The Founder

Globe-trotting creative professional, Michelle Bennett (née Contemprée), has been involved in several varied and successful business (ad)ventures.

During a year long backpacking sabbatical, she met her husband, Nick, in the kitchen of a 16th century pub in England. Michelle soon became the head cook. The landlady, whom they had christened ‘The Duchess’, cracked a bottle of champagne to celebrate the greatest weekly takings ever under Michelle’s reign in the kitchen!

It was later, during a stint teaching English at a Canadian international school in China — her 54 matriculating students scored 10% higher than 800+ similar students — that Michelle realised the only way she was truly going to know what was in the soap she used was if she jolly well made it herself. The soap she had been using had caused the skin on her hands to peel!

Michelle’s enthusiasm, determination and resourcefulness saw Tasmanian Soap Farm come into being — back in her idyllic home state of Tasmania, Australia. She harnessed clean, green, pristine elements of the picturesque island to create her unique skin care soaps; each one a little ambassador for good health, the power of nature and the majesty of Tasmania.

Then, she had another light-bulb moment. Her Tasmanian dentist joked that she should use soap to brush her teeth with because the toothpaste she’d been using had worn the enamel off her teeth! When Michelle researched and checked her supposedly green-credentialled Australian toothpaste, she found that it was full of abrasives! Michelle eagerly consulted scientific publications ─ and invented her own toothsoap formulations. Now, her dentist buys the toothsoap from her for his clients!

Michelle experienced unbridled passion making her soaps and knew she’d found a worthy legacy to build in the next stage of her life: to make a difference to more people’s lives in a positive way. What better place to start?