Social media content creator Cindy Mead has launched her new business, Améli Home, with a collection of refillable vessels. Picture: Supplied
When reno influencer Cindy Mead couldn’t find the perfect refillable vessel that was both sustainable and stylish, she created it.
The Brisbane-based content creator launched Améli Home this month, offering a range of reusable and stylish containers for personal care and cleaning products with an aim of reducing single-use plastic in the home.
Mrs Mead is a well-known renovator, interior stylist and former HR executive with a 100,000-plus following on her renovation and lifestyle Instagram account, @cindymead_.
The mum of one said she was driven to create the Améli Home collection after a fruitless search for sustainable and aesthetically pleasing reusable vessels for her own home.
The Améli Home vessels come in three colours – sage, vanilla and sand – and are BPA free, with bottles, caps and trays made from 100 per cent recycled plastic.
Mrs Mead said response to the collection was more than she could have dreamt, with some customers ordering more than 60 vessels each.
“Seeing my vision come to life like this means everything to me,” she said.
“I have had multiple customers order up to three separate orders.
“This shows me that my customers understand the Améli Home mission.
“They are not just eliminating single-use plastic in one area of the home, it’s a whole home approach.”
The Améli Home collection features refillable vessels designed to reduce single-use plastic in the home. Picture: Supplied
Mrs Mead began her entrepreneur journey after the birth of her daughter in 2022.
“I worked for the same corporate company in HR for over 16 years, but I think about 10 years into that journey I really longed for something else,” she said.
“This business idea had been bubbling away in my mind since our second home renovation project.
“During my maternity leave, I knew it was time to act.
“I spent every baby nap working on my dream product and now it’s a reality.”
Mrs Mead said the process from design to launch took longer than expected, between spending time with her daughter and creating a product that lived up to her high standards.
“Things like adding hazardous materials testing for my plastics to improving designs and manufacturing issues have really slowed me down and at times added delays of up to 12 weeks to the process,” she said.
“But to finally be at a point where I made sales and was sending off the first orders was definitely a pinch me moment.
“(Business) has been really consistent and growing every day.
“My shipping supplier will only pick up a maximum of 100 boxes at a time, so I’ve had to make a daily trip to the post office, with a car full to the brim with boxes.”
Mrs Mead said sustainability was at the heart of Améli Home, which had a circular business model created around empowering customers to reuse, refill and redefine the way they consume.
“Once I welcomed my baby girl into my life, my perspective really shifted,” she said.
“I became very conscious of my environmental footprint, and the amount of single-use plastic ending up in landfill.
“I felt compelled to take action to reduce the impact this has on our collective future.”
The collection features three colours – sage, vanilla and sand. Picture: Supplied
In addition to using recycled plastic and recycled packaging, Améli Home has partnered with CleanHub and for every order placed, 1kg of plastics is recovered from a collection hub in Kozhikode, India.
“So far we are up to 1203kg of plastic, which makes me really proud,” Mrs Mead said.
While Améli Home is taking off, Mrs Mead will continue to run her @cindymead_ Instagram account, which she started nine years ago when she and her husband, Dan, were undertaking their first renovation.
The high school sweethearts have now all but completed their third renovation.
“Our first property purchase was a bit of a dud, and was a brand new home bought in a suburb that didn’t offer much potential for growth,” Mrs Mead said
“We wanted to live closer to the city for my new job at the time, but we couldn’t afford to buy the type of house we really wanted.
“We bought a second home, a tiny cottage and decided to renovate it, with a plan to keep flipping houses until we were able to afford the home we really wanted.
“It has been a ten-year journey to get here and we are almost finished our third reno now, which would have been my dream home back then and we are very proud of all we have achieved – especially with this one.”
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