Ora Wellbeing
Facialist and energy worker Heidi Timms is making a name for herself with her skincare range infused with crystal essences.
Crystal infused skincare made in Dunedin
Good energy greets you as soon as you step into Heidi Timms’ purpose-built skincare lab in Warrington, Dunedin. The room is filled with rose quartz crystals, native flower essences, oils, and crystal gua sha facial tools and rollers. Pretty purple clover flowers lie drying in the sun, and the walls are lined with Timms’ Ora Wellbeing skincare products – each lovingly handmade and infused with crystal magic.
Timms believes that your skin reflects what is happening inside your body and when your body is in a state of harmony and balance, your skin naturally glows. And that’s where her work with energy and crystals comes in.
“Our own bodies are made up mostly of water and minerals, so it’s only natural to think that we are intrinsically connected to the world of minerals and crystals,” says Timms. “Every crystal has a different vibration, a different healing energy that works with our own chemistry to help restore our bodies to their highest potential.”
Timms hand-selects the gemstones and crystals that go into her products for their beauty, energetic resonance and healing properties.
During the full moon phase, Timms immerses a cleansed rose quartz crystal in pure spring water, which she then covers and leaves overnight, allowing the crystal energy to infuse into the water – creating what she calls crystal essence. This is then preserved with vodka to hold the formula. The alcohol also helps to later transfer the essence into the skin when blended with other ingredients.
Timms has a 20-year background in beauty therapy, massage and reiki. Growing up in Raglan, she moved with her family to Australia when she was 9 and enjoyed a career as a therapist for many years before moving back to New Zealand with her partner Trent and young family – Finn, 9, Sol, 8 and Thea, 1.
Over the years the idea of creating her own range was always in the back of her mind. “Even though I worked with a lot of beautiful products, I just felt like as a therapist it was an allopathic approach and I wanted to work on a deeper level with clients,” she explains.
Studying Australian bush flower essences opened a doorway to a different way of working with plants. She also trained in the basics of skincare formulation and began experimenting making products in 2013. It was a lot of trial and error, and took her two years to perfect the formula of one of her moisturisers. Fast forward to 2020 and Timms is not only sought after for her beautiful products but also for her advice and facial treatments.
Many of her clients come to her with inflamed skin from laser treatments after being convinced that there was something wrong with their skin. “They’ve spent a lot of money and are unfulfilled on lots of different levels so I help them to reprogramme their beliefs about themselves. I don’t put them underneath a lamp to analyse their skin. It’s all intuitive and touch for me, and by taking a very gentle approach their skin heals naturally,” she says.
This is also why Timms prefers to use rose quartz, which is a heart-based approach. “I feel like the theme for me in the range is working on self-love because we all struggle with it at some point.”
Her lymphatic drainage facials are mostly massage, working first with her hands and then a crystal gua sha tool. “The lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump, so our muscle movement is the pump and if we aren’t moving our muscles our lymph becomes stagnant. These tools help to do it in a really beautiful way.”