This Clean Beauty Guru Wants to Bring You the Best of Wellness-Crazy Australia

Photo: Jaimie Baird
If you can't get enough of Australia's abundance of fitness superstars, wait until you get your hands on its wellness products—which are front and center in a brand-new online natural beauty shop.

Onda, which launched this month, is the brainchild of Larissa Thomson, a 23-year fashion industry veteran and New York City native who joined forces with Australian friend and co-founder Sarah Bryden-Brown to pivot her career toward the wellness industry.

"I had a lightning bolt moment," says Thomson. "I knew I wanted to work in the wellness world, and then realized that I'm such a product junkie and constantly learning new things about ingredients and discovering new brands. Late one night it hit me—I wanted to take my passion to create a space where you can learn, try beautiful products, and change the way you think about what you're using on your body."

Onda's Larissa Thomson
Photo: Larissa Thomson

Onda features curated products (only those that Thomson has tried and loved) from brands like Pai, African Botanics, Odacite, Marie Veronique, and Australian faves Grown Alchemist and Saya Skin, along with starter kits (like a Full-Face Kit and Best Body Kit) for those who may be new to clean beauty or are looking to branch out. Australian beauty faves include Grown Alchemist and Saya Skin (Side note—they're also carrying Well+Good's exclusive nail polish collab with TenOverTen.)

And Onda is already in massive expansion mode, partnering with Bluestone Lane on an Australian coffee body scrub and developing an in-house product line—as well as opening a Tribeca retail boutique in early 2017. "I want to re-create the feeling of being in touch with nature," says Thomson of the store's design. "The idea is to take customers' stress levels down to zero when they walk in."

Makes sense, considering how she came up with the name: "I was walking down the beach in Tulum, and saw a sign that said 'Onda,'" explains Thomson. "I immediately liked it, and found out it means 'wave and flow.' And I feel like Onda is about creating a flow and a journey."

And she already has some high-profile fans—close friends Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber, Stacy London, and Bridget Moynahan have all shared their Insta-support.

Count this as another step in the clean beauty revolution.

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