Eight years ago, Sonya Driver was a wife, a mother and a sister. She had the world at her feet and a great sense of self worth. She had just bought a beachside block of land with her husband to build their dream house and left her job as an international flight attendant to be a full time mother.
Sonya’s world was turned upside down when her husband called and said the marriage was over. She was suddenly abandoned, unemployed and living in a run-down house. Sonya was left to raise her girls alone. To add to a dire situation, her gentle-spirited sister was diagnosed with a melanoma. In an attempt to lift her faith and be a strong, positive influence over her fragile sister, Sonya began a new life.
She got up from the ground and spent two weeks volunteering in East Timor, where she fed hungry children and comforted the sick. She shampooed the hair of women who had never before had their hair washed. After two weeks living in a desolate village with little food or water, Sonya was distracted from her grim situation at home. Surrounded by people who had nothing, she was able to put her situation in perspective.
Sonya returned to the Gold Coast determined to make a positive change and support her sister, whose cancerous growth had been cut from her arm, leaving a horrible scar.
Still wanting to get a tan without the risk of harmful UV rays, they sought the next best thing. Sonya and her sister began getting regular spray tans together but soon became concerned about the ingredients they were constantly covering themselves with. Sonya began to research the ingredients used by many different brands, regardless of their claims. She says it only took her a few minutes to decide not to use their products anymore. After all, our skin is our largest organ, and much of what we put on it is absorbed into our bloodstream.
Sonya started buying in samples of cacao, flower essence, chamomile and all all things natural and organic and started mixing batches out of her tiny kitchen in her Currumbin house.
In 2011, Eco Tan made Australian history by becoming the first and only tanning manufacturer to be certified organic by the Organic Food Chain under the Australian government.
