John Heseltine is the founder of ZOOP, an all-natural sunscreen company. It was inspired by John's daughter who was allergic to all other sunscreens. He set out to create a sustainable, sensitive sunscreen designed for planet and people.
John Heseltine is the founder of ZOOP, an all-natural sunscreen company. It was inspired by John's daughter who was allergic to all other sunscreens. He set out to create a sustainable, sensitive sunscreen designed for planet and people.
John Heseltine, founder of Zoop, talks to Tom Raynel about the inspiration behind his all-natural sunscreen company, and what goes into protecting our skin from sun damage.
What is Zoop?
Zoop is redesigning and reimagining sunscreen. Our key message and our key tagline is that we are sensitive sunscreen. Sowe’re sensitive for the skin and we’re sensitive for the planet.
What was the inspiration for the business?
My daughter Delilah who’s now 16, who doesn’t think I’m quite as cool as I was, is allergic to all regular sunscreen. I’m English, from Yorkshire, it isn’t well known for its sun. Before we came here, we lived in Amsterdam for seven years. The need for sunscreen wasn’t paramount, but in the short summer of northern Europe, Delilah would come out in rashes and hives and all sorts of things with any sunscreen that we used.
When Delilah showed me all this stuff, I was like okay, let me see what I can do about it. So I went back to the drawing board for what sunscreen was. I ripped it all up and started afresh. And it’s taken six years now to get to this point, and we’ve only really been in the market for just over a year. So five years of development redesigning sunscreens.
ZOOP sunscreen is designed to moisturise sensitive skin and is made with all-natural ingredients, including Mānuka honey, kiwifruit, seaweed and aloe vera.
What makes Zoop sunscreen different?
The key thing is that, first and foremost, we make a very moisturising, sensitive skin base. So that’s what we focused on. How do we create a formula, a cream that is healing before it’s a sunscreen, right? Everybody has sensitive skin, everybody, you just don’t know it. We are just to certain degrees and different things. So we created a base that is healing and moisturising, then we layered the sunscreen actives on top of that in the most sensitive way we possibly can.
Instead of just buying something off a shelf and going, ‘There you go, it’s an SPF, it’s a sunscreen see how it works’, we went back and made a super-quality moisturising, healing cream that will actually work for people with sensitive skin. Then let’s make that into a really high SPF sunscreen that will work in the harsh New Zealand environment. [Zoop sunscreen retails for between $20-$60].
When we were looking for our original formula base, we looked to nature for the answers. We wanted to look at manuka honey for its soothing, healing properties, kiwifruit for the vitamin C, seaweed is in some of our products, and then we use a lot of aloe vera.
ZOOP founder John Heseltine wanted to make a sunscreen not only for his daughter, but for those who are active adventurers. Zoop brand ambassador Laura Wotton, pictured with the brand's campervan, is a freestyle skier hoping to compete at the Olympics representing New Zealand.
What goes into making a sunscreen?
It’s expensive to start from scratch, in excess of $100,000, to take it from an idea through to the formula being tested, regulated and usable. So what happens is the chemists or the third-party manufacturing facilities that a lot of people use will create or buy a formula, and they’ll do that once, and then they’ll reuse that formula.
If you want to create your own formula from scratch, it takes a couple of years for one SPF. Sunscreens will tend to have three, four, or five different varieties to use within that. So you’re talking a lot of money to get a sunscreen brand off the ground before you even make any sales. When you create these products, you don’t just shove it all in and mix it and hope it works, things go in at different times and different things, and you get different consistencies and different layering. It’s a complex science.
Why was it important to make the packaging sustainable as well?
As I went back to basics, I asked myself ‘how do we make this a sustainable brand for the future?’. Not only do I want my daughter Delilah to wear this and feel comfortable and be able to, but I also want her to be proud that this is a sustainable brand that will actually help regenerate and make her corner of the world, or our corner of the world, a better place.
So our packaging is made from sugar. It’s a sugar cane shell that we were able to form so that it can actually be reused and refilled. Then what we’ve done over the years is we’ve tried to eliminate as many stickers or extraneous packaging as we can, and now we print directly onto the bottle with a soil-based ink. We are always looking at ways that we can eliminate waste.
As a mountain biker, ZOOP founder John Heseltine wanted a sunscreen that would work for him, creating sunscreen formulas for all types of environments.
What would be your advice to other budding entrepreneurs?
You’re going to fail and you’re going to make a mess. It’s how you come up from that, and what you learn from that, that will make it a success or not. If you sit there and overthink it, that’s exactly what you’re going to do, and you’re never going to get started. Just get going, make those mistakes and be happy to fail. There’s no better time to start a business than today.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business and retail.
