All-Natural,
No-Nasties,
Using Homegrown Botanicals
Hello and welcome!
My name is Debbie and I am the creator of Wild Māra. The name “Wild Māra” came about with my love of medicinal botanicals which I grow in my organic spray-free Nelson garden or wild harvest locally and sustainably. Māra is te reo Māori for garden.
I am a qualified pharmacist with a strong interest in complementary medicine. Especially herbal medicine & aromatherapy. When I was in the UK on my OE, I had the opportunity to work at Weleda. I learnt every aspect of the company from planting & growing medicinal plants, harvesting, right up to formulating, production & product knowledge. This amazing experience ignited a dream of wanting to work in a herbal apothecary, making up remedies, balms & skincare.
About 10 years ago we moved to Nelson. The climate is absolutely wonderful here, so I thought it was time to set my dream in motion and started growing my medicinal herbal garden. That and with my newly acquired love affair of making cold-process soap (chemistry background), I put the two together. And Wild Māra was born.
My ethos is that each Wild Māra product I create contains organic botanicals from my garden or wild-harvested locally. I use quality cold-pressed plant oils & butters, natural mineral-rich clays & pure therapeutic essential oils. No Nasties. Naturally Kind.
Each Wild Māra product is made in small batches by me with love, intention and with sustainability in mind. “Naturally Kind - on your skin and on our planet”. I’m committed to minimising my environmental impact and use recyclable, bio-degradable & plastic-free packaging where possible.
I trust mother nature’s healing & therapeutic powers and I am eager to share it with others. I hope my products help you savour the earth’s goodness and brings you the same quiet joy I feel while making them. Use them to feel grounded, to gently nurture both body and mind, and to build a slow, safe self‑care ritual that’s free from harmful ingredients.
So, whether it’s for everyday use, an indulgent treat or finding a gift for someone special, I’d love to help.
Enjoy
Debbie
Behind Wild Māra
-
Debbie
Creator, Formulator, Soap-maker, Photographer, Social Media & Sales Manager, Gardener and Everything in-between!
-
Bruno
Chief Supervisor, Garden buddy, Listener, Model & Tester for the “Dirty Dog” Soap
MY PROMISE
100% Natural
My products are created with 100% natural ingredients.
I spend a lot of time extensively researching ingredients & botanicals, that’s just my pharmacist background & philosophy where I have to have scientific evidence to support each product I formulate.
I source my ingredients from reputable suppliers in NZ, who follow strict sustainability & quality assurance practices. The two main suppliers I use are both BioGro certified organic & one is also Natrue certified. I try & source ingredients that are grown here in NZ but there are some ingredients such as Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter, Argan Oil, etc that aren’t.
I use fair-trade, ethically sourced organic ingredients as my first choice but where cost &/or supply can be an issue, I source the best quality cold-pressed ingredients that I can without having to pass on extra costs to you.
Quality cold-pressed plant oils & butters,
Mineral-rich clays,
Botanical oil-infusions & hydrosols,
Pure therapeutic essential oils.
NO Nasties
NO Parabens
NO Synthetics
NO Toxins
100% Cruelty-free
Eco-friendly
I’m passionate about looking after our beautiful planet. I may be a very small business but I try to make sustainability choices that are the best for the future of our beautiful world we live in.
I try to keep packaging as eco-friendly as possible with conscious decisions made to decrease my ecological & carbon footprint that may impact our planet.
My products are in eco-friendly, biodegradable & recyclable packaging.
I re-use whatever packaging I can from wholesale orders for your orders.
Soap boxes, information cards, labels: are all made locally in NZ & follow strict sustainable practices.
100% recyclable & compostable, FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified & vegetable based inks.
Produced using ECF (Elemental Chlorine Free) pulp & manufactured under strict ISO14001 Environmental management system.
Gift boxes, wood wool: recyclable/reusable & home compostable.
Trade Aid Hemp twine: fair-trade, ethical, recyclable/reusable, biodegradable. Made by Baghdad Enterprise of Prokritee, which works with 700 mainly woman producers in rural villages to form producer organisations aimed at creating self-reliance. Savings programmes are set up at each enterprise & training provided in adult literacy, leadership development & group management.
PET bottles/jars: BPA-free, environmentally friendly, can go in home recycling (just wash first) & can be reused. Made by a local NZ company.
I chose to use recycled PET bottles/jars over glass due to them being lightweight, this is advantageous when posting as less energy/carbon emissions is required, postage costs are less & less likely to break while being posted. They are exceptionally resilient & strong, won’t shatter when dropped (especially as these products will most likely be in your bathroom) & that they are non-reactive to acids & alkali’s. The pump on the lotion bottle is more hygienic & the product has less exposure to air, so less likely to spoil (especially as the product contains natural plant oils, butters & essential oils.
Botanicals: organic, reusable & home compostable.
Nearly all of the botanical ingredients are grown in my spray-free organic Wild Māra garden, onsite here in sunny Nelson, NZ.
Others, such as Eucalyptus & Kawakawa are wild harvested locally & sustainably.
All waste plant material I use in my apothecary is returned to the earth as compost.
I’m a big believer of reuse or re-purpose & recycle. There are so many ways to reuse the packaging that your order has arrived in.
I’m always looking at ways to improve.
It’s all about respect & caring for our land & the nature it provides for us.
Handmade
My products are created with love by hand in very small batches.
Each product is unique & will have slight variances (size, colour, smell) from batch to batch.
No mass production here!
Your guaranteed quality ingredients &
handmade plant goodness.
From the Wild Māra garden, apothecary to you.
