Meet the (local) makers

Here’s the latest on new vendors on buyHUNTER.com.au, our online marketplace for boutique, artisan producers from the Hunter and Central Coast.

Self care in a cup – Based in Scone, in the Upper Hunter, Resonance Tea offers artisan herbal tea elixirs that will infuse your soul with seriously good vibes. Crafted with organic ingredients and using eco-conscious practices, they are all about your wellbeing, and mother earth’s too.

Choose from eight delicious tea blends to delight your taste buds and to match your mood. Try Afterglow if you are feeling adventurous and bold or pick calming Chillax for those moments when you need a little time out. Crème Caramel is an indulgent treat reminiscent of a luxuriously rich dessert (without any of the calories) and Gut Instinct has a zesty finish leaving you with a fresh feeling palate. For Bloom, owner Aly Brown drew inspiration from her favourite confectionary, Turkish Delight.

“I wanted to capture that rosy sweetness in a tea, the romance of savouring rose tea, feelings of sipping tea in a beautiful cottage garden,” she enthuses. It’s an utter delight with an organic honeybush base, pink, rather than red rose petals, organic apple bits and hibiscus.

All teas come as eco friendly, loose leaf blends, crafted for full natural flavour and are available in two versions: buy them in a glass apothecary jar and refill by purchasing the bio pouch version; or reuse, and recycle the jar as a vase, a spice jar, or a pencil holder.

Resonance Tea carefully consider the environmental impact of every decision they make, and care deeply about wellbeing, our wildlife and our environment. They are donating $3 from every product sold to Australian wildlife sanctuaries.

Loving candles – “It all started with our love for candles,” says Ben Sinclair, owner of GX Handcrafted. “And our kids love bathbombs, so we added those, and then I kept experimenting and adding new products and that’s how we got where we are today.”

Handcrafted in Newcastle (“there’s a lot happening at our kitchen table”), the range includes candles, wax melts, reed diffusers and room sprays as well as bath bombs and salts, bubble baths, body wash and lip balms. “We want to offer products that are both sustainable and affordable, premium products for everyone to enjoy,” he adds. “A lot of testing goes into ensuring that all ingredients as well as the packacking have as small an environmental footprint as possible.

“There are plenty of environmentally friendly products, but we also focus on the quality of our ingredients to ensure the uncompromising premium quality of our entire range,” says Ben who loves all his products but admits to a soft spot for the Japanese Honeysuckle scented candles.

We fell head over heels for the Champagne Strawberries candle (divine!) and the Crisp Linen room spray. Head to buyHUNTER.com.au and let scents like Fruity Hoops, Birds of Paradise or Amalfi Coast take you to your happy place.

Back to Essentials – Beauty therapist Hollie Farcash learned the hard way what over use of industrially produced skincare products can do to your skin.

“My skin was traumatised, I became the beauty therapist with bad skin,” Hollie reminisces. So she went on a quest to discover the key ingredients that had triggered the negative reaction, “the toxic load” as she calls it, to create a refined, simple skincare solution suitable for all skin types.

After more than three years of testing her vision became a reality: “Essential Skincare is a clean, simple, fragrance-free skincare range for even the most sensitive of skins; a product I needed and wanted to use on myself, my children and my clients who had troubled skin.”

Designed as a product range for the whole family, versatile and effective, it comprises just six base products. Products, that can be combined with essential oils to focus on particular problem issues, or just used on their own. “The base is wonderfully luxurious and delivers nourishment and pure hydration into the skin, without harmful irritants and the unique ability to absorb essential oils if you would like to use them,” Hollie explains.

Passionate about skincare (and the occasional wine and cheese night), the self-confessed perfectionist says, “I wanted to create a luxe but affordable range of skincare products. “Nothing makes me happier than sharing my experience and knowledge about skincare, health and wellbeing to help people change their lives for the better.”