How Jumana and Rish tell the story...
"Rish, Wake Up"
"Hmm, Now? Go to sleep"
"I have an idea..."
Jumana
“A sleepless night, restless inspiration, and a light bulb moment culminated in the Herbs & Heart Vision.
Skincare resonated with me on a deeply personal level. During my teenage years, I was a cystic-acne sufferer with sensitive skin that reacted with even a whisper of something irritating. I made so many mistakes to try to ‘fix’ my skin - including a self induced rampage of throwing every pimple-blasting skin-polishing concoction on the shelf I could get my hands on. Needless to say, I only made the problem worse for myself.
That’s when I made my first natural skincare epiphany. After exhausting all options, and utterly frustrated, I faintly recalled my Grandmothers recommendation to try a bit of Tumeric with Rose water – an age old remedy for problem skin in Ayurveda. Adding my own twist to this, I added in just a drop of Australian Tea Tree Oil, and would apply this over my blemishes every night. What happened next completely blew me away, as the years of scars on my skin, and psyche, faded right before my eyes. At the ripe age of 15, a natural skincare enthusiast was born.
The following few years I maintained a healthy balance of mixing up my own at home DIY skincare, and trying out a bunch of fun products I came across with ‘natural’ tag lines. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of reading extensively about the benefits of ingredients, and really understanding what it was my skin was feeding on.
At 22, something different happened, my oily-pimple prone skin had left the building overnight, and all of a sudden I had dry, scaly, flakey skin.
As I researched a solution, I dived into the deep end, entering search terms like “natural products for dry, sensitive skin”, “ingredients to avoid for sensitive, dry skin”, “what does SLS mean?”; my days on end search leading me towards detailed articles on topics like “ingredients in synthetic products” “chemicals in skincare” “how does chemicals effect the endocrine system” ….and then fact that made me stop right there in my tracks.
“The Average Australian Women slaps over 515 chemicals on her body everyday.” I felt deceived. Outrage. And an urgent feeling of needing to do SOMETHING.
At the time I was working as a Brand Manager, and whilst I enjoyed my creative outlet, I always felt a strong sense of duty to helping people - one I felt my role at the time didn’t allow me the opportunity to do enough.
Somewhere between quarter life crisis, an overnight soul search, I stirred Rish awake at 2.00am one fateful night.
I have an idea I blurted, as he sleepily tried to make sense of what I was saying.”
Rish
"She spent the next 6 hours rambling about a plan she had been manifesting within herself for months, one even she had no idea was so meticulously worked out.
She’d quit her job. Enrol herself into cosmetic science study and immerse herself into all things natural cosmetics related. And, if that all worked out, she’d use our life savings, and 3 credit cards to create her first range of products.
And I wanted to shake her, tell her she was crazy, and to go back to bed.
But I didn’t. Passion must be contagious, because that night we stayed awake till sunrise mapping out our vision for a skincare range that would shake up the beauty world – this coming from a guy who’s extent of skincare started and ended with a bar of soap.
Little did I know that night would be one night in many I’d be losing sleep, but boy, it’s a truly a remarkable feeling pursuing a dream, and ours materialized in front of us faster than we could have ever imagined. As the days blended into the nights, H+H was built silently with solid pillars of values we have stayed true to through all the ups and downs.
With conviction I saw that we’d be a brand that gave people the experience of the amazing powers of natural products.
We’d be a brand that strived to educate and have conversions on ingredient knowledge.
We’d be a brand focused on giving back, to our customers, to our community, to our earth. Everyday felt inspired.”
Jumana
“Whilst I studied, I also engaged with some of the most brilliant minds in the industry to give their seal of expertise to our revolutionary formulas. We went above and beyond to find hidden, and niche growers to ensure the purist quality of our ingredients. Everything from the packaging, to the design was considered for its carbon footprint. It took months just getting a single product just right – and after what felt like a lifetime, Herbs & Heart released their first 5 products.
It’s been exciting to see the phenomenal feedback we have already received from so many happy customers; our immense collection of glowing reviews speak for themselves. We’re making skincare easy to understand, easy to use, and easy to love.
I’m so grateful that through our brand we are able to fulfill our original purpose, and give back to our community not only through our beautiful products, but also through donating 10% of all our sales to various environmental and social causes within Australia and world over, and with the brand new introduction of our ‘Greater Good Shop’- an online space dedicating all profits from the items within the store to their makers.
Our brand values of Simplicity, Mindfulness, Collaboration, Responsibility & Integrity remain our guiding principles, that we hold on to dearly as we grow and find our place in the world.
Oh and the name? Well. It wasn’t that hard to come up with really. We’re made with lots of Herbs and fierce Heart. Herbs & Heart.”
