It’s not easy to make science sexy.
Or to turn tea tree oil — the smell of childhood sick days for many — into a luxury skincare staple.
But if there’s one thing Andrea Horwood knows how to do, it’s build a brand before the market even exists.
The Perth-based entrepreneur launched Australian Style fashion magazine at age 19, pulling together a talented team that profiled the likes of Johnny Cash and Heath Ledger.
She revolutionised sunscreen with Invisible Zinc: a zinc-based formula with a higher price point at a time when supermarket shelves were packed with cheap and cheerful chemical-laden litre bottles.
Long before the world started spiking their smoothies with beauty powders, she and then business partner Elle Macpherson convinced consumers they needed a daily greens elixir with WelleCo.
And now she’s back, tackling another overlooked category with Etto, a new range of premium, plant-powered skincare, body and respiratory wellness products made from medicinal Australian oils.
“Almost every new brand that I brought to market has not been at the right time, and we’ve had an uphill battle to fight it,” Horwood tells STM. “I founded WelleCo and we were the first ingestible beauty products on the beauty floor. Everywhere I took it, it was ‘no, no, no’ until we got a yes.”
Since launching Etto in 2023, Horwood’s wasted no time making waves, including a national roll-out to 450 Priceline stores.
The products are stylish — with its glassware created by artist Jasper Dowding — and its often steamy advertising campaign features Kimberley-born model Billie-Jean Hamlet and her partner Robby Bain.
“I see a lot of clever marketing for very poor products,” Horwood says. “For me, the sweet spot is art and commerce coming together. So we’ve got the science and we’re got the art of how we formulate and we want to make beautiful products so why shouldn’t they have innovative delivery systems like a roller gel and a brush-on clay mask? It’s important that it’s an elevated customer experience.”
With an impressive track record behind her, it’s no surprise Horwood set a high bar for Etto before it even hit the market.
“I am not interested in bringing another consumer product to market, unless it’s good for people, and unless it solves a problem that isn’t currently being solved, and that it serves people well and it’s beneficial,” she says.
Etto had its beginnings as a research program as Horwood was asked by the Australian farmers and growers of two medicinal oils to run a feasibility study on how they could be used in formulated products. The findings spoke for themselves.
“It’s (the terpinen-4-ol extracted from Australian tea tree plants) one of the most powerful antibacterials, antivirals and antifungals on the planet and it’s super effective, we don’t become accustomed to it . . . we came to the end of the feasibility study and we made the recommendation that there needs to be a dedicated range of products that absolutely speaks to these research benefits.”
The brand’s natural values reflect Horwood’s own lifestyle, which has shifted from complex routines in her 20s to a more minimal approach to wellness. She says she’s never felt better.
Her days start with taking in the first rays of the morning to collect her thoughts before taking her dogs for a walk along the river with a 5kg weighted ruck. Breakfast is fried eggs from her own backyard with organic butter and local bread. Other than a few additional supplements, Horwood’s healthy diet does all the heavy lifting in terms of nutrients and vitamins. In ways of self-care practices, a eucalyptus steam shower and hair-oiling once a week with rosemary oil are a must.
Looking ahead, Horwood would like to see Etto become a household name, much like the brands she established before them.
“That’s our aim, to take these beautiful Australian products out to the world.”