You have walked past harakeke your whole life.
It is the New Zealand flax on the side of every coastal road. Tall stiff blades, and UV-hardened over thousands of years by the harsh sun. You have probably driven past two hundred of them without giving one a second thought.
Turns out it has been going on skin in New Zealand for a very long time.
Here is the short version. Harakeke leaves hold a clear gel. Snap one open and you will see it. Māori have used that gel on skin for generations, long before anyone thought to put it in a tube.
These days it turns up in skincare because it is a humectant.
Sorry. That is the only bit of jargon in this whole post. A humectant pulls water into your skin and holds it there. That is it. You can forget the word now.
WHAT IT ACTUALLY DOES
It hydrates without sitting on your face like a raincoat.
Which matters, because most blokes who tried a moisturiser once gave up for exactly that reason. You put it on, you feel it all morning, you decide skincare is not for you. Harakeke goes on light and disappears. No white cast, nothing to wipe off before you leave the house.
It is one of the two key ingredients in our SPF15 Daily Moisturiser. The other is vitamin C.
WHY A PLANT FROM HOME
We could have used the same imported actives as everyone else. Cheaper. Easier. Nobody would have asked.
We would rather use what grows out the back. Our formulas are made in New Zealand, and harakeke is about as New Zealand as it gets without putting a kiwi in the bottle.
The SPF15 is 80% derived from natural origin. That number is on the product page, because a number you can check beats an adjective you cannot.
THE DUDE VERSION
Harakeke is a native flax. It holds water in your skin. It is in the moisturiser you put on before work, and that moisturiser has SPF15 in it.
One step. Done. Go and have your coffee.