What Mukti Knows Now

Tell us about your family.

I have two adult daughters, aged 24 and 30.

What was your biggest adjustment when becoming a mum?

Juggling a growing business as a single mother. It was difficult not being able to devote as much time as I wanted to being present as a mother, while also not having the emotional and financial support of a partner.

How do you manage the juggle when it comes to trying to do it all?

I no longer try to do it all.

I did in the earlier stages of my business because there was no other option. Over the years, as I grew the business, I learned to delegate the tasks I didn’t want to do or where my time wasn’t best spent.

In the beginning, if you’re growing a business without funding or partners, you don’t necessarily have that luxury or choice.

What has been the biggest challenge for you as a mum?

Not spending enough time with my daughters during their pivotal moments and earlier years. I would take that back in a heartbeat.

Being there and being present with them from zero to seven is essential. They need as much quality time as possible with their mum and/or dad in those early years.

What surprised you most about becoming a mum?

How little I knew, but also how you just figure it out as you go.

You don’t expect a baby to be so demanding. You think they’ll just sleep all the time and it will be a walk in the park. You wonder, what is everyone going on about?

Then there’s the sleep deprivation and the toll that takes. I take my hat off to people who choose to have children later in life. I had mine in my 20s, and I think it might have been easier to get by with less sleep while simultaneously growing a business because I was a couple of decades younger.

What do you wish you had known before becoming a mum?

That patience and compassion are excellent pillars.

You need to put yourself in your children’s shoes, especially when they are hurt or frustrated and trying to communicate that to you.

If you could go back in time, what would you tell yourself?

Every moment is precious and passes so quickly. Don’t miss a moment. Before you know it, they are adults.

Do you have any tips for managing the day-to-day juggle?

Be super organised and plan in advance as much as possible.

Teach your children to clean up after themselves and to be independent. Allow them to help and learn, even if they initially make a mess.

How do you make time for your career, family, relationships and yourself?

Segment your day and make time for yourself, even if it means waking up an hour earlier.

Look at where your time is actually going, too. If you didn’t watch subscription TV or use social media, you could potentially gain 20 hours a week back. Audit that first. Those indulgences may be costing you valuable time that could instead be spent on relationships, community and connection.

Who is in your village?

Dear friends who share similar ethics and values, who help you grow and around whom you can be completely yourself, without pretence or feeling you have to prove anything.

If you don’t feel comfortable around someone, that is a very strong signal.

What are the five things you can’t leave home without?

My Hydrating Cleansing Lotion, lip balm, Vital B Elixir and Queen of the Night, all Mukti, plus concealer and a good mascara.

Your favourite holiday spot?

Mallorca. I first visited in 2023 and stay with friends in Son Veri Nou.

Why do you love it?

It has everything. It’s cosmopolitan and close to the rest of Europe.

Where is next on your travel list?

Folegandros. I visited last year and have been dreaming of going back.

What is your favourite fashion brand?

Loewe. It’s luxurious, elegant and sophisticated, with timeless, classic pieces.

A trend you can’t get on board with?

Bright-coloured hair.

Where do you do most of your fashion shopping?

Online.

What does a healthy lifestyle mean to you?

A healthy lifestyle revolves around consistent daily choices. It isn’t a single ritual.

For me, it’s real, fresh, home-cooked organic food, regular sleep hours, twice-daily meditation and movement. It’s also paying attention to stress levels before they start showing up on your face.

What do you do to keep your body moving?

I exercise every day. I start with mobility, followed by either strength and conditioning training or a long walk of at least five kilometres along the beach.

I play tennis and padel, which are great for coordination and brain plasticity. I also enjoy dancing.

What are your top five tips for maintaining a healthy lifestyle?

1. Protect your sleep.Aim for seven to eight hours and a consistent bedtime. It’s when your skin and body actually repair.
2. Cut out alcohol and eliminate processed sugar and processed foods.High-GI eating accelerates ageing at a cellular level through glycation.
3. Move your body most days.Even gentle movement does more for your skin’s resilience than most skincare.
4. Manage stress deliberately.Whether through meditation, mindfulness, breathwork or simply protecting your downtime, chronic stress ages you faster than almost anything topical can fix.
5. Treat your skin as part of your overall health, not separate from it.What you put on it matters less than what’s happening underneath it.

What are your health and wellness non-negotiables?

Meditation and movement.

What does balance mean to you?

Balance isn’t a static state you arrive at and maintain. It’s a constant recalibration.

Some seasons of life ask more of your career, some ask more of your family and some ask more of your own health.

Balance is noticing when one area has been neglected for too long and correcting course, rather than insisting every day needs to be evenly split.

What inspired you to start Mukti Organics?

In the late 1990s, when I first began formulating, natural and organic skincare barely existed in Australia, and what did exist was incredibly limiting.

I trained in complementary medicine with a real interest in botany and clean living, and I wanted to reconnect people to nature through a toxic-free approach to beauty and lifestyle.

Mukti Organics launched in 2000 as one of the first certified organic skincare brands in Australia.

What deepened my commitment came later. In 2010, while researching for my own understanding, I uncovered how many toxic chemicals were quietly permitted in cosmetics and how little of that made it into public conversation.

I started blogging about it because I felt compelled to share what I was learning, and that eventually became my book, Truth in Beauty.

What is the best thing about running Mukti Organics?

Remaining the formulator as well as the founder.

I could have handed that over as the brand grew, and plenty of founders do, but every product still has to earn its place with me before it earns its place with a customer.

Product development, learning, testing and improving the actual formulations after nearly three decades, is still the part I love most.

What has been the biggest challenge?

Being held to a higher standard than the conventional side of the industry, and having to be the one constantly pointing that out.

A naturally derived ingredient has to disclose its full chemistry, while a synthetic fragrance blend can hide behind a single word, “parfum”, as a protected trade secret.

Explaining that inconsistency, over and over, for nearly three decades has been more exhausting than any product development challenge.

Is there anything exciting in the pipeline you can share?

In October, we’re launching our Golden Glow Drops.

Fortified with niacinamide and ceramides, Golden Glow instantly enhances luminosity while supporting the skin barrier, bringing together the radiance of a bronzing product with the benefits of considered skincare ingredients.

What advice would you give someone wanting to start a business?

Back yourself before anyone else is going to.

I started in organic skincare almost 30 years ago, well before it was mainstream, when there was no roadmap, organic certification standard or much market validation for what I believed in.

If you wait for permission or proof that the market wants what you’re building, you’ll wait forever.

Also, stay close to the actual product. It’s tempting to hand over the parts of the business you find hardest, but the founders I respect most are the ones who never stopped understanding what they were actually selling.

Your top five Mukti products?

Hydrating Cleansing Lotion, Bioactive Eye Creme, Vital B Elixir, Solar Veil SPF and Queen of the Night.

Click here to discover Mukti Organics