There’s something a little bit cheeky about beauty editors who go out on their own. They’ve trialled everything, know what works. (And usually a few things that should never have made it past lab testing). So when former Cleo editor, ex-Cosmo deputy, and yes, one-time beauty writer at The Carousel Nedahl Stelio launched a quartet of body and hair mists…we paid attention.
This isn’t a celebrity “I’ve always loved fragrance and so I slapped my name on one,” sitauation. Nedahl’s story takes a less glamorous turn. After years inside glossy magazine beauty cupboards, she had what she describes as “thousands” of products – so many she invested in IKEA tubs to stash them. She was, by her own admission, a beauty junkie.
But, while the industry was celebrating the next must-have serum, she was struggling to fall pregnant. “I began researching. And one of the first things you read is that ditching chemicals can help with fertility. It was everywhere. How could I have not known how bad chemicals in beauty products were, after all this time?” she says. The cupboards emptied. Labels got checked. Parabens were out. Mineral oil, sulphates, PEGs – all gone. Nedahl gave up spraying perfume directly on her skin, keeping it strictly to clothing.
The experience sparked Recreation Beauty, her Bondi-based fragrance brand. The mission was to create clean, luxurious scents that performed like traditional perfume without the 3000-plus chemicals that can legally sit behind the innocuous term “parfum”. “I didn’t want it to look ‘hippie’ or ‘organic’,” Nedahl explains. “I wanted it to look as good as a synthetic fragrance brand… something as beautiful and luxurious as I had first imagined.”
Fast-forward, and Recreation is now known for its niche perfume lineup. The latest expansion was a category she resisted at first … then spent more than two years quietly perfecting, once customers wouldn’t stop asking. The result is the Recreation Beauty All Over Body and Hair Mist.
Dropping today for $55 a pop, these are not the sugary Impulse-esque aerosols of adolescent years. There are four fab scents, packaged in sculptural bottles designed to be thrown in a bag without leaking, spritzed post-Pilates, or used as an afternoon reset between double-shot lattes.
And while the brand is known for its clean formulations, the twist here is not just what was removed – but what was added. Each mist contains Emotionology drops, 30 years in the making and tested with the University of Geneva to support mood-shifting response via scent. “It’s not just about smelling beautiful, it’s about feeling transformed,” Nedahl says.
The lineup:
Bare Coco – Creamy coconut floral, warm skin, zero plans. Infused with calming energy.
Rogue Vanille – Whipped vanilla creme, nostalgic comfort, mood-lifting.
Candy Vanille – Vibrant candy vanilla with hints of fruit and sugar
Midnight Mango – Mango daiquiri at the hotel pool. Light chaos. Energise Me.
It’s scent as lifestyle signal. Less “spray and go”, more “choose your emotional state for the day”.
Nedahl is clear: while natural formulation was the starting point, the aesthetic had to hit equally hard. “Natural products are actually much more beautiful than synthetics… they’re more expensive to make, harder to source…. I didn’t cut any corners,” she notes. The result is the sort of product you’d expect on top of a marble vanity, next to the good hand cream.
