Olive Power

In a world with a million skin care products on the market, it is humbling to know that the latest exciting beauty treatment is not just a flash in the pan, but has centuries of history behind it.

Tebe® (pronounced teh-be), is an exciting new product range from the Simunovich Olive Estate for face, lips, hands and body that combines the ancient traditions of olive oil based skin care, with the powerful antioxidant ingredient, olive leaf extract.

Olives and their related products (oil, pulp, leaf extract) have been used as skin treatments for more than 4,000 years, used first by ancient Egyptian and Mediterranean cultures to treat a variety of health conditions as well as for food and for beauty. In fact olive oil was the first botanical cited in the Bible and in Croatian mythology, where the olive was the first tree in the world. Nowadays, the use of olive leaf extract has been creating excitement around the health community for its powerful antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties.

Founder of the Estate, Branka Simunovich, says that in her home country of Croatia in the Adriatic Sea, she would use olives for food, olive leaf poultices and tea for a variety of ailments. “Olive oil is like mother’s milk’” she says. “It is the one product in the world that no one is allergic to and that makes it perfect for beauty treatments.”

This faith in the power of the olive has seen the Simunovich family invest in the creation of the largest olive estate in New Zealand, with over 40,000 trees producing 150,000 litres of high quality, award winning olive oil every year, much of which goes into the creation of their fabulous skin care products. They launched their natural Olive Body Care line in 2005 and in April 2008 launched the exciting new Tebe® Skin Care range – the first comprehensive skin care collection in New Zealand to feature olive leaf.

“In Croatia we’ve always known of the healing powers of the olive,” says Branka, “but now the scientific community has also discovered this and every day there is another report showing an exciting new health benefit.”

Olive leaf extract is a very exciting ingredient indeed, naturally loaded with powerful antioxidants and vitamins olive leaf extract delivers moisture and firmness while protecting against the harmful effects of external aggressors such as sun and water, making the skin look softer and feel more pliable. And when mixed with the Simunovich Olive Estate’s own olive oil, other natural and organic plant extracts and their own pure spring water, it makes for a skin care range like no other – the perfect blend of ancient tradition and modern science.