First impressions: Hark & Zander's Hemp-Tonic Face Oil

Anyone that checks in here regularly will know that I’m a huge fan of oils - body oils, hair oils and facials oils - and love the fact that nine times out of ten, they are brilliant multi-taskers and are great travel companions too.
Cleansing your face with one is a given with me, but for many, using oils on the face in particular may seem counterintuitive, especially those who associate it with breakouts and the like. Well it just ain’t true, and there are more and more great facial oils arriving on the market all the time that are making their way into bathroom cabinets across the globe.
Now. If you’re a nerd like me when it comes to skincare and wellness, you’ll have known about the incredible benefits of hemp for some time now. Derived from specific variants of the Cannabis Sativa plant that have been bred to have no narcotic value or psychoactive properties, hemp is a veritable wonder ingredient for so many reasons.
The benefits of hemp were as early as 5000 BC in China and spread to India, the Middle East, Europe and eventually the new world by the turn of the sixteenth century. With this impressive history as its inspiration, New Zealand hemp oil brand Hark & Zander have created Hemp-Tonic Face Oil, which harnesses the powerful properties of hemp and gives it a thoroughly modern twist.

Hark & Zander founder, Kirsty Harkness was initially passionate about the latent potential in the hemp she’d planted on a vineyard in Marlborough to replenish and enrich the soil. She’s now been growing hemp since 2018 and was the first in New Zealand to innovate this way. She began investigating the ways to blend hemp seed oil with other essential oils for optimal skin benefits, how to naturally preserve the hemp oil, and how to ensure a truly delicious-smelling scent. With some help from blending specialists, scientists and, of course, friends and family, she took the hemp oil base and, using nine vitamin-rich active natural plant oils, created Hemp-Tonic Face Oil.
The botanically active blend combines hemp with specially selected all-natural oils like squalene, grapefruit peel and sea buckthorn to leave your skin fresh and bright, and yes – it smells and feel gorgeous on the skin. A great multitasker, it can be used as an antioxidant cleanser and moisturiser, and won’t mess up your natural skin barrier. If like me, you’re often battling sensitive, red, dry or blemish-prone skin, this little beauty will help nourish, repair and restore balance to your skin AND without clogging pores, making it an option for all skin types.
To use it as a cleanser, place five drops of oil on your palms and gently massage the beautiful blend into your face and neck. With a warm, damp cloth wipe away makeup in an upward, circular motion for freshly cleansed skin. Then it’s time to moisturise, with just three drops needed to gently dab on your face and massage while it soaks itself in.
The perfect ‘skip care’ product to use over the long, hot summer months, this baby had me hooked after just a few days. To find out more head to the Hark & Zander website here.