If you've found us through our Jayavanti Hair & Scalp Oil, I get why you'd think that's all we are…so I want to stop you right there for a second — because that's not what this is.
This is just our starting point. What we’re building goes deeper than one product. Can I say it’s a philosophical way of living? Because as intense as that sounds, it just kind of is. Every single thing we do has a reason and so much thought has gone into it. Nothing was started as simple but ironically it has concluded as exactly that. A simple natural old school was of living.
So if it’s all sounding a bit intense.. buckle up…! If I had a dollar for every time someone came up to me and told me either my personality was intense or the choices I make are, I’d be an extremely wealthy woman.
M/2/E will open your eyes to a better way of living that will have your Omi, Baba, Nana, Lola…whatever term of endearment you refer to the Matriarch of your family, rolling her eyes and smiling. This lifestyle isn’t new, just one that has sadly been forgotten and/or neglected from living in a time poor society. Whichever the reason, we’re here to either teach you, take you back or provide what you lack the time to produce.
Before we go any further, let’s back it up, and explain how M/2/E all started.
The Rabbit Hole
About five-six years ago, I went down a rabbit hole I never really came back out of. It started with a simple question: Why the heck does everything last soooo long before it expires? What’s actually in the food we eat? Not what the label says — what's ACTUALLY in there?!
That question didn’t stop at food. It led me into skincare, cleaning products, you name it I wanted to know what was in it. The more I learned, the harder it became to ignore.We’re so used to flipping over labels and not understanding half the ingredients listed. We trust that if it’s on a shelf, it must be okay. But the truth is, a lot of what we put on our bodies matters just as much as what we put in them.
Your skin isn’t just a barrier—it absorbs. What we apply daily can make its way into our bloodstream. And that realization changed everything for me.
Now we try to live by a simple rule, if we can’t eat it, we won’t use it.
I started making my own products out of necessity. Not because I had the time—honestly, I didn’t. But because I couldn’t find what I was looking for.
I run my house by principles and rules, (which can make you extremely unpopular with kids, and in our family makes my stepson and I butt heads - but I know in time when he’s older he’ll understand). Fortunately my partner and I share, not all but a lot of the same principles, and to be completely honest I think we sometimes egg each other on in a way.
We guide our children by the philosophy,
Your body is your temple, what you fuel it with, how you care for it, is how it's going to respond and work for you.
I want to be upfront: I don't have this perfect, my partner doesn’t have this perfect, we both have our vices, and I'm not interested in pretending otherwise. But the goal has been real — building toward a genuinely low-tox household and lifestyle, one honest step at a time. Paying attention to how our bodies actually responded as we made those changes, and educating our kids so they have the tools and knowledge to choose. Out of four, not all love us for it, or love to embrace it.
Parenting 101: You’re not raising a child, you’re raising a future adult. (Principles…don’t say I didn’t warn you)
Life Happened — The Way It Actually Does
Fast forward a year or so and I’ve completely dedicated the entire Sunday and Monday purely to cooking and preparing the house. And I don’t mean a few hours I mean up and in the thick of it by 9am only sitting down at 10pm. Yes there were stops into the shops to pick up supplies but two entire days/week were dedicated to cooking and making all our families food and products. Come Tuesday, the Hairdresser Hat comes on and being I own my salon, I'm every role in that business — the hairdresser, the books, the front desk, all of it. I'm a mum to one, and a stepmum to three, so that's four kids in the mix, three of whom live here with us in Sydney.
Every year, there's less time, not more. That's just the truth of running a business while raising a blended family. And I say all this not for sympathy, but because it's the whole foundation of what M/2/E is trying to solve.
The quality of food and products I was making was addictive because of the quality and the results of how we were feeling. Unfortunately, it was exhausting and I knew not sustainable.
So somewhere in all of this chaos, talking (more likely venting) in the salon with clients, I came to realize how many people, no age in particular, felt the same. Frustration at both the impurity and lies in products that we purchase and feeling cornered as a response to having no other options of better/honest products to purchase.
I found myself in these conversations telling people "just make your own products," to hear the same response 99% of the time, ‘I don't have time for that.’ And I get it. But I'm not exactly a person with spare hours lying around either. If I can find ways to build this into a genuinely busy life, then time isn't actually the barrier — it’s that people don’t want to spend their time, their days off, dedicated and exhausted from trying to live a low tox, healthy clean lifestyle. And I get it. I actually do.
That's when I realized, this way of life, in today’s day and age, is not only something people want. The results you feel is something that turns into a need and if people didn’t have the time to make what they needed, then I was going to build not just business that gave them what they needed, but a community that provides and teaches as well.
Why Some of Our Products Will Never Be Sold
Some things, we will sell. Some things, teach. The line between the two comes down to a few questions:
Can we make it properly, without compromising the formula, and still make it worth our time?
Is this product something needed, or is it so easy, quick and simple to make, selling would feel like stealing?
Baby Wipes/Make Up Remover Wipes - the perfect example.
You can pay a lot of money for wipes labelled "natural" and still find chemicals in them. I can show you how to make your own — properly, the recipe, quantities, how to bulk make, source the ingredients. Everything — but I will never sell them, because charging you for something with that little in it and that simple would feel like taking your money for nothing and completely deprive me from…yes here we go again. Principles. A simple question I often ask my kids, “are you working for money or love?” Not everything is about money. But I’ll leave that principle for another day.
Yes, it takes a bit more effort. And yes, I know exactly what it's like to have a mess to deal with and no wipes in sight — I've lived it, with my own kids. So I've found ways to make it work so that doesn’t happen to you, and I'll share those with you instead of putting a price tag on it.
Why It's Called MADE/2/EXPIRE and what that actually means?
This is the whole philosophy, right there in the name. Everything we make is designed to expire because products that don’t have preservatives and fillers and artificial ingredients wont last long periods of time. They won’t have something ridiculous like a two year shelf life.
Take our hair and scalp oil. When we first launched it, made with fresh herbs, it had a four week shelf life. We've since moved to dried herbs — no moisture means we were able to stretch that out to eight weeks. Could I add a small amount of preservative and stretch that to six months? Easily. I choose not to.
Because the moment I start extending shelf life, I start diluting the entire reason this business exists. I want you to buy the product and be so confident that there isn’t any shit in it. I want to be accountable.
Not only do I want my family to be accountable to our customers, but I want you held accountable to use what you bought, not let it sit in a cupboard. If it goes unused and ends up in the bin, that's a waste of your money and it defeats the entire purpose of why we make things this way.
Starting to see the full circle. It’s not just a Hair & Scalp Oil, it’s not just a product line, this really is a full circle way of living. It’s changed our life, how we raise our kids because of how it makes us feel.
When you start seeing your young adult kids, embracing this way of life, seeing them choose healthier options in their life. Questioning things again, it’s a combination of peace and pride.
Where We Go From Here
Truthfully, this can never become a product on a supermarket shelf — and that's not a limitation, that's by design. For something to survive a truck, a warehouse, and weeks sitting on a shelf before you even buy it, it has to be full of things that keep it "alive" long past when it should be. My goals, for now, I have to keep a few things close to my chest, but everything’s mapped out and the team has a game plan. How that unfolds, like life, we’ll all just have to wait and see.
Alongside the products, regardless if it be for sale or education, I'll be sharing more of how we actually live this was — including how we cook, why no one in our house eats out or eats processed food, and the changes I've watched happen in my own family as a result.
That's what M/2/E actually is. Not a Hair & Scalp Oil. A whole way of living, built by someone still figuring it out in real time — so consider this an open invitation for anyone who wants to figure it out alongside us.
If I can do this, running a business, a household, and a blended family — you can too.
Much love,
IA