About Me

To give you some background as to who I am and why I created this range of products, I need to take you back to my teenage years. 

I had bad acne and extremely painful periods; more painful than either time I gave birth. I consulted a GP who told me this was “normal” and would simply disappear as I got older. I was also told that diet would not affect my skin and that the contraceptive pill Dianette would give me the clear skin I longed for. I took the pill from the age of 16 and, while it certainly made my spots go away, I was not convinced this was the right answer...

I went to university and studied chemistry and had a keen interest in health (probably largely because I wanted to have clear skin!). I found a lot of the products we use in everyday life contain small amounts of toxic chemicals. I wasn’t entirely sure how this would impact health, but I was fairly confident that the people who had worked for a long time in the labs with the highest volumes of VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) had brain damage reminiscent of long-term glue sniffers, so I suspected it was not a good thing! 

I was disappointed at the professional opportunities available for a chemist (making blue margarine yellow? Developing paints for nuclear weapons?) so I chose a professional life outside of that sphere. I worked as a business analyst, looking at the viability of various different businesses and helping them redesign their processes and systems to be more efficient. My role gave me the experience of understanding a wide range of domains and the financial freedom to research my primary interest in health and wellness outside of work. 

I soon came across a book called “The Detox Diet”. In it, the author proposes that very small (trace) quantities of agricultural chemicals were likely the cause of the obesity epidemic. She presented compelling evidence for her case showing that, as agrichemicals were introduced to a nation, their rates of obesity rose. The mechanism proposed was that the body would want to keep these compounds away from the heart and brain, so would store them in fat. While obesity has never been a particular issue for me, the concern that these chemicals could have such a powerful impact on your body convinced me to switch to organic food.

By my thirties I had come off the pill. While my skin was OK now, it wasn’t perfect and I had tried a lot of different skincare products. I knew certain products were better than others (very harsh products seemed unhelpful in the medium term), there wasn’t a massive difference. I then started experimenting with my diet. I found the GAPS (Gut And Psychology Syndrome) diet which a colleague was raving about seemed to really help. 

The GAPS diet was developed by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, a medical doctor with a postgraduate degree in neurology. She designed it to heal the gut as she suspected this would help support neurological issues. It was borne out of her belief that when our gut lining becomes damaged and porous, it allows harmful substances to enter our bloodstream. Once in our system, they can disrupt brain functions, leading to conditions like depression, anxiety, and even autoimmune diseases.  I couldn’t help thinking that, if the agrichemicals on our food in trace quantities could make us fat and a porous gut could make us anxious, wasn’t it likely that the contents of our skincare products that are absorbed into our bodies could also impact our health? 

As I was living in New Zealand at the time, it was easy to find products that were locally made in small quantities. In virtually every area I lived in, I was close to a small business (often just one person) that created skincare products from scratch using ingredients you could eat like olive oil, floral waters and herbs. I noticed big brands making similar products would come and go, but I wasn’t sure why. I knew they often added some preservatives to their products, but they still seemed a lot better in terms of contents than the products available in supermarkets or department stores which are laden with toxins.

Having analysed a lot of businesses and tried making these products myself, I now know exactly why these big, largely toxin-free skincare products companies went bust; not only do their products have a very short shelf life, so do the ingredients you are making them from. Stock control has to be managed very carefully to ensure your products are both freshly made and remain in stock. If you add preservatives to extend your products’ shelf-life from a few months to a few years, how different are you from the big brands? It’s simply not a business that can scale without an awful lot of preservatives or an awful lot of care. 

Having seen many businesses I love go bust because of challenges like this, I wondered how to make these products in a way that would allow a business to remain profitable enough to survive longer-term.

For this reason I am creating “do it yourself” kits for people who are happy to create their own products. These allow you to have fresh skincare at a lower price, but not lower quality, and help me to ensure that the rotation on the raw ingredients is fast enough to keep them fresh. In these kits, I will ensure you have all the raw materials you need to make the products as well as the recipes to follow.

I also understand that some people simply do not have the headspace to make products, so I am happy to make them at a price that is extremely affordable compared to the department store brands and certainly contain none of the toxins many of the products contain. My hope is that this combination will mean I have enough customers to ensure my ingredients are fresh and my turn-over is adequate to pay the bills! 

If you, like me, are keen to keep your body and home free of toxins, I can assure you’ll love the Hauora products. I am on a journey to live a toxin free lifestyle - while it’s not a destination I have reached yet, I am happy to share all I have learned - I hope you’ll join me.