Here at Paper Rain we place a huge amount of importance in knowing where our products come from, ensuring our collective impact on the Earth is minimal or positive, acknowledging each person involved in the process, and recognising that everything in nature (including ourselves) is intricately connected.
Through our own journey of exploring these aspects of our business we have stumbled across other businesses and people ultimately working toward the same goals. Tahi Skincare is one.
Jackie and Nate came together with their love of the bush and raw, natural New Zealand. With the help of their friends and whānau (family) they created Tahi with a desire to share their beautiful oils. Their hope was to provide skincare products containing the plant ingredients that came directly from New Zealand's own environment and remedies that could be used to nourish holistically.
"...something with a strong connection to nature because we are a part of nature, and nature is a part of us.
WE ARE ONE
kotahi tātou"
We spoke to the beautiful people of Tahi to find out more about what they do, who they are and their most natural of products.
Tell us a little about yourselves, your backgrounds and your brand
Kia Ora, I am Jackie, my partner Nate and I make healing skin oils using mostly native plants from our earth whare in Whangarei. Nate has spent a lot of time throughout his life in the bush, connecting with the land and learning and teaching himself useful skills for a self sufficient lifestyle. I have always felt passionate about the simplicity of working with plants as preventative care and to heal with, I have spent time studying the healing properties of our native plants and other herbs. Tahi was built with the desire to help people see that their relationship with themselves and with nature is what will heal them, we now make four different oil blends and we are really focused on self care as well as skin care.
What inspired you to start Tahi Skincare?
There were so many things that inspired us to start this brand. Firstly, I was feeling really fed up that so many people were using such harmful and harsh products on their skin with the belief that they had no other choice if they wanted to heal. I had begun to see that the combination of really nourishing ingredients and self love was the real recipe to heal my own skin and so felt this could potentially help others (every oil is made with a lot of love and I believe that if you are kind to yourself when you apply it, you will have good results). We also felt it was important that people were able to feel connected to the plants that they were using on their skin, we are surrounded by most of the plants that we use on a daily basis here in Aotearoa. Lastly, it was about providing people with the something simple, one bottle that can be used for almost everything skin related. We did not want to start a skin care brand that tells you that you need another product for at night and this one for after you wash etc, you just need the one.
What makes Tahi different from what people are used to in skincare?
I think that we only make oils makes us different to what most people are used to. I know I was not used to applying oil to my skin at first and it can be quite an adjustment from the classic moisturizers and cleansers people have been used to. I think people have also been really surprised to find out they only need the one for everything from removing their make up to soothing their irritated, itchy skin.
Why do you choose the particular ingredients that you do?
As a base oil, we chose organic cold pressed sweet almond oil because it is so rich in vitamins and minerals that benefit the skin but also because it feels light and ironically not too oily. The native plants we chose due to their healing properties and the lavender essential oil complements all of these so beautifully with its calming aromatherapy properties and wonderful smell.
Please tell us some of the process involved in crafting your oils.
Currently we are buying our ingredients from suppliers and mixing each oil individually. This means pouring off the almond oil or the kawakawa oil and hand dropping each drop of extract into the bottle. We make some of the kawakawa-infused almond oil and I hope to be doing all of it again soon, this is a beautiful process, we harvest the kawakawa and dry it over night, pack it into a glass vessel and cover the dry matter with oil. We then leave it in the sun (and the moonlight) for around 2 weeks to a month.
What do you love most about New Zealand?
I love the different landscapes here in New Zealand. We live beneath Mount Manaia this massive, rocky maunga with beautiful native trees growing on it and around it. I also have fallen in love with the beaches up here in Northland. It is magic.
Each Tahi oils are made using plant extracts that holistically nurture both skin and wellbeing. One bottle of Tahi can not only replace your cleanser and moisturiser, but also hair oil or condition, body wash, massage oil, bath oil and even hand cream!
The Paper Rain Project now stocks a number of these beautiful, gentle and nourishing oils from Tahi. Find them on our website HERE or in person at our Picton Store!
