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Skin care line named Te Tika
Summer photo competition
Skin care line named Te Tika
Sat
28 Jan
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Professor Bill Walsh and Dr Graham Matheson monitor bone regeneration in their Sydney
lab. Photo: Sydney Morning Herald 3
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Sydney-based company Cook Islands Medical Technologies (CIMTECH) is planning an August launch for a new line of skin care products made from Cook Islands plants.
CIMTECH research director Dr Graham Matheson confirmed that the company will be staging its first product launch in Rarotonga. Scheduled to precede the Pacific Islands Forum in August, it will be followed by launches in Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the world in 2013.
The line will be called Te Tika, in honour of the late Te Tika Mataiapo Dorice Reid, whom Dr Matheson knew well and who was instrumental in drumming up the support of the Koutu Nui for his research projects, which are part science and part Maori medicine.
Dr Matheson and his team CIMTECH director Tony Romagnino and head of cosmetics Corinna Steeb visited Rarotonga in December to inform various parties of their chosen product name and accordingly to seek their blessings. They consulted Reids nieces, the komono of new Te Tika Mataiapo titleholder Vaine Taripo, Koutu Nui president Maria Henderson, Prime Minister Henry Puna and the Cook Islands Tourism Corporation.
All gave their blessings, and Puna even asked the CIMTECH team to prepare gift baskets of Te Tika skin care products for delegates at the Pacific Islands Forum.
We had extremely good meetings with the Koutu Nui and Tourism and also met with the PM Henry Puna, Teina Bishop and Teariki Heather, who were very supportive of the project and pleased with our progress, Dr Matheson said in an email to Cook Islands News.
Romagnino and Steeb said yesterday that everybody has been completely supportive, very positive, wonderful and welcoming.
Tupe Short said yesterday on behalf of the Koutu Nui that he is 100 percent plus supportive of the project. He noted that he the rest of the Koutu Nui will continue to back the project that the late Reid was vocal about supporting.
CIMTECH is developing a cleanser, day cream, night cream, eye serum, hand cream, body and face oil and massage oil, all bearing the label Te Tika, their bottles featuring Cook Islands motifs and maps and stamped with a Cook Islands tag.
Dr Matheson reports from Sydney that the first test batches of the skin care product were produced at his Rarotonga extraction facility during his last visit.
CIMTECHs aim is to produce two pallets of extract by April, finish manufacturing the product in Australia and bring it back to the Cook Islands for a pre-Forum launch.
The production process is moving steadily along at an extraction facility recently constructed behind the Te Aponga Uira administration building. Outfitted with a grinder, mixer and presser, the facility produces extracted material from local trees to be used in the skin-care product. Local people are being paid to pick plants and deliver them to the back-road factory.
Romagnino and Steeb are back on Rarotonga this week, and say they will continue to visit for one week a month until the product launch.
CIMTECHs skin care project involves millions of Australian dollars and years of research.
Through a process of trial and error, Dr Matheson discovered the power of certain Cook Islands plants to prompt both skin and bone regeneration.
Following the announcement of his biomedical breakthrough at last years Economic Summit, Dr Matheson explained to Cook Islands News the theory behind his skin care product.
He said that healthy, young skin is stratified, or comprised of multiple layers. Age wears down the protective layers, reducing their thickness by 14% every 10 years.
Modern age-defying treatments like chemical peels and derma-abrasions work because they injure worn-down skin, causing it to regenerate. But Mathesons Maori medicine remedy triggers skin regeneration without injuring any layers.
After one week of using the plant-based compound, the skin re-stratifies to the same healthy thickness as that of a young person.
The process by which this occurs we dont understand, Matheson said at the time. He knows that the skin responds to multiple molecules that make up Cook Islands plants not a single molecule and that the combination creates the effect.
Once the skin care product line has been launched in August, the company will circulate it through all major markets, including India and China and will advertise extremely heavily, indirectly promoting the Cook Islands among potential tourists.
The natural healing qualities of Cook Islands plant extracts have been clinically proven.
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Dr Graham Matheson poses with plants at The Little Polynesian – these are just for show and should not be confused with the plants he is researching in his Sydney laboratory and using to make his skin care product.
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Frank Samson, CIMTECH director Tony Romagnino, head of cosmetics Corinna Steeb and Lisa Liebelt at the CIMTECH extraction facility behind Te Aponga Uira’s administration building.
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The CIMTECH extraction facility behind the Te Aponga Uira administration in its construction phase last year.
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Tupe Short and Ken Matheson at the extraction facility in December.
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Summer photo competition
Sat
28 Jan
(Week 1 - Summer photo
competition) (Week 2 - Summer
photo competition)
(Week 3 - Summer photo
competition) (Week 4 - Summer photo competition)
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“Let me go dad! I can climb and get the nu by myself!” Kalani Bounsall – never too young to learn the island way of climbing a coconut tree.
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More than 120 images of children, pets and family fun have been sent in for our first ever Memories of Summer photo competition with some outstanding entries received making weekly judging a difficult task.
This week alone, over 70 photos were entered into the competition. Next week is your last chance to send in your summer photos before the competition ends.
All you have to do to enter is email your favourite photo that captures the feel of summer holidays to editor@cookislandsnews.com and be in with the chance to win a fantastic new generation Nikon1 J1 camera sponsored by CIPS image and copy centre.
Dribbly watermelon! Natacha Neves eating watermelon at her house in Nikao this week.
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Antonia Poa sent in this photo of Tehana, Anika, and Chelsea Hunter – three very gorgeous young ladies.
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Moana Tangimetua sent in this shot of Zefo Samania having fun in the pool.
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Harris Katoa with his friend for the spit! Photo by Amelia Borofsky on Pukapuka.
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Maria Wichman sent in this gorgeous photo of Evah, Maiata, Mason, Lamehe and Seanoa enjoying the summer till the sun goes down!
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Ezrah Tangianau mowing the lawns on a hot summer day while his dad Junior Tangianau was sleeping!
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Amelia Borofsky sent in this wonderful photo of Teto Temoana of Pukapuka with a puffer fish.
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Waiting for the green flash! An amazing Aroa sunset photo sent in by Edward of Ngatangiia.
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