Our story — Meet Tanja
I grew up in the Perth Hills, about forty minutes east of the city near Mundaring, where the jarrah forest starts getting serious. My parents were German immigrants who landed in Fremantle in 1987 and never left. After university I did what a lot of people do, I left. Berlin first, for three years working in product development for a mid-sized cosmetics company in Prenzlauer Berg. Then London for another four, helping a small natural skincare lab in Hackney reformulate their base products to meet EU ingredient standards. I learned more in those seven years about what actually goes into a bottle than I had in any classroom. I also learned what I missed about home, which turned out to be very specific things.
Before Still River Co existed, I was commuting to a lab in East London and spending my weekends at Columbia Road market, which I loved, but I kept buying products made with botanicals I recognised from Western Australia that had been shipped to Europe, processed, and sold back to people like me at a significant markup. Kakadu plum extract showing up in a serum sold in Shoreditch for forty-two pounds. Rosehip oil from Chilean suppliers when the Stirling Range sits right there at home. It was not anger exactly, more a slow accumulation of noticing. In 2019 I flew back to Perth for my father's seventieth birthday and drove up through the Hills and just did not book a return flight.
The brand started in my parents' spare room in Mundaring in early 2020, which is not the most glamorous origin story but it is the true one. I had about six thousand dollars saved, a contact at a small cold-press facility in the Swan Valley, and a shortlist of Australian ingredient suppliers I had been building for two years. The decision to actually register the business happened on a Tuesday in March, the week before the first lockdown. I remember thinking, well, now is as good a time as any to be stuck at a bench figuring out formulations. The first batches were small, around three kilos each, tested on family and a few neighbours before anything went near a customer.
We operate out of a proper workshop now, a converted shed in Bickley that I rent from a retired orchardist. Orders go out from here three days a week. The supplier relationships I built in those first two years are still the backbone of everything, the same cold-press operator in the Swan Valley, a tea blender in Fremantle I found through the Fremantle Markets, a packaging supplier in Malaga who does small runs without the usual minimums. It is a small operation by most measures, but it is the right size for what we are doing right now.
— Made in the Hills, shipped from a shed. — Tanja, Tanja Boldt
Journal
What I learned driving three hours from Darwin for a plum
Last month I flew to Darwin to meet the growers behind our Kakadu plum supply, and it changed how I think about the serum entirely.
I booked the trip mostly because I was embarrassed. I had been selling the Kakadu Plum Face Serum for about eight months and I could tell you the vitamin C content off the top of my head, around 100 times that of an orange, but I had never actually seen the fruit growing. That felt like a gap I needed to close. So in late February I flew into Darwin, hired a dusty Hilux and drove out toward the Daly River region to spend two days with the harvesting operation that supplies our extract.
The trees are not what I expected. They are small and scrubby, not dramatic at all, and the fruit itself is tiny, maybe the size of a large pea. The women running the harvest have been doing this for a long time, and they were pretty direct about the fact that demand from the cosmetics industry has grown faster than sustainable wild harvesting can support. That conversation sat with me. We currently go through about 4 litres of extract per production run, which is not enormous, but it is not nothing either. I came home wanting to understand our supply chain more precisely.
What the trip confirmed is that the cold-press extraction method our supplier uses matters enormously to what ends up in the bottle. Heat degrades the vitamin C content rapidly, so the timing from harvest to processing is tight, usually under 48 hours. I had read this in spec sheets but watching the logistics of it in person, the cooler boxes, the quick turnaround, made it concrete in a way the paperwork never did. The serum formulation we landed on after I got back from Berlin in 2019 was partly inspired by the rosehip serums everywhere in German pharmacies, but the local ingredient story is genuinely different.
I also came back with a better sense of what questions to ask going forward. The grower cooperative we work with is working toward formal certification, which I hope to be able to say more about later this year. For now I am just grateful they had patience with someone showing up with a notebook and a lot of basic questions. The drive back to Darwin was long and flat and I spent most of it thinking about how much of what makes a product work happens somewhere most customers never see.
The serum has been in the range since we launched and it remains the product I feel most attached to, partly because the formulation took so long to get right and partly because the ingredient has this genuinely strange and specific Australian character that I could not have found anywhere I lived overseas. Berlin had beautiful pharmacy serums. They did not have Kakadu plum.
How to actually get something out of the bath soak
Most people use too little, run the water too hot, and get out too fast, so here is what I do on a cold Perth Hills evening.
Perth winters are mild by most standards but up in the hills around Mundaring it gets properly cold at night, cold enough that I have started treating a bath as a genuine part of the week rather than an occasional thing. I made the Eucalyptus and Lavender Bath Soak partly for myself, honestly. I spent years in London and New York where bath products were everywhere and serious, and I missed having something that smelled like Australian bush rather than a French spa. The eucalyptus we use is Western Australian blue gum oil, which has a sharper, cleaner quality than the Tasmanian varieties I tested.
The most common mistake I see, based on the feedback I get, is using too little. The packet says four to six tablespoons and people go with two. I understand the impulse to make it last, but the Epsom salt base needs volume to actually do anything for muscle tension, and the essential oil ratio is calibrated to a full cup of the soak in a standard bath. Use less and you are basically just having a slightly salty bath with a faint smell. Use the right amount and the bathroom fills up in a way that is genuinely different.
Water temperature matters more than people think. I run mine at around 38 to 39 degrees Celsius, which feels warm but not scalding. Hotter than that and you sweat rather than soak, and the lavender in particular loses its effect quickly in very high heat. I learned this from a bathhouse I used to go to near Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin, where they were very serious about temperature ranges for different pools. It seemed fussy at the time. It does not seem fussy now.
The other thing worth knowing is that twenty minutes is the minimum for the magnesium in the Epsom salt to do anything useful. I know this because I spent a long time reading the research when I was formulating, and the absorption studies consistently point to that time threshold. I usually go for about thirty. I bring a book or I just sit there. The lavender is Mt Lofty Basin sourced, from a small grower in the Adelaide Hills who dries it slowly, and the scent has a particular quality that I find genuinely calming rather than sharp.
I am not going to tell you this will fix anything serious. It is a bath soak. But used correctly, with the right amount and enough time, it does what I wanted it to do when I was sitting in a London flat in January missing the smell of Australian summer. That was the brief, more or less, and I think we got there.
Six months of small failures before the rosehip oil worked
The organic rosehip oil took three distinct formulations and one very honest conversation with a cosmetic chemist before I was happy with it.
When I came back from New York in 2018 I had a very clear idea of what I wanted the rosehip oil to be. I had been using a Chilean rosehip oil that a friend brought me, cold-pressed, dark amber, slightly grassy in smell, and it worked better on my skin than anything I had found in a pharmacy. I wanted to make something with Australian-grown Rosa canina hips where possible, and I wanted it to stay stable without adding a lot of synthetic preservatives. What I did not understand was how much the oxidation problem would dominate the next six months of my life.
Rosehip oil oxidises. This is the central problem with the ingredient and everyone who works with it knows it. The vitamin A and essential fatty acids that make it effective are also what make it go rancid. My first version, which I made in a 2-litre test batch in my kitchen in Kalamunda, smelled fine on day one and unpleasant by week six. Not unusable, but not something I would sell. I went back to the cosmetic chemist I was working with in Osborne Park, a woman named Diane who has been in the industry for over twenty years, and she was not gentle about the feedback.
Diane's suggestion was to look at the carrier blend rather than trying to fix the rosehip oil itself. We added a small percentage of sea buckthorn, which has natural antioxidant properties, and we shifted to a dark violet glass bottle rather than the amber I had originally planned. We also changed the nitrogen-flush process during filling, which added cost but made a measurable difference to shelf stability. The second test batch held for nine months before showing any oxidation. That was still not enough. The third batch, with a slightly adjusted fatty acid ratio, held past twelve months in accelerated stability testing.
The Australian-grown hip supply turned out to be harder than I expected. There are Rosa canina plants in cooler parts of WA and in parts of Victoria and Tasmania, but the cold-press extraction infrastructure for commercial quantities is limited. We ended up with a blend: Australian-grown hips where we can source them, which currently accounts for about 30 percent of the oil, and certified organic Chilean oil for the remainder. I wanted to be honest about that from the start rather than imply it was all local.
I think about those six months fairly often because they were genuinely discouraging in the middle of them. I had quit a job I liked in New York to come back and do this, and I was spending my days making small batches of oil that kept failing a basic stability test. Diane told me once that most people give up at the second reformulation. I do not know if that was true or if she was just trying to keep me going. Either way it worked.
Summer in the hills and what it does to the skin care routine
February in Kalamunda hit 41 degrees three days running, and it made me rethink which products I actually reach for when it is properly hot.
February was brutal this year. We had three days above 41 degrees in a row up here in Kalamunda, and the jarrah forest around the house went very still and very dry in a way that always makes me a bit nervous. I grew up in Perth and I know what a hot summer feels like, but living overseas for nearly a decade, first in New York and then in Berlin, I had forgotten the particular quality of a Perth Hills summer. The heat is dry and constant and it does something specific to skin, not just dehydration in the obvious sense but a kind of tightness that builds over days.
In that kind of heat I stop using the rosehip oil in the morning. It is too heavy when the temperature does not drop below 28 overnight. I switch to just the Kakadu Plum Serum, which absorbs quickly and does not sit on the skin the way an oil does. The konjac sponge becomes more important too, because I am wearing sunscreen every day and the bamboo charcoal version does a better job of clearing that without stripping. I had not originally thought about the product range in terms of seasonal rotation when I was building it, but people started asking me about it and I realised I do it instinctively.
The bath soak mostly gets put away until April. In February a bath feels punishing rather than restorative, and the Epsom salt base does not make sense when you are already losing a lot through sweat. What I do use is the soak as a foot soak in a small basin, which sounds odd but works well. About three tablespoons in a medium basin of cool water, fifteen minutes, and the lavender still comes through. I discovered this by accident one evening when I was too tired to do anything more elaborate.
There is something I find useful about having a range that is small enough that I actually know how each product behaves across different conditions. When I was working in retail in New York, brands would launch 40 products at a time and nobody, including the staff, really understood what half of them did. I came back wanting to make fewer things and understand them properly. Summer in the hills is a good test of that. The products either hold up or they do not.
By the time this posts it will be late March and the evenings will be starting to cool down. The forest smells different in autumn, the eucalyptus is stronger somehow, and I will start reaching for the bath soak again. That smell, the WA blue gum in hot water on a cooling evening, is still the thing I am most glad I managed to put in a jar.
Customer reviews
Amelia R. — Northcote, VIC — 2025-02-14 — 5/5
Actually works on dry winter skin
Ordered the Organic Rosehip Oil after reading the ingredient list properly — no fillers, just the oil. It arrived in four days, which was faster than I expected for a WA-based brand shipping to Melbourne. Been using it for three weeks and my skin genuinely looks more even. Will reorder.
Josh M. — Surry Hills, NSW — 2024-11-03 — 4/5
Good sponge, packaging could be simpler
The Bamboo Charcoal Konjac Sponge does exactly what it says — nice texture, not harsh, and it's held up well after six weeks of daily use. The outer packaging had a bit more plastic than I'd like for a product marketed the way this one is. Product itself is solid though.
Priya S. — New Farm, QLD — 2025-01-22 — 5/5
Bath soak is the real deal
I've tried a lot of bath soaks and most of them smell like a candle shop and do nothing. The Eucalyptus and Lavender Bath Soak actually leaves my skin feeling soft, not just scented. Ordered on a Tuesday, had it by Thursday. Already bought a second one as a gift.
Cate B. — Fremantle, WA — 2024-09-18 — 5/5
Fast local shipping, great serum
Being in WA, I figured I'd get it quickly and I did — next business day. The Nourishing Kakadu Plum Face Serum absorbs fast, doesn't pill under SPF, and smells faintly fruity without being overpowering. My skin has been noticeably brighter over the past month.
Tom H. — Brunswick, VIC — 2024-12-07 — 4/5
Solid hydrating gel for summer
Picked up the Aloe Vera and Cucumber Hydrating Gel after a bad sunburn weekend — it did the job well. Cooling, non-sticky and didn't break me out. Took about five days to arrive in Melbourne, which is fine. I'd buy it again but would like a larger size option.
Sarah O. — Manly, NSW — 2025-03-05 — 5/5
Genuinely impressed
I've been using the Organic Rosehip Oil every night for about six weeks now. The texture is light and it doesn't leave a greasy residue on the pillow. Shipping was quick and the order was packed securely — nothing rattling around loose. Happy customer.
Dani K. — West End, QLD — 2024-08-29 — 4/5
Nice product, one small gripe
The Eucalyptus and Lavender Bath Soak smells great and dissolves well — no gritty residue left in the tub. My only gripe is the screw-top lid is a bit stiff. Not a dealbreaker, and I'd order again. Arrived well within the estimated window.
Lena F. — Norwood, SA — 2025-01-09 — 5/5
Kakadu Plum serum converted me
I was sceptical because I've wasted money on serums before. This one surprised me — it layers well, doesn't ball up under moisturiser, and after about three weeks I could see a difference in my skin tone around my nose and forehead. Delivery to Adelaide took four business days.
Shipping
All Still River Co orders are shipped from our Perth Hills workshop using Australia Post for standard delivery and StarTrack for express. Standard orders typically reach metro addresses in WA, VIC, NSW, QLD and SA within 3 to 7 business days. Regional and remote locations can take up to 10 business days. Express orders placed before 2pm AEST Monday to Friday will generally arrive within 1 to 3 business days to most capital cities, though StarTrack delivery windows to regional areas may be longer. Shipping costs are calculated at checkout based on your postcode and order weight. Orders over $75 ship free via standard Australia Post.
All prices on the Still River Co website include GST. No additional taxes are applied at checkout. We pack orders in recycled cardboard boxes with paper padding — we keep plastic to a minimum without compromising how safely your products travel. Fragile items like glass bottles are wrapped individually. You'll receive an automated dispatch email with tracking details once your order leaves us. Both Australia Post and StarTrack offer real-time tracking through their respective apps or websites, so you can follow your parcel from our door to yours.
If your parcel is marked as delivered but hasn't shown up, first check with neighbours and in any safe-drop spots around your property. If it's still missing, contact us at hello@stillriverco.com.au within 5 business days of the expected delivery date and we'll lodge an enquiry with the carrier on your behalf. For orders damaged in transit, email us a photo within 48 hours of delivery and we'll arrange a replacement or refund promptly. We don't ask you to return damaged goods — a clear photo is enough for us to sort it out.
Returns
Still River Co offers a 30-day return window for change-of-mind returns, starting from the date your order is delivered. To be eligible, items must be unused, sealed and in their original packaging. You'll need to provide proof of purchase — your order confirmation email is fine. Change-of-mind returns are at your cost for return postage. We recommend using a tracked service, as we can't process a refund for parcels that don't make it back to us. To start a return, email hello@stillriverco.com.au with your order number and reason, and we'll confirm the return address and next steps.
Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law apply to every order placed with Still River Co. If a product arrives faulty, damaged or significantly different from how it was described on our website, you're entitled to a remedy — a repair, replacement or refund depending on the nature of the issue. In these cases, you don't need to cover return postage costs; we'll arrange and pay for collection or provide a prepaid label. These rights exist independently of our 30-day change-of-mind policy and are not limited by it. If you're unsure whether your situation qualifies, contact us and we'll be straightforward with you about your options.
Refunds are processed back to your original payment method within 5 to 7 business days of us receiving and inspecting the returned item. You'll get an email confirmation once the refund is on its way. Note that some products are excluded from change-of-mind returns for hygiene reasons: any skincare or bath product that has been opened or has a broken seal cannot be returned unless it's faulty. Gift cards are also non-refundable. If you received a product as a gift and want to return it, the refund will go to the original purchaser's payment method unless we agree to a different arrangement in writing beforehand.