Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
Nikki Schofield owns Witchscents Organics, a business on Gallery Walk specialising in soaps, skin care products, and other all-natural items with the unique twist of being able to peer behind the curtain and watch the entire process go down while you browse. Nikki shares her thoughts on the appeal of her organic products with us today, as well as a few intriguing ideas about the future of Tamborine Mountain’s tourist strip.
by Kyle Hitchmough
How long have you owned Witchscents Organics?
We’ve had the shop here for just over four years now, though I’ve been doing this for about fifteen. We make all the products here in the workshop out the back, it’s all handmade and handcrafted.
How did you get started creating these items?
I started out making the soaps when my son was born. He had terrible eczema, so I started making goat’s milk soaps and things like that, and it all just progressed from there. Now we do the skin care range, candles, herbal teas, all sorts of things. We’re trying to focus on zero-waste, sustainability, palm oil free products. That’s our goal.
For those who might not understand, what is it you offer here?
Basically, natural skin care products, all essential oil based. We use lots of organic oils— avocado oils, coconut oils and heaps of zero-waste products. We’re trying to reduce plastics, so 95% of our products have no plastic caps or bottles or anything like that. That’s our general goal. We donate to funds like the Orangutan Foundation, Sea Shepherd, things like that, just trying to build a legacy here.
And you make everything yourself?
Pretty much everything, all of the jarred, bottled and soap products are all made in here, all of the tea blends are made here. Room refreshers, cleansers, moisturisers, all of that.
Where do you source your ingredients?
We source locally where we can. A lot of the botanicals I try to grow myself, so they’re from the home garden. Anything we can’t grow we source within Australia. Lots of local produce, like our coconut oils and olive oils, are sourced locally. We try to keep it as local as possible.
What are your most popular items?
Definitely the soaps and the botanicals are our top sellers, and for our skin care range we’ve got lots of new products coming up in a men’s range, so that’s really starting to kick off as well, which is great. The lemongrass and the lemon myrtle seem to be the hits for the soaps.
What goes into an average day here for you?
In an average day we’d be making probably three batches of soap and doing up tea blends. We’ve just made some candles, bath salt mixes… we’re always busy out the back here, and people can come into the shop and see what’s happening which keeps it interesting. Lots of people come in to see the soap-making process. It works really well. We infuse all the oils to go into our herbal salves which are like healing balms. Lots of cool little things happening out the back here.
Are there any particular trends in your clientele?
We get a lot of local support up here, people just generally looking for natural products. People are starting to wake up to what they’re putting on their skin, all the chemicals and the nasties that are in so many products. We’re just bringing to back to basics, keeping it as raw and simple as possible. I figure if you can’t pronounce the ingredients on the back of the bottle, you shouldn’t be putting it on your skin. Our ingredients are really raw, natural and unrefined, organic.
There is a notable movement in the mountain community that places great value on eco-friendly and sustainable options. Why do you think that is?
I think it’s actually everywhere; it’s starting to be that people are becoming more aware and wanting to be more sustainable and picky about what they’re putting on and into their bodies. The herbal teas, there’s so many health benefits to those. Digestive issues and respiratory issues, the teas can help with that. Especially with the whole COVID thing at the moment, people are just wanting to look after their bodies and their health.
Are you a local? What’s your opinion on the Tamborine Mountain area and community?
I am a local, yes. I think we could definitely be working on Gallery Walk a little bit more, open up the street more at night, maybe getting some streetlights so that businesses can trade later. I’d love to see a once-a-month night thing happening, get all the local shops on board and just really advertise it as a “come to Tamborine Mountain” event, kind of like what they do down at Burleigh with the Marketta. That would be really cool. I’d like to see more nightlife, more interest, more things going on up here for people.
What’s your favourite thing to do on the mountain?
I love all the bushwalks, things like that are definitely a draw card for us. We did a local pottery class recently, which was really cool. We try to get involved. We live just around the corner from the Botanical Gardens, so we often go through there. I just love supporting other local businesses, keeping it local where we can. There’s so much on the mountain for people that you don’t really need to leave.
What do you think Witchscents Organics really provides to the area?
I think crafting everything in the store and keeping it natural and local, definitely. Gallery Walk used to be full of local artists doing their thing and local crafters, so I guess we’re trying to bring the old ways back in a little bit. I feel like Gallery Walk is slowly changing and there are more and more people like us making products. I think that’s a really good thing to be doing.
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