created a Dental Range, but we could go on about that for hours.
Natural ingredients can often come with a higher price tag than their prehistoric synthetic predecessors, but we do our best to keep our prices as reasonable as possible. But also keep in mind that a higher price tag doesn’t necessarily mean a higher quality product. It is tempting to believe this and understandable why some people spend over $200 on a cream with the hope that it’s better. Instead of paying photoshopped celebrities to convince you to use MooGoo, we think our products speak for themselves.
How green is MooGoo?
We might not have words like “Earth”, “Nature” or “Enviro” in our name, but we think we are one of the most environmentally friendly skin care companies around. All consumption has an impact, but we make the best choices we can, with the environment in mind. Here are a few things we do to minimise our impact on the environment:
- Most of our creams are made in Queensland’s first carbon neutral facility that uses solar power and recycles its own water. Our packing boxes and brochures are made from recycled materials and are completely recyclable. We use non-laminated boxes for our packaging so they can be recycled too.
- Our bottles and tubes are recyclable – personal care products aren’t suited to recycled plastic but ours can be recycled.
- We do not offer refill pouches of our products as they are not easily recycled, therefore defeating the purpose of offering them.
- Instead of bubble wrap or those annoying Styrofoam balls, we reuse old cardboard that is put through a special shredding machine to safely pack our shop and customer orders.
- We use glucose and coconut based ingredients in our wash products because they break down into their natural components in the water system (silicone does not).
- Ingredients we don’t use because they are bad for the environment include SLS, silicones, Parabens, Palm Oil, and so many more your eyes would glaze over.
- Our warehouse and head office building is completely solar-powered.
- We choose natural oils that only come from sustainable farms.
- We are made in locally Australia, reducing our carbon footprint. Did you know 70% of Australia’s person care products arrives here on ships from overseas? Shop local!
Could we do it better? Probably, and we’re most definitely open to suggestions. If you have one, please let us know so we can improve.
But enough about us.
Nobody likes someone who talks about themselves all the time, right? So that’s just the basics. But write to us if you have a question; preferably something related to our products. You won’t get a typical corporate response from international headquarters, just an answer from a small, local team that knows and loves MooGoo.
I am going to be trying out all these goodies from tomorrow so keep an eye on my social media pages for an update as to how my skin is reacting/feeling. I can’t wait for soft, moisturised skin; & healthy hair!
