A skincare balm made by hand on a Denmark property using solar power and rainwater has won a top national beauty award, beating entries from Australia and New Zealand.
Sarah Josh’s skincare brand Liminal Elixirs won gold for best skin treatment at the 2026 Clean and Conscious Beauty and Body Awards for its Liminal Longevity Balm.
It is a minimalist, age-positive, handmade brand and the products are cruelty free, made in small batches under solar power with transparent ingredient disclosure and ethical sourcing prioritising WA suppliers.
The Clean and Conscious Awards assess every entry on ingredients, sustainability, ethical practice and social impact before the product is eligible for testing.
The product was reviewed by an independent panel of 90 experts over four weeks against entries from both Australia and New Zealand.
Ms Josh founded the business in January 2024, making early batches on her property before the school drop-offs each day.
The Longevity Balm ingredients are sourced from WA suppliers where possible and is formulated with organic castor oil, bakuchiol, sea buckthorn, blue tansy, chamomile, jojoba and mango butter.
The formulations of the product are built around psycho-dermatology, which is the clinical link between skin and the nervous system.
Ms Josh said living in a regional town shouldn’t stop anyone from starting a business.
“Denmark is a small town a long way from anywhere, and that’s usually framed as a disadvantage. It isn’t,” she said.
“Everything that makes this business work, the pace, the water, nature, the women who make it with me comes from being here.”
Ms Josh said using the natural environment to manufacture her products is very practical while living in the Great Southern.
“People hear ‘solar powered’ and picture something impossible to achieve in the Great Southern,” she said.
“It’s just practical.
“We’re at the end of the line out here, so you use what the roof gives you and you catch what falls on it.
“There’s no water in our formulas which means there’s nothing in them that needs a preservative to stay safe.
“None of that started as a sustainability decision, it’s what happens when you make things in the place you actually live, with natural ingredients.”
Ms Josh said the connection between skincare and the nervous system was central to her approach, with simple, intentional routines often proving more beneficial than using a large number of products.
“The skin and the nervous system form from the same embryonic layer,” she said.
“When you touch your face with intention, you’re not just applying a product, you’re speaking to your nervous system.
“That doesn’t surprise me at all.
“The people who treat skin for a living have been saying it quietly for years — most of us need far less than we’ve been sold.
Ms Josh said she would rather customers invest in one product and learn how to use it properly than feel pressured to buy multiple products.
“I’d rather someone bought one thing from me and used it properly than bought five and still felt behind,” she said.
“I know that’s a strange way to run a business but it’s the only way I’ve found of running one and still sleeping at night.”
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