Australian Gold

Australian Gold is an American sun-care and tanning brand founded in 1985 and headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Despite its name, the company is not Australian: it was built around the beach-and-surf culture of Australia, translated for the United States market, and its products lean on native Australian botanical ingredients. The brand remains active, marking its 40th anniversary in 2025 with a run of new launches across both consumer retail and professional tanning-salon channels.

The company operates as a subsidiary of New Sunshine LLC and sells through major retail chains alongside indoor-tanning salons, with localized sites for the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.

The brand's own about pages name Trevor Gray as its founder [3][4]. Gray was born and raised in a small town in Indiana but felt a strong connection to Australia through his mother's heritage; the company recounts that he was "raised by 3 Australian women," and that trips to visit family there drew him to the country's landscape and its passion for sun and surf. In 1985 he launched Australian Gold to bring what the company calls "the Aussie way of life" to the United States, first selling through small beach and surf shops in Cocoa Beach, Florida, before the brand grew internationally [3].

Accounts of the founder are not entirely consistent. The names Bart Reefer and Lee Wagner Sr have circulated as founders, but both of Australian Gold's brand-owned about pages, in Canada and the United Kingdom, name Trevor Gray as the sole founder, and that attribution is the one carried by the brand itself [3][4]. The 1985 founding year is consistent across every source.

The brand's mascot, a sun-kissed koala named Sydney shown with a surfboard and sunglasses, was hand-drawn by the founder in 1985 and has served as the face of Australian Gold for more than 35 years.

Australian Gold is a subsidiary of New Sunshine LLC, an Indianapolis-based manufacturer that has operated in the indoor-tanning industry since 1985. In 2005, New Sunshine was acquired by MH Private Equity LLC, an investment firm led by Steve Hilbert and backed by the businessman John Menard [8]. Under that ownership the company expanded through acquisitions of competitors and built a portfolio of sun-care and tanning labels that, alongside Australian Gold, includes Designer Skin, Swedish Beauty, California Tan, JWOWW and Helios.

Australian Gold positions itself around outdoor life, summed up in its tagline and mission, "Celebrate Life Outside" [1]. The company frames its purpose as keeping customers protected so they can spend time outdoors safely, pairing sun-safety messaging with an Australian-inspired identity. According to the brand, its formulas are developed to be "as clean as possible, without sacrificing powerful sun protection," and built around what it describes as real, nutrient-rich Australian ingredients.

That identity carries into the brand's signature scent, Cocoa Dreams, named after Cocoa Beach, Florida, with notes of coconut, orange and vanilla, which appears across many of its tanning and sun-protection products.

The range spans sun protection, after-sun care, mineral suncare, personal care and insect repellent. Australian Gold draws on native Australian botanicals as its hero ingredients, among them Kakadu plum, Australian tea tree oil and quandong extract, alongside other desert-plant extracts. Its product copy highlights broad-spectrum UVA and UVB protection, dermatologist testing and hypoallergenic options.

Among its better-known products is the Botanical Tinted Face SPF 50 mineral sunscreen, which has been reviewed by several independent skincare publications, including Lab Muffin Beauty Science [10]. The brand's heritage in tanning is reflected in its Dark Tanning Accelerator, reissued in 2025 as a limited 40th-anniversary edition reformulated with native Australian oils and vitamins A and E. The same year brought further launches, including Solar Dust, a tanning gel with golden flakes, and a Face and Scalp Sunscreen Mist SPF 50.

Australian Gold makes a number of environmental and product claims. The company describes itself as cruelty-free with many vegan formulas, and says it is working toward all new SPF releases being certified vegan [4]. Its sun creams are marketed as reef-friendly, free from the UV filters oxybenzone and octinoxate. On packaging, the brand cites recyclable bottles and delivery boxes and biodegradable, starch-based packing materials, and in the United Kingdom points to carbon-neutral delivery partnerships with couriers DPD and Royal Mail [4]. The company also says it supports the Australian Koala Foundation and has adopted a koala named Taro at Paradise Country in Australia.

Most of the brand's products are made in-house: its parent company states that it designs, formulates, manufactures, labels and bottles the majority of its products in Indianapolis [6].

In 2012, Australian Gold LLC filed a lawsuit in federal court in Indianapolis against the Boston flash-sale retailer RueLaLa Inc., seeking a declaration that it was not infringing the retailer's trademark [8]. The dispute arose after RueLaLa sent three cease-and-desist letters over Australian Gold's use of "Rue La La" as the name of an indoor-tanning lotion that carried a suggested retail price of $87. According to the Indianapolis Business Journal, RueLaLa had not responded to the suit at the time of publication [8].

Australian Gold is active. In 2019 the company stated that its products were sold in more than 50 countries [3], and in 2025 it publicly marketed its 40th anniversary with multiple new product launches across both consumer retail, where it is distributed through chains such as CVS, Walmart and Ulta, and professional salon channels. Its parent, New Sunshine LLC, continues to operate the brand portfolio from Indianapolis.