James Lawson, founder of Algola, came across Kelp/Seaweed when he was a young boy playing on the shores of one of his local beaches in Pacific Palms, New South Wales, Australia. He then went on to riding surfboards and various other water crafts with his father, mother, uncle, brother and many of his good friends from around the area and continually dodged the Kelp/Seaweed that was present on many occasions when surfing or swimming amongst the sea plant. One other thing was for sure, James couldn’t help but notice how much Kelp/Seaweed there was being washed up on the shores of his local beaches on certain days and conditions throughout the year.
It wasn’t until James’ first overseas surfing trip to Nusa Lembongan (a small island off the East Coast of Bali) in 1993, where he witnessed the locals growing and harvesting seaweed. He discovered that they were using it as a raw material to export to other countries to develop products such as fertilisers, cosmetics and bath products, as well as being an edible source of nutrition for humans and animals. James then thought that there had to be something valuable in the Kelp/Seaweed that washed up on the shorelines of his local beaches back in Pacific Palms.
Several years later in the year 2008, James woke up from a dream he had one morning about seaweed and thought, “why not, let’s do something with this mysterious sea plant and hopefully help some people out along the way”.
James then made his first seaweed based skin care products for his mum, who had dry skin and thought he could help her by making her a Seaweed Cream, Seaweed Milk Bath and some Seaweed Soap, that she could use on a daily basis. After choosing other important ingredients to mix with the seaweed extract, James was hopeful that it would ease the discomfort that his mum was enduring every day. His mum used the products and found some relief. Algola was then formed and the long journey of research and development of commercially based seaweed skin care products began.
Now with the help of a local manufacturing company and various organic and naturally derived companies throughout Australia, James is able to follow his dream of creating quality seaweed based skin care products, not just for his mum but also for everybody around the globe.
We hope that everybody using our products benefits as much as James’ mum, family, friends and other people have over the years of using the products.
The story is much longer than this and James has many stories he would love to tell you about his journey with Algola sometime. Just send James an email to enquiries@algola.com.au to hear more stories of his journey with Algola so far. If he doesn’t reply straight away, he is probably out looking for some seaweed or developing a new seaweed based skin care product.
PLEASE NOTE:
- Only our Seaweed Cream is available at the moment.