This week I felt the challenge to attempt an essay.  I haven’t written one for years, but we all need to provoke new thought from time to time.  I have chosen to write a short insight on my favourite Wellingtonian, Margaret Hema.

Short Essay:  Margaret Hema

When I sleep at night I know the earth turns.  I also know that Margaret Hema’s enterprise turns too.  In the morning, our morning, I can see that eyes from across the world have engaged with her website.  Islamabad, Milan and Dublin sometimes collide and meet at www.hemaproducts.com.

I am Margaret Hema’s web designer.  Margaret Hema is a skin care creator and a world-class facialist.  We live in Wellington, New Zealand, and this is where the story begins.

Margaret, a single mother in the 1980’s, began studying what has become her art;  blending aromatherapy oils for skin care.  Her first facial clients were often the artists and the smart set, seeking out the unique and exceptional which Hema Skin Care relentlessly provided.

Wellington is also exceptional;  Hollywood sometimes pays us visits.  Margaret Hema’s name was heard in high places, and soon movie cast and crew found her door in the heart of the city.  Hema Skin Care had grown up.

We all dream great things, but few have worked towards a goal with such Herculean persistence.  Margaret blended and facialled to achieve the best for over 20 years and never changed her approach.  The world’s greatest press have profiled her work but she is neither a celebrity in her mind or in her world;  she has created celebrity.

The beauty business is a harsh terrain, few survive, and fewer gain status.  If you think about it, the odds weren’t good.  Imagine a single person, hand-blending a unique product in one of the world’s smallest capitals who is observed daily across multiple continents on her website and in magazines.  For me, Margaret Hema’s success represents a singular achievement, in a realm that no other New Zealander has even come close to touching.

What is the magic?  She describes the skin as a beautiful fabric, which should be treated as such.  She turns the usual skin care formula on its head, and applies nothing but oil and shuns anything remotely resembling abrasion.  It’s simple, it’s organic and it’s New Zealand in a bottle.

Margaret is true to her art and those around her, but retains a mystery that is almost otherworldly.  She injects much of that mystery into her products and the results are extraordinary and last a lifetime.  A client becomes a believer.

One day Margaret won’t be there in her pink salon blending oils.  Her job will be finished, and my guess is that her secret oils take on a new life under a new reign.

I won’t be a web designer for Hema Skin Care then, but I know I will have played a small part in building magic alongside Margaret Bernadette Hema.