For its stunning design, spirited aromas and quiet success as “Australia in a bottle”, Leif is something of an accidental cosmetics brand. The business began back-to-front, with a prototype container that for years sat unused in Jonnie Vigar, Mark Evans and Brenan Liston’s Container Made design studio in Surry Hills. Clients – including Kevin Murphy, for whom the team designed the hairdresser’s instantly recognisable rectangular bottles 20 years ago – often commented on the bottle, until one day, they decided to fill it themselves. And so, in 2010, Leif was born, showcasing the best of Australia’s native botanicals in, naturally, head-turning packaging. Jonnie’s philosophy goes that if you take the time to create sublime packaging, a brand instantly sings. Fill those bottles with contents that live up to their looks and the brand really has something to sing about.

Three years ago, Jonnie jumped into the business full-time, hired a sales and marketing team and now, the finely honed range is at home in hotels and restaurants across Australia, as well as for sale in Hong Kong’s renowned ‘it’ stores and Neiman Marcus in the US. Mainland China and Russia are next in line. Guided by gut instinct and without a neatly crafted future plan to speak of, for the founders, Leif is a chance to sit where their Container Made clients usually do. “It’s our thing and we get to decide what to do with it. That’s really quite fun,” Jonnie tells One Hundred and One.

Inside the bottles, the “absolutely Australian” formulations are made in Melbourne but deliver verve from every corner of the land, giving a world stage to boronia, buddha wood, lilly pilly, lemon myrtle, blue cypress and Kakadu plum. “There’s a lot to say about the native botanicals we have here, which are unique,” says Jonnie. “Everybody knows the animals, but the flora is just as exciting.”

His hope is to highlight and bring attention to native botanicals in the same way that lavender is synonymous with Provence. Leif’s timing is spoton: Australian scents are enjoying something of an awakening in the international perfumier’s outlook and eucalyptus and kangaroo paw are already highly sought-after.

Jonnie looks to New World wines 30 years ago as proof that a good product does not mean the same bottle shape, the same label and the same formula every single time. “We can do the same for beauty. Leif can have a bit more fun; we want it to be Australia in a bottle,” he says.

With the ethos that if the brand reflects Australia, it reflects Australians as well, Jonnie is keen to draw upon the national love of travel and sees opportunities for Leif in the Middle East, perhaps joining forces over desert botanicals, and collaborations in Japan. And, if it reflects Australia, it must also reflect the fragility of the land. The team has just launched one litre refills, which reduce plastic use by 80 percent, “but we can do better than that,” Jonnie promises. That means some exciting innovations in the sustainability of the packaging, yet to be revealed, that will bring a new uniqueness to the brand and make it truly ecologically driven.

The future for Leif is golden – and, though rooted in the local, it is set to blossom internationally. As Jonnie says, “We haven’t really begun, there’s so much potential.”