COMPANY PROFILE PROMOTION healing earth
Inspired by Africa’s ancient healing traditions, Healing Earth is a luxury, natural and sustainable spa brand that combines premium products and therapies with international training protocols and consultancy. Here, the company’s founder, Elisabeth Brandt, shares her vision
What’s your background?
I’ve been in this industry for 25 years. I was born in Slovenia and started out in hotels in Europe, before moving to South Africa 15 years ago to open one of the country’s fi rst fi ve-star spas: the Sérénité Wellness Cen- tre in Cape Town. We took a very holistic approach, off ering yoga, meditation, detox and life coaching, which was new in South Africa at the time. It was very successful: our average occupancy was 95 per cent and we had visitors from all over the world. A few years later, I was asked to create a
turnkey concept for another spa resort, in which I was a shareholder. T at was Santé Wellness Centre in the Stellenbosch Wine- lands, South Africa’s fi rst vinotherapy spa. I’ve also consulted on numerous other lux- ury spas in South Africa and Namibia.
What inspired you to set up Healing Earth?
While running my own spas, I was very unhappy with the products available, which were full of parabens and other synthetic ingredients. It didn’t make sense to me that we were off ering fantastic organic foods and detox programmes, while the products used in our spa treatments were so impure. So I started researching alternatives, and
“We follow sustainable and fair-trade practices to create natural products that deliver proven results, and we’re proud ambassadors of Africa’s indigenous heritage”
came up with a Pinotage grapeseed oil, using ingredients sourced from local farmers, which I developed into a range of Pinotage vinotherapy products. T en, six years ago, I decided to sell my interests in Sérénité and Santé in order to con- centrate on developing a holistic, pure and natural product line. We launched Healing Earth in 2007.
How would you sum up your brand concept?
We take a nurturing, conscious approach to beauty, based on love for oneself, humanity and the Earth. We follow sustainable and fair- trade practices to create natural products that deliver proven results, and we’re proud ambassadors of Africa’s indigenous heritage.
Can you tell us a bit more about your main product lines?
Our two main ranges are Pinotage Vinotherapy and Earth Soul. Pino- tage is a facial and body range which leverages the strong antioxidant
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qualities of vitamin C, vitamin E and proan- thocyanidins (OPC) found in the seeds, skin and leaves of Pinotage, South Africa’s signa- ture red wine grape. OPC is one the most potent free-radical fi ghters available, about 50 times stronger than vitamin E. Our body range, Earth Soul, harnesses the
medicinal powers of South Africa’s native plants, fl owers and herbs, and includes oils, creams, butters, polishes, wraps and bath salts. However, unlike some of our compet- itors, we don’t only use the well-established African ingredients of rooibos, marula and aloe ferox. Every one of our products con- tains active ingredients that have been carefully researched and selected with a spe- cifi c goal in mind – so, for example, we use Kalahari melon for its excellent moisturising properties, African ginger for fi rming and slimming, mongongo nut for detox, and cof- fee, orange and cinnamon for cellulite.
Why did you decide to focus on South African healing traditions and ingredients?
I’d studied local healing techniques in Bali, India and T ailand and had seen fi rst-hand how eff ective indigenous treatments could be, but to the best of my knowledge no one in the spa industry had really explored Afri- can healing traditions and I was interested
to see how much potential there was. I bought a book called Medicinal Plants of South Africa by Nigel
Gericke, Ben-Erik van Wyk and Bosch van Oudtshoorn, which opened my eyes to the multitude of medicinal plants in the country and the many ways they could be used – for example, my daugh- ter had been born with bad neurodermatitis, but aſt er treating her with some of these natural remedies her condition improved dra- matically. So I decided to come up with a concept that would draw on these incredible ingredients and traditions, as well as the very powerful energy of the African sun.
How much research has gone into your products?
T e products have been developed in close consultation with John Knowlton, an internationally renowned cosmetics-industry scientist based in Johannesburg, who previously held senior positions with Johnson & Johnson and Justine-AVON. John compiled the product
SPA BUSINESS 1 2011 ©Cybertrek 2011
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