Five years ago, before building Boring Without You into one of Australia’s fastest-growing independent skincare brands, founder and CEO Davey Rooney found himself at a professional crossroads. A workplace bullying experience during Melbourne’s first Covid-19 lockdown became one of the darkest periods of his career, coaxing him towards learning cosmetic science. Along the way, he encountered marketing claims with little scientific credibility and a beauty industry that had largely overlooked
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Five years ago, before building Boring Without You into one of Australia’s fastest-growing independent skincare brands, founder and CEO Davey Rooney found himself at a professional crossroads. A workplace bullying experience during Melbourne’s first Covid-19 lockdown became one of the darkest periods of his career, coaxing him towards learning cosmetic science. Along the way, he encountered marketing claims with little scientific credibility and a beauty industry that had largely overlooked an underrepresented market. Those discoveries became the foundation of Boring Without You, a skincare company dedicated exclusively to combination skin, the skin type characterised by an oily T-zone alongside drier cheeks that Rooney says affects around 70 per cent of people.Since launching in 2022, the business has travelled an interesting trajectory: Rooney received offers from four investors on Shark Tank, secured a national range with Priceline, and has since expanded from 300 to 450 stores across Australia. Last month, Australian influencer and sex worker Kayla Jade fronted the campaign for the company’s Rem Repair barrier cream, describing the partnership in terms that closely mirror the brand’s philosophy: “I’ve never once felt like I needed to pretend to be something I’m not… Boring Without You is just honest about what’s in their products, about how they actually work.”Where it began Rooney said the decision to build Boring Without You came directly from one of the most difficult chapters of his working life, when he moved from New Zealand to Melbourne to work in an advertising role. “I went through a horrible bullying experience at work, and it was genuinely one of the darkest times in my life,” he told Inside FMCG. “I started studying cosmetic science to throw myself out of it and focus on something I have always been passionate about.” As his studies progressed, so too did his understanding of formulation science and the commercial practices surrounding it. “It was then I learnt about some of the shady things that happen in the skincare industry, like brands that ‘tip-in’ the tiniest amount of an ingredient so they can put it on the label or clean beauty that uses fearmongering with very little basis in evidence. I was also shocked that there was no skincare brand dedicated to people with combination skin, even though 70 per cent of people have it.”Building a product, however, proved considerably simpler than building a company. Rooney describes leadership as an ongoing education rather than a destination. “I am still learning this every day,” he said. “When you are building a product, it can feel easier just to give the answer, fix the problem or make the decision yourself.” Shark TankRooney also revealed candidly that the business came perilously close to ending after he and his original business partner decided to part ways. “I did not have the capital to keep going in the way I needed to…At that point, the business came very close to closing, but I decided to apply for Shark Tank.” The gamble was successful, and Rooney became the first participant on the new series and received offers from four Sharks, exposure that introduced the brand to a national audience at precisely the moment it needed momentum. “It also gave me the confidence to keep backing the business,” he said. The clearest illustration of that philosophy comes in an unexpectedly ordinary detail. Despite leading one of Australia’s fastest-growing skincare businesses, Rooney still spends much of his time writing and editing the company’s copy himself. “It is probably not the most scalable thing in the world, but for a brand like Boring Without You, the voice really matters,” he said. Today, Boring Without You sits on shelves in 450 Priceline stores and has also earned recognition from the Australian Financial Review as Australia’s fastest-growing skincare brand on its Fast Starters list and. Whether it is reworking product copy, refining a formulation or leading a growing team, Rooney still approaches the business, on track to double its FY26 result, with the same curiosity that first drew him to cosmetic science just five years ago.
