It’s winter in Sydney, but the foamy breaks at Bondi Beach—a small yet legendary crescent of sand minutes from the city’s urban bustle—are studded with surfers. Sleek and shiny in uniform black wet suits, they paddle out, pivot, and ride back to shore, on repeat: a smooth, mesmerizing loop. The Australian sunlight is brilliant, strong enough to necessitate sunglasses indoors. Yet somehow, the most famous Australian beauties—Nicole, Cate, Naomi—stay resolutely untouched by the sun.

“I don’t have a single friend who goes to the beach to tan. Not one,” declares Jo Horgan, the owner of Mecca Cosmetica, a string of culty beauty boutiques in Australia and New Zealand. Horgan has a zero-tolerance sunburn policy for her employees. If you’re pink and peeling, don’t even bother showing up—it sends the wrong message to her sun-smart clientele.