Natassia Nicolao, founder and director of Australia’s first waterless beauty brand, Conserving Beauty, has taken out the top honour at the 9th Annual Australian Women’s Weekly Women of the Future Awards presented at a lunch ceremony at 12-Micron in Barangaroo.
A biochemist and entrepreneur, Melburnian Nicolao was awarded for revolutionising skincare by creating products that use no water and leave no waste. As the Women of the Future winner, she will receive a prize valued at over $100,000 including $40,000 investment with La Trobe Financial and an appearance in The Australian Women’s Weekly December issue.
“It was just so obvious that water is involved in every stage of a product life cycle,” Nicolao said. “It’s involved when we grow our ingredients, harvest, extract, manufacture, and process. Everything we do has a huge water footprint – everything we use, buy, sell and make.
“On top of that, the beauty industry adds water, typically as the main ingredients in its products, despite it not actually having a direct benefit to our skin,” she added. “With the help of the Women of the Future prize money, I plan to purchase a machine that will streamline fabrication of the wipes and mask fabrics. The publicity, meanwhile, will help spread the message central to Conserving Beauty’s existence: that beauty must do better.”
Sponsored by La Trobe Financial, Nicolao and five other Women of the Future finalists were recognised for their exceptional innovation, creativity and business acumen.
The other 2022 finalists were Sophie Li from SignHow, Gemma Lloyd founder of WORK180, Stephanie Trethewey from Motherland, Brigette McDowell of Cheeditha Energy and Nikita Fernandes of Ally Assist.
“Women of the Future celebrates some of the country’s most extraordinary young women every year and we are committed to supporting their ambitions,” the Editor-in-Chief of The Australian Women’s Weekly, Nicole Byers, said. “Congratulations to this year’s winner Natassia – her innovative brand is a game changer for the industry.”
The event, hosted by Sunrise co-host Natalie Barr, also featured a panel discussion overed various topics from managing comments on social media to the power of community when it comes to getting a First Nations voice embedded into the Constitution to ‘Comeback culture’ as opposed to cancel culture as well as the continued crusade for equality across all forums. The panel included Independent politician and businesswoman Allegra Spender, The Man Cave CEO and Young Australian of the Year finalist Hunter Johnson, Co-chair of the Uluru Youth Dialogue Allira Davis and 2021 Women of the Future finalist, writer and disability activist Hannah Diviney.
This year’s Women of the Future Awards was judged by a panel that comprised of: Ita Buttrose (AC OBE, Chair of the ABC); Julie Bishop (Australian National University Chancellor and Former Foreign Minister); Narelda Jacobs (Network 10 presenter and journalist); Nicole Byers (Editor-in-Chief of The Australian Women’s Weekly and group Publisher Women’s Lifestyle & Food at Are Media); Sarah Moran (2018 Women of the Future winner and Girl Geek Academy CEO and Co-Founder) and Caterina Nesci (Head of La Trobe Financial’s Foundation).
