Healthy Luxe is a mother-daughter team that evolved from a shared love and appreciation for health, wellness and travel. Their philosophy on food is using ingredients that are as close to their natural source as possible, organic, seasonal and nutrient dense. All their recipes are refined sugar-free, most are gluten-free, with an abundance of vegan options!
Tell us about Healthy Luxe!
Healthy Luxe is a health, wellbeing, travel and lifestyle blog and Instagram. Jen (mum) has been studying and/or practicing as a nutritionist/naturopath for over 20 years. Hannah (daughter) recently graduated from Sydney Uni with a degree in Media and Communications with a particular interest in social media and digital marketing. With Jen’s background in nutrition and Hannah’s media/marketing experience, we are set out to spread the message of health with the hope to inspire people to make better lifestyle choices.
When did you start food blogging on Instagram and what inspired you to start?
We began food blogging in 2014 which was inspired by our mutual passion for health and shared love of good food. We created our website and social channels with the intention of building a database of recipes to cater to a number of different dietary requirements with a focus on whole, organic, nutrient dense foods. This provided a forum to share Jen’s nutritional knowledge and recipes, whilst also giving Hannah an outlet to pursue her interests in photography, styling, cooking and of course, health.
What day to day roles do each of you play in Healthy Luxe?
Whilst we both have our separate roles, there a number that we do together which is lots of fun. For example, recipe creation we do together; Hannah is definitely in charge of photography, styling and editing, unless, of course, she is in the photo! Jen writes nutritional articles, whilst Hannah captions and posts to Instagram. Most emails about brand collaborations go to Hannah and we discuss the opportunities together. It is very important to us that we collaborate with brands that align with our philosophy relating to health, ethics and sustainability.
Tell us about your app! What was the process like for creating it?
The app has been quite a journey and steep learning curve for us! The process was much longer and more difficult than we imagined but we don’t regret it at all. We love that it provides a quick and easy way for our followers to access our recipes. We also love that it provides a unique way for us to collaborate with brands as we can promote our favourite products on our app, too.
You create insanely delicious foodie videos! What are your top tips for creating such eye-catching and tummy-rumbling content?
That’s so nice of you, thank you! It probably has to do with the fact that we really do love good food. Not many days go by that we don’t have a smoothie bowl of some sort – they’re just so easy to make and so nutritious (very photogenic too!). In terms of styling, we are always on the lookout for new props/utensils to enhance our photos. As is probably evident from looking at our Insta feed, we absolutely love serving our recipes (especially nice-cream) in our coconut bowls. Everything somehow looks and tastes better out of a coco bowl! Specifically, for nice cream videos though, our top tip would be to make sure you freeze the bananas and limit the amount of liquid to get that ice-cream like consistency.
You are lucky enough to live in beautiful Sydney! What is your favourite thing about living there and where is your favourite place to eat?
We are spoilt for choice in terms of places to eat in Sydney, particularly where we live in Paddington. We are fortunate enough to be close to beautiful Bondi and Bronte beaches as well as to the nature and serenity of Centennial Park and Rushcutters Park, and also absolutely love the village and community in Paddington itself. Within walking distance we have several favourites, one of them being Tequila Mockingbird, which has a fun, South American vibe and is great even just to share a bowl of guacamole and a margarita, which we always order without sugar. All about balance! In terms of cafes, Bondi is our go to. Some favourites are Harry’s, Lox Stock and Barrel, The Nine and Cali Press. Oh and of course Bare Naked Bowls in Bronte!
You serve up some pretty amazing dishes in our Coconut Bowls! What has been your favourite so far?
Our favourite recipe to serve in our coconut bowls is definitely nice-cream. More specifically though we’d say the peanut butter nice cream… seriously good.
What is your favourite thing about your Coconut Bowls?
Apart from loving the aesthetic of coconut bowls, we love the environmental and waste reduction aspect. We use highly nutritious coconut products in so many of our recipes and it is good to know that even the shells are being put to good use. What a remarkable fruit and fantastic concept by @coconutbowls!
We are so excited to have one of your recipes included in our cookbook ‘Vegan Bowls’. Tell us about the recipe you chose and what it means for you to be apart of the book?
We were honoured to be asked to contribute to the ‘Vegan Bowls’ cookbook and really believe that these bowls enhance the presentation of any dish. We chose to share our superfood salad (with an acai dressing) as it’s one of our favourite light and healthy recipes that is easy to prepare while being nutrient packed.
To learn more about Hannah and Jen: @healthyluxe