Origins - HEMA Skin Care

Margaret Hema originally created HEMA skin care products purely for her facial clientele in Wellington, New Zealand. Her compelling concept was the non-use of exfoliants and skin tightening clay masks in both studio facials and home skin care regimes. The idea was to provide products that would maintain a healthy firm pore structure and a smooth even-toned skin surface.

In those formative years, clients, after they had their facials with Margaret, would take home hand-blended facial oils in a plain brown bottle with a hand-made sticker describing what was in the oil. The product had no name. The HEMA branding came three years later when due to demand - word of mouth spread the message and people wanted to stock her hand-blended products. Margaret started her own range of skin care products known and recognised worldwide as HEMA.

Margaret's objective from the outset was to give her clients a minimal method to obtain maximum results with each HEMA product representing excellence and skin care integrity. Good skin depends on a compact pore structure so the HEMA range is fortified with moisturising ingredients that both nourish and condition the skin.

HEMA - The Stand Alone

Facialist, Margaret Hema, knows that the cleansing oil she uses when facialling is the product that has made the entire HEMA skin care range stand out and stand alone. This formula has made the range successful.

The HEMA Facial Cleansing Oil was created in 1994. In those early years Margaret dissatisfied with the cleansing milk products that were the professional norm at the time knew instinctively that there had to be something better. From experience she knew that the water content of the available milk type cleaners was not beneficial nor were the right results achieved so she headed off in a different direction from her colleagues and developed her own oil-based skin cleansing product. She called it HEMA Facial Cleansing Oil and after much testing and trialing it was launched in 1998.

Subsequently her approach and method has been followed and most ranges now include an oil-based cleaner. The HEMA formula remains a well-kept secret.

Facialling clients on a daily basis Margaret knew that the tool for her hands to facial would become HEMA Millennium Face and Body Oil. This product was launched in 1999 just before the new millennium.

Between 1994 and 2008 she researched and developed oil-based skin care products increasingly working with New Zealand grown ingredients. She is the first person to include certified organic wood from the indigenous Totara tree in her hand-blended oils.

Knowing how to get the best results for her clients she extended her range with HEMA Quintessential Face and Neck Oil, HEMA Lip and Eye Oil, HEMA Restoration Night Oil, HEMA Facial Spray and HEMA Day Crème SPF12.

The HEMA range is now complete with seven products for clients. The eighth, an unguent, remains the salon-only product and it is used in Margaret's signature facial.

Margaret's philosophy is that skin should be treated like beautiful fabric. So her formula approach means that no water is included in any of the skin care products in her range (organic hydrosol(sp) is the only liquid measure used). Nor does her range contain toners, exfoliants, clay base masques, mineral oils, chemicals or artificial preservatives.

HEMA skin care has its origins in Wellington, New Zealand. August 2009

Margaret Hema

Margaret Hema's professional commitment to quality skin care started in 1970 when she was working for Mary Quant as a skin care consultant in a large department store in Wellington. The store, known as the DIC, has long since gone but the original building remains and that is where Margaret now works in her studio.

In the early 1970s Margaret took up a position as a Lancome beautician at Old South Head Road Pharmacy in Double Bay, Sydney.

During the early 1980s, the years she was home raising her three children, Margaret continued to work, train and increase her professional qualifications. A selections of positions held, relevant training and qualifications follows:

1980
Perfume and skincare manager, Belle Fleur, Eastbourne, Wellington.
Clarins skincare consultant, Sensations Skincare & Beauty, Manners Mall, Wellington.

1981
Aromatherapy and Essential Oil training: Jean Shirley, Aromatherapist, Double Bay, Sydney.

1983
Diploma, beauty therapy Parisienne Facial Techniques: Jean Shirley, Aromatherapist, Double Bay, Sydney.

1984
Madame Maguy Ruby, Principal, Advanced Academy of Beauty Therapy, Cremorne, Sydney.
Diploma, Aesthetician, International Therapy Examination Council, England.

In 1986 Margaret and the family returned to New Zealand. After working in two salons Margaret quickly established a Wellington client base. Initially she was the only person providing aromatherapy facials in Wellington.

In 1988 she established her facialling business, based in Harbour City Towers, Wellington, where she still works today. A company was registered in 1999 and HEMA Skin Care remains a family business. Margaret's son, Quentin, the HEMA artist, designed the distinctive HEMA logo. Margaret's daughters, Donyale (Wellington) and Tamara (London) are active supporters of the company both locally and internationally.