About Hidden Valley Broome
Hidden Valley Broome is a small family business based in Broome, Western Australia. We make unique handcrafted natural soaps, candles, skin care products and gifts. Our inspiration has been the plants, colours, textures and atmosphere of beautiful Broome and the wild Kimberley region beyond. Our ingredients are high quality, natural and plant derived but our packaging is simple. We want to make lovely items for personal care which lift our spirits and reduce the prevalence of toxins in our lives. And have fun doing it!
We have a dedicated working team who develop, manufacture sell, package and dispatch our products to our high standard. We work hard but have fun too. Since 1995 we have gradually built a large “extended family” of loyal Hidden Valley customers. You are very welcome to join us.
Our Showroom in Blue Haze
Our showroom is attached to the front of our production warehouse and stores our full range of products.
Opening Hours: Monday - Friday 9-4 pm Saturday 9-12 noon
We're also at the Broome Courthouse Markets on Saturdays 8 - 12 noon
The Hidden Valley Team
Alison (Creative Designer)
What I have most loved about Hidden Valley is the amazing opportunities for self expression and creativity - creating products from gorgeous plant ingredients, a happy team, a network of forward thinking customers, and a successful conscious business embodying love. It's so good to always have something to give away, to have a really solid place in the community and the opportunity to model a successful, sustainable, caring business which gives back to the community which supports it. I feel I'm on track with my purpose of helping create heaven on earth, via the love we infuse in the products we make and the way we work and distribute them. And I love the opportunities to support other women in their individual journeys to help make a better world.
Kathrine (Customer Care)
If anyone had told my younger self that I would be fortunate enough to call Broome my home, I would have never believed them.
What a privilege to be able to spend my days where the pindan meets the ocean, and the sunsets never get old… Then add to the meld the breathtaking aromas of Hidden Valley in among a beautiful team of like-minded souls.
What more could a girl ask for?
Elisa (Production)
Rachel (Marketing)
Loving all things creative, I have a degree in Fine Art as well as professional experience in retail customer service and office administration. I have a huge love of nature and the outdoors and enjoy immersing myself in world travel and exploring the Kimberley’s amazing back garden. A conscientious consumer, I understand the importance of what we feed our bodies and put on our skin to ensure the best health and optimum results. I love the ethos behind Hidden Valley's beautiful products and enjoy seeing the making behind the scenes.
Emily (Night Markets)
Kath (Saturday Markets)
How It All Began
At 42, I (Ali) knew I had to kick a 25 year smoking habit before the rest of my life could unfold. A mid-life crisis and a major spiritual transformation followed. At the same time, a friend had lent me an aromatherapy book - The Fragrant Pharmacy, by Valerie Worwood.
I bought a few small bottles of pure plant essential oils and fell in love with them. My respect grew as I had good results using these oils and naturally I began wondering how I could work with them.
"Soap" just kept on popping up in my mind - not the kit variety you make from soap powder, but proper old fashioned, start-from-scratch soap as our great grandmothers made it.
I could make soap and add my cherished essential oils (though others advised this would be far too expensive!). Two things happened about this time. First, my father gave me some money, bless him, and I had about fifteen hundred dollars as start-up funds for a little business.
Secondly, a friend (thank you Kaye) had been experimenting with the sale of different handmade crafts at the Broome markets. In addition to paper, beads, bells, and others, she had tried out soap. She assured me that she had been quite surprised that people were keen to buy quite amateurish homemade soap, and would even pay $4 for a nicely packaged bar. She herself had no intention of continuing with soap because it was just "too much like cooking". Well, I was a natural stirrer and lover of soup making, large pots, cauldrons, cups, chalices, witches brews and chasers after holy grails and that was enough market research for me!
I next set off to discover everything I could about homemade soap manufacturing. At that time, there wasn't much. Just one book by Ann Benson called "Soap" and issue 100 of Grass Roots magazine. The internet was still to come, and I knew of only 1 other WA soapmaker - Corynne with her hand made soap at the Fremantle markets. I bought a few basic utensils, moulds and ingredients. My family put up with the constant messes in the kitchen and the frequent suspiciously soap like flavours in the salad. Smokey made everything I needed from collapsible trestle tables to trolleys and extra shelving.
This experimental phase took a good 6 months of hard work and determination to stop having irredeemable failures. You have to really love a craft to push through the failures! But slowly soap making came together, along with skin care products I was making for my own hypersensitive skin and also candles, which Smokey took over, making them on our back veranda.
In 1995 Hidden Valley Handcrafts was registered and began trading at the Broome Courthouse Markets each Saturday morning.
Within 2 years there was a thriving soap, candle & natural skin care stall at the markets.
The natural environment of Broome and the bush and beach near our home (Hidden Valley) became the inspiration for the creation of many new soaps and candles.
We enjoyed “making meaning” out of our love for the Kimberley, expressing this in soap and other products.
Today we employ a marvellous and varied team of 4-8 part time helpers. We have an extensive efficient mail order service, "factory" and gift shop at Blue Haze, and still operate at the Saturday Courthouse Markets. Many of our products have come from individual requests or remedies needed for local conditions including coping with midge/sandfly bites (Midgie Magic) or cracked heels from wearing thongs (Healing Cream or Heel Balm).
Our Broome theme soaps and candles have been popular with tourists and locals as well as Broome hotels and B&Bs. Sometimes we are told we make the best soap in Australia! But while the colourful soaps continue to be popular, the skin care products and essential oils are now our fastest growing lines. It is wonderful to see how customers increasingly want natural plant solutions to their beauty, skin health and lifestyle issues, how they read labels, want less and more sustainable packaging and less synthetics.
Since Covid times we have been blessed with steady mail orders and very loyal locals. The business future looks good as more people gravitate to natural products and less harmful toxins. We are very proud to distribute wonderful products carrying a lot of love all over Australia.
Kind Words From Our Wonderful Customers
Carla3 days from purchase to delivery - thousands of kilometres. I was rapt. My family are enthralled about this journey of mine to purchase your soaps. Couldn't recommend you more. We have never forgotten the exquisite and pure fragrance of your products. Thank you so much for your dedication, love and passion.
DeborahLove Hidden Valley so much - got heaps sent to me in Victoria! Still have several soap cakes left, and love the smell on my skin. The Soap Makers Prayer is wonderful too as is giving away some soaps to special people in your life as they make great presents.
Our Aims
Our overall business intention is to extend loving kindness through our products and how we work, living our values and encouraging them in others (trust, honesty, responsibility, respect, quality, purity, positive thinking, tolerance and compassion)
*To make pure, natural, safe products incorporating the beautiful aromas & healing properties of plants
*To seek creative inspiration from the colours, textures and aromas of Hidden Valley, Broome and the Kimberley region
*To keep prices affordable by saving on packaging and advertising but not on quality ingredients
*To make beautiful vegetable soap by hand with careful craftsmanship
*To make pure skin care products in small batches with plant based and safe ingredients to ensure freshness with minimum preservatives
*To share information about harmful ingredients and safe alternatives, maintaining a debunking attitude toward myths in the “beauty industry”
*To market directly to individuals as well as shops and guesthouses, keeping personal contact with the people who actually use our products
*To keep the business small, responsive and ethical, insisting on a happy, loving working environment for our team, knowing this reflects in our products and services
*To give back to the local community, the country and the world which sustains and supports us.