ABOUT CARLA OATES

Long before ‘inner beauty’ was a buzzword, Carla Oates knew the importance of fostering beauty from the inside out.

When her daughter began to experience similar skin issues to the allergies and eczema she herself had experienced as a child, Carla put her family of four on a gut-healing protocol that included probiotic-rich, lacto-fermented wholefoods. Very quickly she noticed a profound difference in her daughter’s skin as well as the improved wellbeing and overall health of the whole family.

Over the past few months, Athena Calderone and Carla have been chatting about all things gut health, fermentation and collagen on Instagram Live (you can catch up here). Inspired by their discussions, the EyeSwoon founder has created three recipes to nourish your belly—and your beauty.

“Look after your gut, be gutsy and follow your gut instinct.”
 Carla Oates

After friends and family began asking why her skin looked so ‘glowy’, Carla realised the power of the gut-skin connection. She began experimenting with skin-loving superfoods in her Bondi kitchen and that’s how GLOW®—The Beauty Chef’s first inner beauty powder—was created in 2009.

GLOW Inner Beauty Essential was the world’s first living, bio-fermented, probiotic inner beauty product and kickstarted a whole new category of ingestible beauty products. The Beauty Chef was also the first beauty brand to focus on cultivating good gut health for healthy skin–pioneering the philosophy of 'Beauty Begins in the Belly™'.

“Look after your gut, be gutsy and follow your gut instinct”
 CARLA OATES

After friends and family began asking why her skin looked so ‘glowy’, Carla realised the power of the gut-skin connection. She began experimenting with skin-loving superfoods in her Bondi kitchen and that’s how GLOW®—The Beauty Chef’s first inner beauty powder—was created in 2009.

GLOW Inner Beauty Essential was the world’s first living, bio-fermented, probiotic inner beauty product and kickstarted a whole new category of ingestible beauty products. The Beauty Chef was also the first beauty brand to focus on cultivating good gut health for healthy skin–pioneering the philosophy of 'Beauty Begins in the Belly™'.

From humble beginnings

The Beauty Chef now spans a range of bio-fermented, probiotic-rich wholefood supplements and organic topical skincare products, with Carla working on her unique formulas with a team of leading microbiologists, naturopaths and nutritionists, employing cutting-edge research to develop products that support gut health and glowing skin.

To further support the brand’s science and product formulations, Carla has written three books: a guide to natural beauty product alternatives, Feeding Your Skin, a gluten-free recipe book to feed your skin, The Beauty Chef: Delicious Food for Radiant Skin, Gut Health and Wellbeing and The Beauty Chef Gut Guide, which is designed to equip readers with all the tools, knowledge and advice needed to help heal, weed, seed and feed their gut over the course of eight weeks.

Award-winning, science-led beauty

The visionary recognition of the link between a balanced microbiome and glowing skin led to Carla being named a Skincare Innovator by Net-a-Porter, as well as being a twice-nominated James Beard Award author and winner of the 2017 beauty category at the InStyle & Audi Women of Style Awards.

While she still lives in Bondi, she has upgraded from mixing concoctions in her kitchen to her very own Australian bio-fermentation facility, Fermco, where she works with a team of microbiologists to create the brand’s bio-fermented, probiotic wholefood powders and elixirs from scratch.