Suzan Craig Treated Her Rosacea With Mānuka Honey. Now She’s Launching Skincare Line Kaeā.

The eco-preneur and nature sanctuary founder has a new carbon-neutral, biodiversity-positive business venture.

Suzan Craig spent much of her childhood beneath a pūriri tree on Tiritiri Matangi Island in Auckland’s Hauraki Golf — the last of its kind on the island.

From the age of seven she was climbing the tree’s rope ladder and bird watching from the top; while on the ground, she’d be digging through soil, collecting seeds and helping her father, ecologist and Auckland University professor John Craig, one of the co-designers of Tiritiri Matangi Open Sanctuary. “I saw firsthand what rejuvenation can do,” she says.

With a deep respect for nature in her blood and an understanding of the earth’s ability to heal, Suzan purchased a piece of land in 2004 in Northland’s Pātaua North, and named it Tahi. Back then, it was a dilapidated cattle farm baring few trees and only 14 bird species. In the space of two decades under the care of Suzan and her team, the bird species population increased to 71, 22 of which are rare or endangered, and nearly half a million indigenous trees of many different varieties have been strategically planted there.

Alongside the increasing bird population, bees and insect species are now abundant, and replenishing the wetlands has seen the return of fish species, too. Each now plays its own vital role in continuing to rebuild and reinvigorate the land. In 2020, Tahi was awarded the Most Sustainable Business in New Zealand for that year, and in both 2020 and 2021 it was granted the Restoring Nature Award by the Sustainable Business Network.

Today, Tahi is an eco-retreat where school students can spend the day learning about the interconnectedness of nature, and visitors can enjoy bird watching, nature walks and contemporary boutique accommodation.

It’s also where busy bees produce mānuka honey, which is not only sold for consumption locally and internationally but has now also become the hero ingredient of Suzan’s new luxury skincare line, Kaeā. This has all been made possible through slowly and deliberately regenerating the landscape, re-wilding the native flora and fauna of the 316-hectare space, and returning the land to the flourishing, biodiverse ecosystem it once was.

The bees at Tahi produce some of the country’s purest honey, which is harvested with care and respect. The profits from Tahi honey go directly back into Tahi conservation and community projects and a carbon-negative business model ensures that everything that is taken from the land is put back in, and then some.

When Suzan saw how the active properties of the honey would be sacrificed to produce these products, due to the heat and over-processing usually involved with creating honey-based skincare, she decided to venture into the world of skincare herself, and celebrate her honey’s most potent properties without destroying what the bees had worked so hard to create.

Having lived with rosacea for many years, Suzan had been experimenting with applying Tahi honey directly to her skin already, with remarkable results. “But of course, honey is really sticky and messy, and you know, not the sort of thing that you want to wear all the time,” she explains.

After five years of formulation, working with Danièle Ryman, a global authority on plant-powered beauty, Kaeā skincare was born. It’s a minimal and multipurpose range that blends traditional Māori plant wisdom with the power of modern scientific knowledge.

“I wanted to do something really high quality — otherwise it was pointless going there — and that was really effective,” shares Suzan. “I wanted a waterless formulation; the honey is a difficult ingredient to blend, and without the water, it’s just pure concentrate. So it’s much better for your skin, and it’s also much better for the environment [in terms of] packaging, too.”

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The range includes a thick cleansing gel balm that warms instantly when applied to dry skin — a rare and luxurious sensation that you don’t often experience with a cleanser — which melts away makeup effortlessly.

The face oil, with its light, botanical scent, penetrates skin quickly, while the face balm is an ultra-nourishing and rich option, perfect for nighttime to lock in moisture — the UMF15+ mānuka honey providing soothing and healing benefits to the skin.

And finally, the SOS balm is a saviour for super-dry areas of skin, such as cuticles, elbows and cracked heels and hands.

It should go without saying, that Kaeā products are all 100 per cent natural, and while it’s a dream for Suzan that the skincare utilises ingredients grown at Tahi, they’re not quite there yet due to the complex nature of certification. However, Suzan says they will begin planting commercially in small doses this year to continue expanding upon the circular business model that Suzan is so passionate about fulfilling.

“Coming back to skincare, we’re really trying to push in a new business model, which is where we give 100 per cent back. I’ve dedicated Kaeā and Tahi to that long term because I’m hoping that in 100 years’ time, that land still exists, as it hasn’t been broken up. The honey and the skincare are supporting the pest control and the replanting and the management,” she says.

And that’s Kaeā — and Tahi honey — in a nutshell... Slow, considered products with long-term, far-reaching benefits, not only for your own health but for the health of the land, too.