Black Chicken Remedies, Born In A Fowl-Embellished Bowl In Australia, Spreads Across The Globe

Black Chicken Remedies today has a sweeping assortment of 64 products spanning diffusers, dry shampoo, night serums, nasal inhalants and scalp treatments, but it started much smaller 18 years ago with founder Chey Birch mixing skin-healing tonics for herself and her friends. The tonics soothed Birch’s inflamed skin, impressed her friends, and Black Chicken Remedies sprang to life. “I must have been an apothecarist in my previous life,” muses Birch. “I’ve been informed by the ancient healers of the past about the different therapeutic values of the oils and the ingredients.” Black Chicken Remedies really skyrocketed in 2013, when the brand’s Axilla Deodorant Paste started gaining popularity worldwide for its effective natural formula. Leading up to her brand’s appearance at Indie Beauty Expo New York next week, Beauty Independent talked with Birch about the deodorant reaching 700,000 armpits, tongue scraping, oil pulling and selling on Amazon outside of Black Chicken Remedies’ native Australia.

Why did you launch Black Chicken Remedies?

It really started with the bowl. I suffered from irritated skin and, one day, I sat down and looked at all the things in my bathroom cupboard, and I thought, “This is crazy, the toxins I’m putting on.” I started studying aromatherapy and, then, blending little oils in that bowl. I love solving people’s problems and fixing things. Friends would have some sort of an ailment, and they would ring me up and say, “Can you come over and bring the black chicken with you please?” I’d go with oils and solve whatever the issue was. That’s how it really started.

Essential oils and natural botanicals are so powerful that they do actually heal your skin, and they bring your skin back to equilibrium. People put so many horrible toxins and things on their skin that the skin goes into a bit of overdrive. Once you calm it down with natural products, it really comes back to its own. That’s really what we’re trying to do is sort of bringing you back into your own.

What made you expand from skincare into wellness products?

Essential oils are not just about the smell, [they’re about] the whole effect on your mind and your body. When you put the products on, you’re not just slapping on some products, you’ve got to be mindful about what you’re doing, be in the moment and enjoy it. I went on an Ayurvedic retreat about 10 years ago was given a tongue cleaner and told all about oil pulling. Once you start [using the tongue cleaner], it’s the grossest, best thing you’ll ever do in your life.

It’s all about overall wellness because you’re cleaning your tongue so that you’re not going to add toxins to your body. Every step that you’re doing, you’re helping your body be its best. Your skin is better because you’re just being kind to your body overall. We’re not really like your traditional skincare company. We are really looking at the wellness of the whole body, the mind and everything.

When did you launch Black Chicken Remedies?

It’s a good question because it started as a hobby in that bowl. I created one product and, then, I got a phone call from a wholesaler that said, “I’ve smelled this oil. I want to buy a dozen bottles.” I was like, “Oh my God, I have to create some labels.” Literally, that’s how it started. [Later] a friend was wearing it, and this spa said, “Oh my God, I need that oil, whatever it is.” It really has grown like that, so there’s not really a launch day, but I have to say that I launched the deodorant in 2013, and that really was life-changing. It was one of the first natural deodorant pastes [and] was probably the first in Australia. Five years later, we’re under 700,000 armpits around the world.

That was the game changer that made people go, “A natural deodorant that works. This is incredible. What else do these people make?” Now, we’ve got like 64 products, and we’re in 350 stockists around the world. That product catapulted us and opened people up to all the other products that we do. It made us able to go, you know, we want to create a dry shampoo because it’s not good to shampoo your hair every day, and you don’t need to. This product can help you, and [you’re] going save the planet a bit, too, because you’re not using so much water.

When you launched the deodorant, how many stockkeeping units did you have? How many doors were you in?

About four [SKUs]. The deodorant really put us on the map. [We were in] 10 or 20 [doors] maybe, but not very big [stores]. Then, one day we were in the Telegraph. [Author and entrepreneur] Sarah Wilson actually crashed my website because she put a blog post up saying these are the products I use, but I can’t find a natural deodorant that works. One of my friends said, “You need to send her one.” Two weeks later, she put up another post going, “You know how I said I couldn’t find a deodorant that works. I’ve found it.” Then, that crashed my website.

The deodorant is Black Chicken Remedies’ bestseller. What are some other strong sellers?

We find that most people buy the deodorant and, then, the next step is they buy our travel kit, which has little sample sizes of everything. They buy the mini sample sizes and, then, you get into the face regime and the body regime. The products are very concentrated. Our products are oil-based or powder-based. We don’t need to add anything extra to the product. So, no fillers,  no toxins, no perfumes. It’s a very clean line. Our motto is every ingredient in every product is there for it’s remedial value. 

How many different countries is the brand in?

Eight or nine and growing. It’s growing really fast.

Black Chicken Remedies has been sold on Amazon for a while. Tell us about that.

We were part of a government initiative that helps small businesses. The Amazon people came to Australia and wanted to get beauty brands like ours on there, so they worked with us and asked us to be on. We went on it that way because it is quite a thing as a small brand to navigate your way through all of that. It was good for expanding our name. As a small brand, it’s really hard to get your name out there, but Amazon is a great way to let people know that you exist. We wouldn’t do it in Australia because we’re very well-known, and we’ve got some amazing wholesalers here. The reason we did it in the U.S. is because we weren’t very well known, and it’s very hard to ring up a store in New York and say, “Hey, will you stock our products?”

Who the brand’s target customer?

Our customers come from a couple of areas. There are the people who are concerned about their bodies. Their body is a temple, and they are concerned about everything that they put on because they understand that everything you put on goes into your body. Then, there’s the people who maybe have had an illness and start to question what they are putting on their body. We’re about to do a promotion with the National Breast Cancer Foundation of Australia for our deodorant because, if you’ve had breast cancer, [deodorant is] one of the first things you start to look at because you’re putting it on that area [where] there are lots of lymph nodes. So, you want to be careful about what [you’re] putting there. That’s when people go on the journey of [finding] a natural deodorant that works.

Why do you think there have been so many great beauty and wellness brands coming out of Australia?

It’s that Australian lifestyle. It’s quite a harsh environment here. You get your hot hot summers, and you have areas that are really cold. Australians are outdoorsy people. We’re active. I swim everyday, which is why I created our body oil, because my skin got so dry. So, [we’re good at] finding ways to be natural and use nature to help with [our] products. We’re not into all that fake stuff.

Pretend we’re a retailer. Pitch us on Black Chicken Remedies.

We are Australian-owned and -made. We are the most extensive remedial range in Australia [with] 64 products [and] more in the pipeline. Every ingredient in every product is there for it’s remedial values. We are a cult brand that’s gaining momentum around the world. We’re in 350 stockists around the world. About 3,000 products are out of our doors each week. For a small brand that started on my kitchen table, it’s great.

How much did it cost you to launch your brand?

I’ve done it very slowly and considered. I didn’t go over the top to begin with because I wasn’t actually sure how successful it would be. So, the products cost more in the beginning because I bought the jars that they went in and I bought the labels separately. I sat there and I stuck on the labels on one by one and, then, I mixed everything. Everything was done by hand. At first, when I was filling the deodorant, I was using a stainless steel scoop then I progressed to a 10-kilo machine that you pull the handle down, and it fills them. We were making 8,000 a week at that point.

We did it slowly and watched the demand grow. It was the right way to do it, not over the top to begin with. The thing with natural products, you are putting natural ingredients into to them, so you don’t to make a million of them and, then, take years to sell them. We made small batches by hand and just keep making them so that we’re always fresh, and we don’t need to put any nasty, horrible preservatives in it.

How is business today?

We actually have some really good systems so we can see how much something is selling and when we need to make another batch. We’re very thorough about that so that we can still make small batches and not have to make a gazillion at a time. [In the next 12 months], we’ve probably got another 10 products in the pipeline. Some very exciting things with the deodorant coming up, but I can’t say exactly what that is, but it’s going to change the game again. We like to be a little different, not just follow everybody. How many people make a tongue cleaner?