At the height of Melbourne’s second and longest lockdown, two friends and colleagues decided they needed a creative pursuit to get their minds off the uncertainty of 2020. They wanted to put something out into the world that would do just a little bit of good. After thinking about everyday items that could do with a rebrand, the pair decided on incense, and Moody was born.
“Incense is something we both use daily, but we used it in very particular ways,” says Tayla Gentle, one half of Moody alongside Louise Brough. “But regardless of what we were doing – cleaning, cooking a meal or meditating – lighting a stick of incense always helped set a certain tone.”
A Bank Australia customer for the better part of the year, Moody Incense won’t fix the world (well, not alone). But it will offer fans of the smelly sticks a better and more sustainable alternative.
“We were both so sick of having all this excess packaging when we used to buy incense. It all felt so wasteful,” Tayla explains. With Moody, the pair created a canvas pouch – produced by Second Stitch, a not-for-profit textile enterprise in Melbourne that supports refugee and asylum seeker communities – that’s designed to be refillable and gives the incense a permanent home.
The incense is responsibly made in India by a team of women, and available in a range of fragrances to suit different moods. There’s amber to up the romance; citrus, spice and frangipani for morning motivation; and ylang ylang and vetiver to bust stress and soothe the soul. And more scents are in the works. Unlike some commercial incense, Moody is all-natural and doesn’t use any diethyl phthalate or dipropylene glycol, two pretty toxic diluting chemicals that are commonly used during the dyeing process to make incense sticks smoke.
“With everything that’s being produced in the world, it’s important to know that what you’re buying has been made as fairly and responsibly as possible,” Tayla says.
The focus for the pair, aside from creating fabulously fragranced incense, is to help people create or fine-tune their daily rituals. “For us, lighting one of our sticks sets the tone for how we want to spend the day,” says Tayla. “Establishing a daily ritual – whether that’s through meditation, lighting a candle or incense stick, or even walking your dog – can bring a lot of joy, peace and energy to your day.”
Read more about how Bank Australia customers are shaking up their industries.
