Last holiday: the kids came home covered in welts. Here's what's going in the suitcase this time.

The natural insect repellent thousands of Aussie mums pack before they fly — safe for babies from 3 months, holds up in the tropics, and clinically proven more effective than 80% DEET against midges and sandflies.

If you're reading this, you've probably tried it all. DEET — but you won't put it on the kids every day for a week. One or two natural sprays — that stunk, or quit at twenty minutes, and the kids got bitten anyway. And the last time you packed for somewhere warm, you came home with a phone full of photos you didn't post — and a kid scratching at night. This is the natural repellent that's APVMA-registered safe for babies from 3 months, and clinically proven more effective than 80% DEET against midges and sandflies.

You already know what's in the can. DEET. The same chemical your mum sprayed on you. An 80-year-old synthetic, invented by the US Army in 1944 for jungle warfare — strong enough to degrade plastic and synthetic fabrics.

And you know why you're not going to use it on a tropical holiday: the smell, the burn, the held-breath routine. Once is one thing. Every morning and every dusk, for a week, on a 7-year-old with eczema and a 3-month-old in a pram, in 32-degree humidity — that's the bit you draw the line at.

So last time, you tried a natural one. It quit at twenty minutes. The kids got bitten. The holiday compressed into "indoors till mid-morning, indoors after 3pm," and the photos you took weren't the ones you imagined.

There's a better way — and it's the one Aussie mums quietly pack before they fly.

Cynthia Dammerer ordered before Bali. Two weeks: "not a bite!" Belle Robinson before Indonesia: "It protected me 100%. You could see the mozzies around and I didn't get one bite!" And others, before Fiji, Samoa, and Queensland school holidays they didn't want to ruin.

That's how this brand grows — mum to mum, quietly, since 2014. Jeannie made it after 36 failed formulations in a Darwin caravan with her two boys. 12 years on, Good Riddance is in over 1,500 stores across Australia, including Woolworths QLD. 1% of every sale goes to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.

Cynthia Dammerer, verified customer: "Wore it the last 2 weeks in Bali and not a bite!"

Belle Robinson, back from 2 weeks in Indonesia: "It protected me 100%. You could see the mozzies around and I didn't get one bite!"

That's not luck. The Sensitive formula tested more effective than 80% DEET against midges and sandflies in clinical trials. Up to 4 hours of protection per application. Same regulator that approves Aerogard. Different molecule.

Flip any Aerogard can over. "12 months and up." Now flip a Bushman's can. Same. Now go looking for one your obstetrician would clear for a 5-month-old on the plane to Bali.

Good Riddance Sensitive is the only repellent in Australia APVMA-registered for babies from 3 months. Plus pregnancy. Plus eczema. Plus sensitive skin.

And in clinical trials, the Sensitive formula tested more effective than 80% DEET against midges and sandflies — the exact biters that turn a Bali week into a covered-in-welts week.

From verified customer Melissa: "Works amazing on my 2-year-old nephew who comes up in massive welts from mozzies."

You've probably tried one. Citronella. Eucalyptus. Lemongrass. It either stunk, or quit at twenty minutes, or both. The kids got bitten anyway.

Here's the thing most natural-repellent brands won't tell you: they all use roughly the same essential oils. The reason most of them don't work has nothing to do with what's in the bottle.

It's how they're delivered.

Essential oils in an alcohol or water-based spray evaporate off your skin in 30 to 60 minutes. The actives flash off before they can do their job. That's the citronella candle. The eucalyptus mist. The Vitamin B tablet. They were never going to work in a humid Bali week.

Good Riddance is a moisturising cream. The essential oils sit in a lipid base that locks onto skin in a thin film. The actives release slowly, sustaining the protective layer for up to 4 hours — the same duration as DEET.

It took Jeannie 2 years and 36 failed formulations to land the cream chemistry. That's the difference. The rest is just essential oils.

Side effect of the cream format: strangers stop you at the resort pool asking what perfume you're wearing. Verified customer Miriam Wu: "Smells good and feels light like lotion not oily."

Jeannie is a qualified Cosmetic Chemist who lived in a caravan in Darwin for 4 years with her two boys — Alex and Oscar.

Her boys were getting eaten alive. She didn't want to keep spraying them with chemicals. She couldn't find anything natural that worked. So she went back to school, completed a diploma in Personal Care Formulation, and started building her own.

She tested early formulations with fishermen in Darwin's mangroves and in the rock shelters of Kakadu — environments that hit harder than most of South-East Asia. If it didn't survive the Top End, it didn't ship.

12 years later, Good Riddance is in over 1,500 stores across Australia — independents, Woolworths in QLD, BCF. 1% of every sale goes to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.

The mozzies don't take a winter off — not in Bali, Thailand, Fiji, the Cooks, Vanuatu, or up north. And on most overseas trips, the bigger biters are midges and sandflies — exactly what the Sensitive formula tested more effective against than 80% DEET in clinical trials.

Cynthia again, after 2 weeks in Bali: "Not a bite."

If your family's heading somewhere warm in the next 8 weeks, this is the natural pack that goes in the toiletries bag first: Tropical for the adults and older kids, Sensitive for the babies, sensitive skin, and the midges and sandflies that wreck Bali holidays, plus two Rescue Balms for any bites that slip through.

It's the pack thousands of Aussie families grab once a year — bought 2-3 weeks before they fly, stored in the bathroom, and used the whole trip. 2-year shelf life — so if you don't use it all on this trip, it's ready for the next one.

Here's what's inside the Family Pack, and what first-time buyers pay this week: