Jess — how eczema and pregnancy inspired her brand, moode.
Meet Jess, a Melbourne-based Mum, founder of moode, and a maternal health advocate. She’s battled with eczema her whole life, and went through steroid addiction syndrome in her 20’s after overconsumption of oral steroids.
Jess is on a mission to bring women’s health voices to the forefront, all inspired by her own skin and pregnancy experiences.
After getting slapped with the eczema and coeliac disease stick as a kid, Jess adopted a gluten and dairy free diet, which helped. Jump forward to her early 20’s, and a looong bout of oral prescription steroids for her leaky gut, she went through steroid addiction syndrome. Kinda like topical steroid withdrawal but with oral steroids (cry).
Jess' eczema flare ups affected her so much, she hid away from the camera, at all costs. It was physically and emotionally debilitating — she never wanted to get out of bed.
Pictured: Jess, 14 weeks pregnant on her honeymoon.
“Once everything was back under control, I fell pregnant with my first son and experienced a wild flare."
Through the start of all three of her pregnancies, Jess' skin went through major flare ups. It was tough. Her glow came mid second trimester, which stayed through 12 months of breastfeeding (bodies are wild, huh?).
Inspo struck, and Jess decided to study nutrition and naturopathy — she had a huge interest in holistic health off the back of her own health battles. After being brushed off by sooo many doctors and specialists whilst pregnant, she became passionate to help others in the same boat.
“Inspired by a desire to address social disadvantage by bringing about systemic change, I felt moode would represent all of my passions.”
Jess' key focuses for moode were:
- Address the silenced aspects of women's health,
- Focus on reproductive health education,
- Create a space to offer the education missing from the mainstream.
“Quality products are part of the story here, because we believe a good education and high quality products will improve women's health experiences.”
Jess is a strooong believer that skin health, pre and post conception, is incredibly important — seeing it holistically as a reflection of what might be happening internally. She had this in mind when developing moode’s The Prenatal vitamin.
Jess’ best eczema flare up tips:
- Strip everything back and go clean clean clean!
- Eat plenty of fresh veggies and fish
- Drink water!
- Avoid dairy, sugar and deep fried foods.
- Moisturise, a lot.
- Have short lukewarm showers and avoid over washing the face.
- Ensure no synthetic fragrances are around- no diffusers, candles, perfumes.
- No wool! Only wear cotton or other natural fibres.
- Sleep. This seems to help everything.
- Get out in nature and fresh air. Vitamin D helps everything.
Jess has graciously shared a code with our community for 10% off your first moode purchase. It’s YOURSONLY10 — terms apply*. x
*Terms: One use per customer, can’t be used in conjunction with another offer. Expires. March 31, 2024.
