Australian mum creates Sandy Baby wipes to remove sand from baby bums

I’m Yaz, founder and mumma behind Sandy Baby®, an Australian designed and owned brand that was created from one very real parenting problem… I was sick of putting dry nappies onto sandy bums.

Living near the beaches of Jervis Bay, beach days were a huge part of our life, but without fail my daughter would come home uncomfortable, sandy bums, covered in sunscreen and irritated from salt, sand and heat. Even daycare became another issue because she would constantly come home with a sandy bum from sitting in sand pits all day.

No matter what I used, water, towels, baby powder or everyday wipes, nothing actually worked properly. Not only did none of them remove the sand effectively, they kept the skin dry, irritated and uncomfortable, leaving me constantly needing to apply creams just to get by. Once salt mixed with sand and sunscreen, everything seemed to grip harder to the skin. Everyday wipes felt like sandpaper, pushing sand around instead of lifting it away, and the friction would only make irritated skin worse.

That’s when I realised I didn’t just want another wipe. I didn’t want to worry about needing after creams either. I wanted something that could effortlessly remove sand, salt and grime while also hydrating and moisturising the skin at the same time.

That was the moment Sandy Baby® was born.

What people don’t see is how much research and development actually went into creating these wipes.

I contacted multiple manufacturers trying to explain what I wanted to create, but nobody really understood what I meant. At one point I even sent my business plan directly to Kimberly Clark without an NDA simply asking for help and guidance on how something like this could even be created.
Eventually I realised I couldn’t rely on a manufacturer to develop what I needed. I had to separate the formulation process completely from manufacturing and work with Australia’s leading pharmaceutical scientists, Formulytica, to develop the formula from scratch.

Even then, there was absolutely no guarantee it was going to work.

While the scientists were developing formulations, I became completely obsessed with finding some sort of solution myself at home. I tested everything in my bathroom cupboards. I hung dry wipes on the clothesline and poured different skincare and cleansing products onto them hoping something would finally give me the glide effect I was looking for. Some products worked better than others, but nothing was quite right.

What I knew from day one was this:

I didn’t want another basic baby wipe.

I wanted something that could effortlessly remove sand, salt and grime from delicate skin without friction or scrubbing while also hydrating the skin at the same time.

It probably sounds easy creating a formula on its own, but when you’re using three separate parties to create a baby wipe, it becomes incredibly complex.

I was essentially the middle person liaising between the pharmaceutical scientists developing the formula and the manufacturer producing the wipes. We had to ensure the viscosity, meaning the thickness of the formula, was right, that the colour remained consistent and most importantly that it could physically run through baby wipe machinery without causing issues.

Eventually prototypes started rolling in and this became the stage where things became very real.

My testing process at home honestly looked crazy. I had a bucket of sand collected from the beach and a protein shaker filled with ocean water so I could recreate exactly what was happening on my children’s skin after beach days. I would pour prototype formulas onto dry wipes I had at home and start testing them over and over again on sandy skin conditions.

There was one prototype in particular that absolutely amazed me, but I still had this fear in the back of my mind because testing a single wipe manually is completely different to how a formula performs once it’s saturated through an entire production pack of wipes.

The manufacturer samples eventually arrived and somehow they were even better than I expected.

But prior to that point, there were a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of questioning.

I remember late night WhatsApp messages from the manufacturer asking:

“Are you sure you want these ingredients?”

“We don’t usually formulate wipes like this.”

“Are you certain?”

The thing was, I never fully explained why I specifically wanted those ingredients because I was terrified my idea would be copied before I had the chance to protect it.

So I stayed quiet, trusted my vision and trusted the scientists behind it.

I remember sitting awake after midnight feeds re testing prototypes over and over, constantly questioning myself wondering if I had gotten it right.

Then one night I finally sent a testing video through to the manufacturer showing exactly what the wipes were doing with sand, salt and grime.

The response I received was the first real moment of relief for me.

They replied saying:

“Oh wow! In my 10 years working in manufacturing, I have never seen anything like it. Now I understand why you are using those ingredients.”

That was the moment I knew we had genuinely created something different and solidified why this could not have been created directly from a manufacturing R&D team.

In amongst all of this, I spent countless nights on YouTube watching manufacturing videos trying to understand exactly how baby wipes were made, how the machinery worked and how wipes were saturated and packaged. I became obsessed with understanding every single part of the process because I knew if this was going to work, I had to fully understand what I was creating from start to finish.

One thing I’ve learnt through this journey is that creating the product was only one part of the challenge. For 12 months straight it felt like there was a new hurdle every single week and so many heart stopping moments where I questioned how I was going to pull it all together.

Our MOQ wasn’t a small startup order either. It was mass production from day one. I went from testing wipes at home in my laundry to suddenly dealing with containers, freight forwarders, warehousing and trucks large enough that some literally couldn’t fit down my street to deliver the goods.

There were constant problems that needed instant solutions. Delays, freight issues, warehousing challenges, production decisions, packaging, logistics, cash flow, testing timelines and compliance requirements. It was a complete emotional rollercoaster behind the scenes.

Looking back now, I’m actually glad the process happened over a prolonged period of time because if somebody had handed me a full list from A to launch of every single hurdle I was going to face, I honestly don’t think I would have done it. Instead, I tackled one problem at a time and somehow kept moving forward.

The prototype was secured, the sample was amazing but now came the testing phase. The ingredients chosen were specifically designed to be safe on baby genital areas, so the formula was sent for clinical testing in Australia over a 6 to 8 week period and we were successfully deemed suitable for sensitive skin.

After 12 months in the making, Sandy Baby® officially launched in Australia in January 2026 as a world first, patent pending moisture rich wipe that does what no other wipe on the market can do, creating a category completely of its own.

Due to the extensive testing requirements, scientific formulation process and research and development behind the invention, we were able to secure a provisional patent for the product.

Our wipes are:

• Moisture rich with a silky serum like texture

• Thick premium 70gsm wipes

• 100% biodegradable and plant based

• Fragrance free

• Formulated by Australia’s Leading Pharmaceutical Scientists

• Clinically and dermatologically tested in Australia suitable for sensitive skin

What’s been incredible is that the discovery of what else our wipes could do actually came after launching.

We already knew we could effortlessly remove sand, salt and grime from the skin without acting like sandpaper or creating friction.

But customers quickly started discovering they could also instantly remove zinc, sunscreen, tyre grime, dirt, dust, oils, makeup and even glitter.

We even had one customer message us saying the wipes removed pre adhesive surgical liquid from the skin.

That’s when we realised Sandy Baby® was becoming far bigger than just a beach wipe.

They’re now becoming a staple in not only nappy bags, but daily use at home. Parents use them for tough poo lines, messy faces, outdoor sports, camping, road trips and everyday chaos because one wipe genuinely goes a long way.

Since launching in January 2026, the response has honestly been incredible.

We partnered with Ronald McDonald House Charities Australia and have since donated over 3,400 travel packs to Ronald McDonald Houses and hospitals across Australia supporting families and children doing it tough.

We’ve expanded into retail stores, opened shipping into New Zealand and even received an international order from a billion dollar tech company wanting Sandy Baby® wipes supplied for their Presidents Cup suite retreat in the United States.

We also officially launched on Amazon Australia where Sandy Baby® recently ranked within the Top 50 Wet Baby Wipes category nationally.

Of course, there have also been challenges.

Like many small businesses in the current economy, there have been moments where retail sell through was slower than expected, freight costs felt overwhelming and the reality of having a consumable product with expiry dates meant there wasn’t much time to sit back and celebrate milestones.

When you’re carrying large scale stock, constantly reinvesting into growth and trying to educate consumers on a product that has never existed before, the pressure can feel enormous.

But every single message from parents saying:

“These are magic.”

“What a game changer.”

“I don’t know how we lived without these.”

…reminds me exactly why I started.

For me, Sandy Baby® was never about creating “just another wipe.”

It was about solving a problem that I, and so many other parents, were genuinely struggling with every single day.

Yaz xx