Recreation Bondi Beauty Founder Nedahl Stelio on Raising the Next Generation of Strong Women

Recreation Bondi Beach is the brainchild of founder Nedahl Stelio. Stelio ditched toxic chemicals a decade ago but the product she found hardest to let go of was her fragrances. Inspired by this, Stelio created Recreation Bondi Beach — a clean, vegan beauty brand that specialises in fragrances and face, body and hair oils.

“At the time, everything was quite hippie and not luxe at all and I wanted something that looked and felt luxurious while being a clean formula that wouldn’t mess with my health,” Stelio told POPSUGAR Australia.

“There was nothing like that on the market so a few years later I created Recreation. We now have five fragrances, matching body and hair oils and we’re slowing branching out into skincare.”

Turning a passion project into a business brought with it it’s own challenges and according to Stelio, challenges are still something she faces as a business owner. “Having your own business is very different to having a job. The buck stops with you and you alone.”

Despite the ups and downs associated with business ownership, Stelio says that the beauty industry is one where she hasn’t faced gender barriers. “If anything, with my own business I’ve actually been liberated from gendered barriers which I definitely experienced in a corporate environment,” Stelio said.

“Being a female entrepreneur I’ve discovered that other female entrepreneurs are more willing to help, pass on knowledge and contacts and generally be an invaluable resource for me starting my own business. It’s a fantastic thing to learn, that there are other women out there who want to lift you up and help you on your way and it is very different to being in a job.”

Stelio has high hopes for the future generations of women, especially when she looks to her two daughters and her 17-year-old nieces. “They don’t accept the status quo as we did and demand change, even in every day encounters,” Stelio said. “That’s what will change the world.”

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2021, POPSUGAR Australia spoke to Nedahl Stelio about being a female entrepreneur, her plans for IWD and her hopes for the future.

POPSUGAR: Hi Nedahl! Thank you for your time. Could you please tell us a little bit about Recreation Bondi Beach and your journey to founding the company?

Nedahl Stelio: I ditched toxic chemicals from my household and beauty routine about 10 years ago when I was struggling to get pregnant. The only thing I couldn’t swap out was a luxury fragrance. At the time, everything was quite hippie and not luxe at all and I wanted something that looked and felt luxurious while being a clean formula that wouldn’t mess with my health. There was nothing like that on the market so a few years later I created Recreation. We now have five fragrances, matching body and hair oils and we’re slowing branching out into skincare.

PS: What does your day-to-day look like at Recreation and what is your favourite part of your job?

NS: Being a small business, it can literally be any part of the business, from styling photo shoots to working with our developers on new products, working with our designers for packaging design, dealing with logistics of moving product around, doing the marketing and working with our staff to deliver the best experience possible for our customers. It’s always changing and that’s what I love about it.

PS: Taking the UN theme for International Women’s Day 2021 as inspiration: Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World — Have you ever felt like you’ve faced gendered barriers when it comes to running your business or in the process of building the company?

NS: Beauty is a fairly female-dominated industry so I’m sure I haven’t had as much trouble as someone in, for example, tech or even something like architecture . I think traditional industries would have far more gender barriers. If anything, with my own business I’ve actually been liberated from gendered barriers which I definitely experienced in a corporate environment.

Being a female entrepreneur I’ve discovered that other female entrepreneurs are more willing to help, pass on knowledge and contacts and generally be an invaluable resource for me starting my own business. It’s a fantastic thing to learn, that there are other women out there who want to lift you up and help you on your way and it is very different to being in a job.

PS: What challenges did you face when creating your company? How did you overcome them?

NS: There were so many challenges in starting up and to be honest, there still are! Having your own business is very different to having a job. The buck stops with you and you alone, so one thing I would say is to be extremely thorough and double, triple check every last point, especially when you’re small and haven’t got staff to handle things — and then when you do have staff, you need to double-check with them that every point is covered.

You’ll find that when you don’t do this, mistakes happen and they can be costly, especially when it comes off your own bottom line. You’re much more aware of budgets and spending money and making sure you get value for every dollar spent.

Another point is that when things do go wrong — and they will, often —work through the problem and find a solution. Trust yourself, if you have done the work, and you know you’ve made it work, then it’s a matter of time before it does work. 

PS: What women — be it those you personally know and those you don’t— do you admire and why?

NS: I admire women who are standing up for what they believe. There is so much going on right now especially in Australian politics which says a lot about how women are actually treated in male-dominated industries and it’s going to take women standing up and shouting about it for something to make a difference.

So people locally like Clementine Ford and Lee Lin Chin who dedicate their lives to this stuff, and then internationally women like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who is just remarkable in the way she carries herself and defends women’s and minority rights.

PS: How do you support and lift up the women in your own life?

NS: I always try to be supportive and listen to friends and family and help people when they need it, and I encourage my children to do the same. Supporting the women we are close to is where it all starts and the more we support each other the faster we’ll grow stronger. If girls — and boys — learn this from a young age we’ll all be much better off.

PS: How will you be celebrating International Women’s Day on March 8?

NS: Taking my two daughters out to breakfast and celebrating who they are. My focus is on bringing up two strong, positive, independent women. The next generation is going to change the world. I have 17-year-old nieces who are much more confident in every way than my generation was growing up. They don’t accept the status quo as we did and demand change, even in every day encounters. That’s what will change the world.