😎 Canada’s New Favourite SPF
Ultra Violette has arrived! Meet co-founder Ava Chandler-Matthews.
This month, Canadians got some fun new sun protection options to choose from with the arrival of Australia’s Ultra Violette (pronounced Violet like Violet Beauregarde). Available now at Sephora, this SPF-focused brand already has a cult following overseas. I was so happy to see tons of local beauty buffs sliding into my DMs to tell me how excited they were to try Ultra Violette here, just in time for summer. SPF has definitely been a staple in my daily routine since my lates teens.
I caught up with Ava Chandler-Matthews, who co-founded Ultra Violette with Bec Jefferd, after an intimate media breakfast at One Restaurant at the Hazelton Hotel. She is hands down the most fabulously dressed person I’ve ever had the pleasure of having breakfast with, avocado toast (her) and shakshouka (me). Ava rolled up to our table wearing an icy blue brocade coat with fluffy feathers at the wrists by Vampire’s Wife, one of my all-time favourite fantasy-life labels, and full glam done by Veronica Chu. Oh, and did I mention she’d arrived from Australia the night before and is quite pregnant with her second child?! 🙌
We had a quick chat before Ava was off to meet with her new pals at Health Canada (getting SPF products approved here is a rigorous process), where she shared her thoughts on making sunscreen cute, dropping F-bombs at work (I mean feminist business practices as well as swear words) and her wise advice to just BE SENSIBLE. Here’s a condensed an edited version of our conversation.
Welcome to Canada! What can you tell us about Ultra Violette?
“We call it a skin-screen brand. It’s a combination of high-performance sunscreen and skin care. We know that SPF needs to be functional but we also want it to feel beautiful on the skin, provide hydration, antioxidant benefits and we want it to have the highest SPF that it can. Usually, we don’t go lower than a 50. Everything’s made and tested in Australia and we have what we call a closet of facial SPF options. We’ve got something for everyone. We’ve launched in Canada at Sephora with three SKUs and we’ll have a few more to follow the rest of this year and even more next year.”
Why did you want to make sunscreen cute? Because it is pretty medicinal.
“It does really blur that line between medicine and cosmetics. Its primary function is to protect against the sun and can help in some instances with the prevention of some skin cancers forming. So that’s why it’s regulated like a drug. But that doesn’t mean it needs to be boring! No one was making it a fun experience and bright and colourful. There are so many beauty brands that speak to the consumer in a way that they want to be spoken to, educate them and also have a beautiful product experience. No one was doing that in sun and I wanted to.”
You were always wearing sunscreen anyway.
“In Australia you have to wear it everyday. I mean, you have to wear everyday everywhere, but in Australia you especially do. It’s so hot. We’re right under we call it an ozone layer balding patch. We’re under a really high UV index most of the year.”
You have that slip-slap-slop or whatever.
“Slip, slop, slap! I can’t believe you know that. Australians grew up with that messaging. It’s a very, very important product in Australia. I think that gives us a really good birthplace as an SPF brand.”
If someone's reading this and they’re doing all the skin-care things—micro needling, Botox—but they’re not wearing sunscreen, how would you explain that this is why you need to wear sunscreen, outside of the skin cancer component?
“First of all, I’d say you’re wasting your money. You’re throwing it down the drain by not wearing sunscreen every day. You’re just undoing all the good that you’re doing with all those procedures and topical products. Every time you walk out, not even into the sun, but into the environment, exposed, you’re putting your skin at risk. UV damage is cumulative. It adds up over time. And with UVA damage, you won’t see it immediately. It’s not like you’re getting burned but you’re contributing to things like pigmentation, things like melasma—which is obviously a form of pigmentation—fine lines, wrinkles, even acne—UV damage can aggravate acne—skin sagging, volume and density loss, all the things that people are spending a lot of money to try and avoid. You’re not really protecting your asset if you’re walking out into any environment without SPF.”
I remember interviewing someone about nutritional supplements and she was like, “You have to eat a balanced diet first. Why are you taking all these supplements if you’re not eating properly and drinking enough water?”
“Supplements can’t do everything. Neither can sunscreen, to be honest. Especially in an environment like Australia or in the summer here if you spend a lot of time outdoors. You still need to do other things other than wear sunscreen. Wear a hat, cover up, be sensible.”
You founded your brand in 2019. What have you like loved about being a beauty brand founder?
“I worked for a lot of beauty brands before and I love being able to create a brand that speaks in a tone of voice that I want to listen to and can have a bit of fun with things. People take themselves so seriously and brands take themselves so seriously. It’s beauty, we should be able to have a bit of fun. Who cares if we say fuck in an EDM [electronic direct mail]? I’m not saying I created a brand to be able to swear, I didn’t do that. But no one was creating campaign shoots or doing things that I thought were that cool. So it’s really great to be able to do all the things I’ve wanted to be able to do for other people’s brands and never been able to.”
To me, the brand stands out so much, especially in the sun-care space. It’s like, whoa! It looks so cool and I really want to use it.
“Thank you, that’s very kind. We did definitely want to stand out. Some of those choices were intentional but a lot weren’t. It was kind of like, ‘What do I want to do? What do I think looks good?’ I love bright things. I love neon colours. They make me happy, and if it makes me happy then it might make other people happy. I like to have a laugh. I don’t want things to be so serious. So I love that element of it. I also like the flexibility of running your own brand. When I was starting this brand with my business partner, we were working for other people and she had two young children at the time and she couldn’t leave work early to pick them up from school even though she was logging on at 8 o’clock after they went to bed and continuing to work. We wanted to create a working environment for women that was truly flexible. We don’t care what time you walk in the door, if you need to come in at 9:30 or 10:00 after you’ve dropped your kids at school or if you want to work from home because you’ve got kids sick. Those things are important to us.”
That’s so great. And you’re a mom now too so that’s a big part of your life.
“It’s hard to balance both. You feel like you’re failing constantly in either one or both. It’s just the reality.”
You say you like to laugh and you seem really fun. Is there something you're really into enjoying right now?
“That’s hard because I’m quite heavily pregnant and I’m severely jet lagged.”
Maybe sleeping?
“Oh god I do enjoy sleep. It’s funny, the older I get, the less I care about the stuff I used to care about. I do love to have fun and I like to go out with my friends. I’m a bit in hibernation mode right now because I’m really busy at work and I’ve got travel and a young family. I love scrolling on TikTok. Some people are just so funny.”
Thank you Ava for doing this interview right after your 26-hour journey from Sydney. And thank you to Marjorie Roux and the team at Matinée Studio for arranging our conversation.
Before you go, here are three things to EnJoY this weekend.
🧀 Sunday Fondue-Day at Carens
It’s true that melted cheese is the best cure for the Sunday scaries. I recently confirmed this at Carens Rosedale, which serves a fondue special (classic or blue and brie) every Sunday. See you there?
🎶 Song Exploder Podcast
Song Exploder host and creator Hrishikesh Hirway did a live event at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra that I mentioned a few weeks ago and I’ve since become obsessed with his podcast, where musicians spend 20 minutes or so breaking down one of their most famous tracks. I’m late to the game but that’s fine because now he has a catalogue of almost 300 episodes to dip into, from Madonna to Shania to Peaches to Solange to Björk to…I could go on!
📖 Nylon Magazine
For all my 2000s girlies, Nylon magazine is a magazine again! They made their return to print publishing with a Spring/Summer 2024 issue that’s a mix of nostalgia and newness. Cover girl is Gwen Stefani wearing an aggressively-studded black Seks lewk, far more glam than the frayed denim shorts and festival-fashion vibes I remember from the Olden Days. Clearly, our tastes have developed.
See you next week sweeties. We are going shopping in PARIS! 🥐