Bon Elliot Brings Science and Luxury Together in a Cutting-Edge New Aussie Skincare Range

The first time I met Dr Bonnie Fergie, she was in Melbourne for a dermatology conference – the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian College of Dermatologists. Over lunch, we spent an hour talking about next-generation gene sequencing, microbiota and the British Journal of Dermatology. Her new skincare brand, Bon Elliot, was two months old.

This was not a typical first interview about a skincare range, but then Fergie’s product is not your average skincare. Bon Elliot’s first, and currently only available, product is a silky serum – the Hydrating Performance Serum – in an airless, pale gold glass bottle.

“In Australia, we have a model of skin damage that’s on fast-forward,” she says two months later by phone, pointing to the country’s high ultraviolet radiation rates and harsh climate. “Over time, that means that our skin generally becomes damaged from a lot of sun exposure and people find that they can’t tolerate multiple actives at the same time,” she explains, referring to active ingredients like vitamin C, retinoids and AHAs (alpha-hydroxy acids) that have been proven to benefit skin texture and tone and now dominate skincare marketing. 

“So people might find that they start to have a sensitivity to the use of multiple actives,” she continues. “They might be fine with just a retinoid, but when they add in the vitamin C, they can’t tolerate it.”

 As a dermatologist for more than 10 years, Sydney-based Fergie found herself creating complicated routines for clients, “whereby they would be doing an active three times a week, and other actives two times a week.” She became interested in developing a skincare range that “built the inherent health of the skin first”, with limited steps required. Which brings us back to those microbiotas.

The human body is home to several microbiomes – the gut microbiome is perhaps the most famous, but various anatomical sites are home to these complex ecosystems, including the skin. (Last year, the influential Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology put the skin microbiome on its August cover.)

“We now know that the skin, on its surface, has a mill of different bacteria, fungi and other tiny organisms, and they can coexist in symbiosis, in a happy state,” Fergie explains. “And that’s in constant relationship with the skin’s barrier, and it’s also in constant relationship with the repair responses of the skin.

“So I think about it like a triangle. We’ve got the microbiome on one point, the skin barrier on the other point, and the repair responses on the other point.”

Over five years, Fergie developed a formulation that targets those three points. She launched Bon Elliot in March this year. Her co-founders include husband Jono Elliot, his brother Jeremy Elliot and Jeremy’s wife Noemie Le Coz.

While skincare brands focused on the skin microbiome are not new, Bon Elliot’s use of next-generation sequencing – that is, swabbing a test subject’s skin to analyse changes in the microbial DNA – to test its formulation is rare and arguably sets an Australian benchmark.

There’s a range of tests available to skincare brands to test their product efficacy: user surveys; the examination of “before and after” photos; routine tests that assess increased luminosity or reduction of dark spots. But probing a formula’s antioxidant response and performing analysis of the skin’s bacterial balance, as Bon Elliot has done, is uncommon. The tests, conducted by independent laboratories – in Bon Elliot’s case, in Spain – are very expensive and require months of lab analysis.

But they paid dividends. In late 2025, the British Journal of Dermatology published research that found prematurely aged skin was associated with an “increased abundance” of a kind of bacteria called Acinetobacter.

“We did next-generation gene sequencing on our patients before and after [using the formula] and we found Acinetobacter dramatically reduced after our complex was used,” Fergie says.

According to Fergie, tests showed that her proprietary complex improved the skin microbiome, improved skin barrier hydration and it also helped the repair responses. “We were able to improve the three points of the triangle,” she says.

The formulation is made in Sydney with ingredients from all over the world. “It’s the best molecule for the job – some of them are natural, some of them are synthetic,” Fergie says.

Bon Elliot’s serum formula includes a probiotic, Lactobacillus plantar, and dandelion root as prebiotic. Ceramides are there to hydrate and strengthen the skin barrier, while an antioxidant deals with inflammatory responses. They tested different variations of ingredients. Each study took four months.

The fragrance-free serum launched at Paddington’s Fenn in May. Melbourne-based Little Company began stocking it in June. It’s been a sellout at New York’s sceney Stalle Studio, which began selling the serum several months ago. There are more opportunities bubbling up in the US and also Paris, Fergie says.

When it came to design, Fergie was conscious of blending the brand’s science-backed dermatology with a sense of luxury. She enlisted her sister-in-law for the job: Noemie Le Coz is an acclaimed designer who runs Little Troop creative studio in New York, which counts Moma, Nike and Clinique as clients.

“We’ve all seen dermatology brands that are quite clinical, and then there are luxury brands. We wanted this to be highly efficacious, high-performance, easy wear. But I also wanted it to feel great and to look great in your bathroom,” Fergie says.

The range will expand “slowly and thoughtfully”, first with a deep repair cream moisturiser due for release early in 2027, with a cleanser, eye cream and sunscreen to follow throughout the year.

Bonelliot.com

This story is part of Broadsheet’s special Innovation Issue, presented by Mercedes-Benz.