What’s open and closed over Christmas and New Year

Some of our services are taking a short break over Christmas and the New Year. There are no waste, recycling and green waste collections on Christmas Day. All waste collections between Wednesday 25-Friday 27 December will occur a day later than usual.

See what's open and closed

Close this announcement

Customer service update

Our Customer Service Centre is temporarily located at Speers Point Library, adjacent to Council's Administration Building.

Information on Council services

Manufacturer shines

Published on 11 November 2024

Home | Let's Lake Mac

Making waves in the sustainability space is Imaginelle - the country’s first and only carbon neutral cosmetic manufacturer. Concealed in a Cardiff warehouse, the brand doing big things helps more than 40 beauty lines manufacture products, while aiding the environment along the way.

Imaginelle Photos Sep 2023 (12).png

Co-founders and partners Will and Gabby Magin run the factory off primarily renewable energy and manufacture packaging with mostly recycled materials - among other sustainable practices.

“We saw an opportunity to make a positive difference,” Will said.

“In the cosmetic industry there’s a lot of wastage, there’s a lot of importation of raw materials and we thought, we can do things better.”

Eight years since launching the business from their spare room at home, Will and Gabby’s team has grown to more than 25, made up of PHD qualified cosmetic chemists, operations staff and university students.

So, how does it work?

“We start with a brief, we then bring it from the concept stage into the lab, we create samples and from there it’s full-scale manufacturing,” Will said.

“We help the client build sustainable packaging to use natural, local and upcycled raw materials in the formula.”

Imaginelle Photos Sep 2023 (11).png

The company’s success was celebrated at the 2023 Lake Macquarie Business Excellence awards and Business Hunter Awards, where Imaginelle won the Excellence in Sustainability category.

“We entered the awards as a way to fuel future growth for our business, and we were so excited to win,” Gabby said.

“It’s been a great talking point with our clients and it’s wonderful to receive recognition that we’re doing all the right things.”

So why set up in Cardiff? Born and bred in Lake Macquarie, the power couple simply couldn’t split from their roots.

“We’ve loved staying in the Lake Macquarie area and have recently upscaled from Redhead to Cardiff to expand our business and be more centralised for our staff,” Gabby said.

Looking ahead, Will and Gabby have big plans to expand.

Installing solar, cleanrooms for production and building a larger lab in the next 18 months are just some of the things you could soon see from Imaginelle.