Beauty

Meet the founder of beauty and wellness brand Archeus, capturing nature in a bottle from her Hawke’s Bay apothecary.

If anyone understands the healing powers of nature, it’s Georgina Langdale. She credits being at one with it as her saving grace following a troubled childhood punctuated by episodes of sexual abuse.

Now, the founder of beauty and wellness brand Archeus works with nature’s gifts to help others. No longer owned by her story, she is informed by it.

From her Hawke’s Bay apothecary in 2013, Langdale created Archeus, a range of natural skincare and holistic wellness products – or skin and soul food as she calls them – which include botanical balms, functional fragrances, plant essences and elixirs. She also runs energy medicine workshops, nature healing sessions and natural beauty workshops.

“I base my goodness on the ability to have turned trauma into wisdom, anger into compassion and empathy into empowerment,” says Langdale.

The Archeus skincare range was born from her dissatisfaction with the global natural skincare market when she lived overseas. “I was so hungry for a connection with nature that I would have paid anything if I had found it in a pot to anoint on my skin. I figured that if I felt like that, then there would be others who felt like that too,” she says. This year in May, Archeus was a finalist for Best New Premium Skin Care Product at the Pure Beauty Global Awards in Dubai. Langdale then began researching ways to make other wellness products infused with nature’s gifts that would help through key life transitions. “Transitions are a very personal concept, but I have found that the ones that keep arising are menopause, the journey through illness and palliative care and end of life.” Speaking to her products, Langdale adds that “they capture the very essence of a plant that then simply holds you as you experience your grief or loss or joy. I make anointing oils to help people connect to their loved ones in illness. I believe that nature is there for us in death as in life and so I created botanically infused shrouds for a tender goodbye. Nature has helped me turn my pain into a pathway to other people’s healing and I love being of service in this way.” Langdale hopes to provide a natural alternative for health and wellbeing choices that also awaken us to reconnecting with nature. “I have been able to educate people so that they no longer see a plant like yarrow as a weed, but that they see it as a powerful healer,” says Langdale.

Langdale has also just released a range of yoga mats made from natural and organic fibres and dyed with blends of medicinal herbs, selected for their anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and supporting properties, and to help take your mind-body-spirit practice to a new level of bliss.