At Hark and Zander we put YOU at the centre of everything we create and do, and we know that the details matter to you as much as they do to us.
If you’ve been following us for a while you’ll probably be familiar with our key guiding principles:
- To be New Zealand made
- To be sourced from nature and proven by science
- To be uncompromisingly sustainable
While we are sure you love these principles as much as we do, this doesn’t really tell you much about who we are behind the brand. So we’d love to share our vision and values with you because they’re the things that guide us in how we create our products, approach our work and value our wonderful team on a daily basis.
(Of course, our values serendipitously fit with the acrostic: H. A. R. K!)
OUR VISION
Hark & Zander: Creating luxury and innovative skincare for the love of people and planet.
OUR VALUES
H - Highest quality Ingredients: Innovation in luxury skincare that is sourced from nature and is proven by science. Hemp's our Hero.
A - Artful attention to product detail: Known worldwide to surprise and delight.
R - Reliable in our relationships: We go above and beyond.
K - Kindness is key: We value and respect our people and our planet.
What does this mean in practice? Let’s break it down…
H - HIGHEST QUALITY INGREDIENTS
From inception we’ve been determined to source, harness and blend nature’s best. HempTonic Face Oil, the first in our range, is a revolutionary formulation, the culmination of years of research and testing. This piece has certainly set the scene for what's to come!
We are dedicated to only using the highest quality ingredients and have had to innovate to source what we need from New Zealand wherever we can. Our organically grown Whanganui hempseed oil, for example, didn’t exist in New Zealand before Hark & Zander as we have the first machine of its kind here to slow cold press it in its purest form.
We don’t use cheap fillers, anything toxic or unethical. We only use nature’s best. As a sneak peek into what’s coming up, some of our new skincare will feature top shelf ingredients like Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc grape skin extract, Te Puke Kiwifruit extract along with Kawakawa and Manuka leaf extracts all with very specific jobs to do in our curated blends of heavenly goodness to feed your skin naturally as well as powerfully.
A - ARTFUL ATTENTION TO DETAIL
We want to surprise and delight you from the moment you open your first Hark & Zander box. We went to great lengths to make our packaging both sustainable and beautiful - yes, it can be done! When you open your vibrant box, you will notice that we have been able to avoid using plastic coatings or glue to make the recycling process easier. We call them our origami boxes and we love them!
And we know you will love our stunning blue glass bottles which are not only great for the environment, but they look very pretty sitting in your bathroom too. You’re welcome!
But it’s the product itself we know will truly surprise and delight - we hear from customers all the time telling us about their first experience with Hark & Zander, one even used the words “Spark and Wonder!” Those simple words made our hearts rather full because it perfectly expresses the surprise and delight moment we know is unleashed at the twist of a Hark & Zander cap. For some it’s that moment when they realise the cleanser effortlessly removes stubborn eye make up - no more rubbing or stinging. For others it’s when they’re heading away on holiday and only need to pack a single product. For others it’s the feeling of pampering that our luxury oils give them - like they’ve been lavished upon. What’s your “Spark and Wonder” moment? We’d love to hear.
R - RELIABLE IN RELATIONSHIPS
We go above and beyond for our customers. ‘Good’ is not good enough for us. We strive to provide the very best service and treat our customers - both internal and external - like we would our friends and family. We’re dedicated to timeliness, rigour, honesty, accuracy, authenticity and all those good things we all seek in healthy relationships. If there are issues we’ll sort them.
We know that sometimes things go wrong, but it’s how we respond that really differentiates us and sets us apart. We know that there are some customers who prefer to stay quiet if something’s not quite right, but we encourage feedback - we know we need it to get better.
We know deadlines are deadlines and we work hard to meet them. We want to be known as a team that’s excellent to deal with - from the customer whose package was lost in the post, to box maker who wants to test a new origami solution. We want to always be building relationships to bring out the best - it’s the Hark & Zander way!
K- KINDNESS IS KEY - PEOPLE AND PLANET
Kindness is typically undervalued as a key to business success. But at Hark & Zander we see kindness as paramount - both for our team and our planet.
We know that nurturing people kindly leads to a great product and a great customer experience! Some of the ways we look after our staff are by, for example, offering flexible working hours and working from home where it suits. Encouraging teamwork and collaboration, valuing input and creative ideas, nurturing a growth mindset and understanding that learning is part of the journey… and we laugh… a lot!
In terms of the kindness to planet, every key product-based decision is measured by its impact to our planet. The cosmetic industry is a key global polluter and our aim is to revolutionise the norms and create a new measure by which skincare brands are judged.
From using non-toxic, sustainable ingredients, to ensuring our packaging has the least impact upon the earth possible*. From insisting on using local providers wherever we can (for example our organically grown hemp from Whanganui and our laboratory in Auckland) to ensuring our systems and processes are treading lightly - even the unseen things like using cardboard boxes instead of copious amounts of plastic wrap to ship our products from the lab to the storage unit.
All of this contributes to a more sustainable way of doing business in an industry with a chequered environmental past. It means we can stand behind the quality of our products, know that working conditions are excellent, that we aren’t using traditional ingredients that pollute the skin and the waterways or that come from endangered habitats, that we aren’t adding to plastic islands, we aren’t subjecting animals to any tests (we only test on our family and friends!)... all these things that in essence simply mean… we’re being kind.
And that means you can enjoy luxury, high performing natural skincare guilt free.
Get your hands on Hark & Zander here - your skin will thank you for it!
Jen x
*We go to great lengths to ensure our environmental footprint is as small as we can make it: from our product containers, labels and boxes to courier bags and shipping boxes, we avoid plastic wherever possible choosing glass, aluminium, FSC certified card and recyclable or compostable materials.
