Move over soap bars, there’s a new brand shaking up the market. Sundae, launched in 2021, is taking a new approach to shower time with its foaming body cleanser.
The foam-textured product allows for the skin to absorb the formula—glycerin, fruit extract, and Kakadu plum being ingredients—more intensely than your typical gel or cream. Furthermore, the cleanser removes the hassle of trying to get a product to lather in addition to fortified moisturizing agents and a longer-lasting scent. “We want customers to talk about personal or body care items like they do about face masks and other self-care rituals, with genuine excitement,” founder Lizzie Waley tells us. It’s as simple as getting wet, spraying a dollop of cleanser on your hand, and lathering up with your product of choice.
Sundae’s signature Foaming Body Cleanser is available in an array of flavours: “Orange Crush,” “Juicy Pear,” “Cherry On Top,” and “Very Vanilla” among several others. Recently, the brand expanded its product lineup with four additional scented cleansers that join the label’s original flavours. “Honey Honey” boasts fragrance notes of toffee, maple syrup, and honey, while “Cool Mint” contains hints of peppermint, menthol, and spearmint.
Meanwhile, “Coconut Cream” is comprised of vanilla, sandalwood, and coconut notes, whereas “Pomegranate Fizz” consists of peach blossom, blackcurrant, and pomegranate. “Green Tea” also serves as the label’s latest arrival, formulated with AHAs and other goodies. Unlike other body cleansers, Sundae is free of parabens, GMOs, and sulfates with all of its products being vegan and cruelty-free.
To learn more about the rising label taking the bath and shower industry by storm in Australia, we chat with Sundae founder Lizzie Waley in regards to the genesis of the brand, development process, and choosing scents among other topics. Read on for our conversation.
Tell us a bit about your background and what led to the creation of the brand.
Sundae was born over a casual Tuesday dinner funnily enough—nothing sparks creativity like a pub meal and a red wine! My best friend, now business partner, and I were chatting about the fact that bath or shower time used to be the highlight of the day as a child, something you’d really look forward to and enjoy, but as an adult, it’s become a bit of a chore. It got us thinking that there are so many mundane moments in your daily routine that could be joyful, particularly when it comes to body care. We were tired of our body care feeling like a routine instead of a ritual… a ‘have to’ instead of a ‘really want to’.
Sundae was our response to feeling uninspired by the products we mindlessly apply every day. We felt that we all should be getting more out of our everyday routines so we set out to turn these moments into a joyful, self-care rituals.
Bath and shower products have been stagnant for a while—did you have any fear about getting in competition with giant personal care companies?
Bath and shower products have absolutely been stagnant, this is essentially what made us want to jump in! It’s a space that hasn’t seen a lot of innovation which was an exciting challenge for us to tackle. As we started to develop the brand and our products, it became more apparent that there just wasn’t something like us on shelf, the big personal care companies exist to fulfil a need, very few exist to ignite joy. We want customers to talk about personal or body care items like they do about face masks and other self-care rituals, with genuine excitement.
Aside from that, what were some of the biggest challenges of the entire development and production process?
One of the main challenges we face was our packaging. It was really important to us that everything about the brand exuded joy, from our positioning to our formula and of course, our packaging. The whipped cream style cap played a big role in achieving this, we wanted to recreate that feeling of excitement we all associate with popping open a can of whipped cream. Little did we know that you can’t just purchase these caps off the shelf from a supplier. It took us eight months to custom make a tooling machine that would allow us to produce these caps and another two months to try and match the colour of the caps to the rest of the packaging. It took us longer to work through our packaging than the formula itself!
What do your body and skin-care routines consist of and how have they changed since you launched the label?
It’s back to basics for me. Launching this brand has made me realize that I can enjoy little tasks like showering, moisturising and even applying sunscreen, I don’t need a six-step skincare routine to have a self-care moment. My days always start and end with a shower with Sundae, of course, followed by my skincare routine which is very basic—cleanse, moisturise, SPF, repeat. My go-to flavour in the mornings is Orange Crush, and for my evening shower, I usually alternate between Very Vanilla and Coconut Cream.
We love the fragrance selections, particularly Orange Crush and Pomegranate Fizz, how do you go about choosing and formulating scents?
We want everyone to enjoy our products so it’s important that we offer a scent profile for every preference, from fresh to florals and everything in between, there’s something to match your every mood. We know some people prefer to shower in the morning, whilst others prefer their shower at night so we wanted to create fragrances that would wake you up like Orange Crush but also fragrances that could help to wind you down after a long day like Very Vanilla.
Our packaging is also a key consideration. We want to stand out from your average body wash and colour plays a huge role in doing so. We lead with colour, so what colour the next bottle of Sundae will look best alongside our current line-up, and then we find a fragrance to match.
What are some long-term goals you have for Sundae?
Ultimately we want to be the most loved and used body care brand! Historically body care has taken a position on the lowest rung of the self-care ladder, with skin care and hair care stealing the spotlight. Our goal is to bring the attention back to the body and get people talking about body care like they do about beauty items, with genuine excitement.
Elsewhere in beauty, TooD Beauty founder Shari Siadat takes us through her journey of reclaiming her definition of beauty.
