In Conversation With
ACTIVIST

Meet Gabrielle Mirkin and Luke Harwood - Founders of ACTIVIST.

Based between California and New Zealand, Luke and Gabrielle have created a beautiful and elevated collection of ingestible and topical Mānuka products for beauty, wellbeing and immune support.

Their company ACTIVIST is an extension of their grounded lifestyle - utilising Mother Nature to cultivate their product offering, all with an origin and story traced back to their home, Aotearoa.

We are thrilled to share our conversation with Luke and Gabrielle and discover more about their powerful and inspiring brand.

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What does ACTIVIST mean to you and what does it represent?

Luke: Primal and ethereal all at the same time. It's an extension of our lifestyle and all things Gabrielle and myself are passionate about, woven and intertwined into the company and our products. 

Gabrielle: As a family we’ve built a company that works prolifically with natural resources, specifically rare high-grade mono-floral raw Mānuka Honey, with an origin from our native country of Aotearoa, New Zealand; which is our larger playground and one which we have a deeper understanding with.

The ability to build a brand with limited industrial impact was something that was very important to us. In essence we are simply letting Mother Nature, the seasonal cycles, symbiotic relationships, and microclimates, cultivate the basis of our products. It is our role to present these to the world in their highest and unadulterated form.

Tell us about your backgrounds and the beginnings of ACTIVIST?

Gabrielle: Prior to ACTIVIST, I worked in publications for fifteen years as an art director at Vogue magazine and Harper’s Bazaar in NYC. It was a grind living and working for Hearst and Condé Nast in New York City; intense magazine deadlines every month meant many late nights until midnight in the office. But I loved it and I was in my element. I was living my dream life at the time with my dream job.

At the same time I became extremely unwell literally overnight and was finally diagnosed with Lyme Disease, a bacterial infection from a tick bite. The next few years were an intense healing journey, trying to find my way back to homeostasis. This included many intravenous antibiotics, as well as time spent at a Biological Medicine Clinic in Switzerland and then a move home to New Zealand to live on our peaceful and secluded piece of land in the Coromandel. We lived in our black barn there for a year while I slowly gained my health back.

During this time our friends asked if they could keep their hives on our land which was covered in thick native bush including many Mānuka trees. We happily agreed and began to fall in love with the bees and the way they interacted with nature and how they were such environmental indicators. The bees also of course produced the most magical tasting honey we had ever tried, and this golden nectar was such an integral part of my healing journey at the time, and still something I use everyday religiously for optimal wellness. My gut and immune system were so destroyed after all the antibiotics I had been prescribed, so this potent Mānuka Honey was really the bees and nature’s gift to me.

Luke and I had a romantic idea and dream to create our own Mānuka Honey brand. We returned to the USA, this time to California to live in the Santa Monica Mountains by the Pacific Ocean. We really wanted to create something together in the natural world. We noticed the way that Mānuka honey was presented on a world stage, and it wasn’t good, it wasn’t sophisticated and it didn’t do Mānuka honey the justice it deserves. We set out to elevate and educate people about this incredible rare resource from our homeland and exquisitely craft the ultimate Mānuka honey products for internal and topical use. Because of our backgrounds in creative fields and my connection to people and stores through the magazines I worked at, we positioned ACTIVIST in the best global retailers the world has to offer.

What inspires you most about Mānuka honey? 

Luke: That it existed long before us, like a good building or a piece of furniture from another time.

Gabrielle: Mānuka Honey is such a beautiful and rare resource from my homeland of Aotearoa. The Mānuka Tree itself is extremely resilient and grows abundantly in the most wild coastal landscapes, it is one of the first species to re-establish itself after land clearing and is essential to preventing soil erosion. To me it is a very mystical tree that can stand the test of time through the harshest conditions and still thrive, which I find very inspiring. All parts of the tree can be used medicinally which I also find a very beautiful process.

Traditionally the Mānuka bark was chewed to support sleep or brewed in a decoction to aid joint health, reduce fevers and coughing, to help with headaches and indigestion. Mānuka leaves have traditionally been used for tea. ACTIVIST Mānuka Essential Oil is freshly pressed and distilled from the leaves of the Mānuka leaves every few weeks for us on an extremely remote of beautiful island in New Zealand. It’s one of my favourite botanicals ever. The super high grade Mānuka Honey which we harvest is what excites me most, and we have a new very thoughtfully crafted offering housed in a special vessel coming out later this year.

Are there any other ingredients that are exciting you at the moment?

Gabrielle: Other ingredients that are inspiring me right now are the wild-harvested seaweed we use in our Green Botanical Serum. As well as some beautiful New Zealand glacial clays, native ferns, teas and fruits that will be incorporated into new ACTIVIST offerings for 2025. Stay tuned.

How is ACTIVIST evolving and what's exciting about this journey?

Luke: From a primitive idea ACTIVIST is really evolving into a universe of beautiful products and experiences. I’m excited by the vision and passion we have for the way we value our relationships and the processes in which we build our company. It's a peaceful journey of elevation. We have touch points all around the world in cities we love, just like Simon James in Auckland. 

Gabrielle: ACTIVIST has organically evolved from a Mānuka Honey brand into a full holistic wellness and beauty experience. Everything we decide to create and put out into this world is very carefully considered and exquisitely crafted for topical skincare, cellular beauty benefits and potent immune and digestive support. A.M.S is our new Elevated Beauty Collection which we launched this northern hemisphere summer.

There are few regions as abundant in plant and marine life as Aotearoa New Zealand. Its clear waters, clean air, and wild landscape make for an idyllic microclimate, perfect for growing and harvesting pure and potent botanicals that support internal and external health, like mineral-rich seaweed and algae, detoxifying clays, and antioxidant-loaded fruits, native ferns, and teas. A.M.S uses pure ACTIVIST Raw Mānuka Honey and ACTIVIST Mānuka Oil as foundational ingredients, alongside these other rich botanicals.

How do you start your day?

Luke: 3x drops of Oregano Oil in a shot of water, followed by a large spoon of ACTIVIST 850+MGO Raw Mānuka Honey. The idea is to kill all pathogens. 

Gabrielle: Always with cuddles in bed with my two children Cisco River and Tallulah Blue. They really ground me and inspire me for the day ahead. A big glass of lemon water follows with a teaspoon of ACTIVIST 850+MGO Mānuka Honey and then a flat white made on our espresso machine with Canyon Coffee and homemade nut milk. I then take a cool outdoor shower (it’s summer here is Southern California) and wash my face with our Mānuka Honey Mask, followed by massaging in a few drops of Green Botanical Serum. Then I feel fresh!

The seasons are transitioning in New Zealand, what ACTIVIST products would you recommend over this period to support your immune system and overall health?

Gabrielle: You can’t go wrong with a teaspoon of our Raw Mānuka Honey 850+MGO; let it sit in the back of your throat and work its magic. We incorporate this beautiful rare high-grade mono-floral medicinal grade of Mānuka Honey into many of our other offerings such as our Mānuka Immune Elixir and our newly released Mānuka Immune Gummies; I recommend both of these offerings for immune support and overall health anytime and especially when transitioning from one season to another. Our 850+MGO Mānuka Honey is powerful, so take it anyway you can! You can also find this special grade of Manuka Honey as the star ingredient of our Mānuka Honey Mask, which I recommend for all skin types, throughout all seasons.

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