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About Jules ...Junction magazine tells Jules story thus:
It has always been about something more – says Jules as her tale unfolds. With her career in nursing leading to Sister-in-charge of the surgical ward in Harley St London, looking after Royalty in the royal and military hospital, she knew there was a different world to explore. Something from her childhood and upbringing constantly stirred within. She was the far-away child that seemed like she was away with the fairies – probably because she was! Having been bought up in a political landscape, but a nature baby at her core, gave an interesting perspective on the world – that of hope, curiosity, exploration and faith that we can do better. This pull, back to Nature was deafening. Jules left her Surgical Nursing career of 15 years and immersed herself deeply into the heart of India where, after living there for some time, she had an epiphany – in the shape of a motorbike accident. It changed her life. In a remote area, covered in blood and in a world of pain, far from any village let-alone hospital, as she lay on the gravel road pondering the seriousness of her situation, she heard soft foreign voices approaching as women and children helped her and her friend into their mud hut. Gently but diligently these beautiful strangers started washing the wounds with coconut milk, then sterilising with coconut toddy – the children had heated coconut milk with some herbs from the garden, which were offered in coconut shell cups. Strips of coconut meat were placed tenderly over the jagged wounds and beautiful meals cooked over an earthen oven. The next morning after a very restful, and suspected opiate-aided sleep, Jules couldn’t believe her eyes – the wounds had already started to pink over! To Jules amazement and delight, she had just witnessed healing straight from the heart of Nature and the kindness of strangers. A glass bottle of coconut oil was given to her to apply twice daily, as she rode away in gratitude. This lead to a journey spanning 10 years where Jules learnt of ancient healing techniques and alchemical ways with Indigenous cultures all around the world. Jules came home to New Zealand and gained her triple diplomas of Medical Herbalism - specialising in Rongoa (Native NZ Bush Medicine) Naturopathy and Traditional Body Therapies. She quenched her adrenaline thirst and community spirit, by becoming a volunteer ambulance officer in Mangawhai by night and running her natural health clinic by day. Becoming a pilot during this time also gave a different perspective on the world. Selling out of her natural skincare remedies each week and being booked out at her clinic, was proof enough that the world was ready for these natural therapies. Other practitioners and her clients were wanting to stock her eczema crème and healing bush balms and very quickly international companies took a vested interest in her unique formulas. It took Jules 18 years to perfect her natural sunscreen, persistently pushing past the naysayers. “They said it couldn’t be done – that it’s impossible” Bright says of the Labs response to her statement that she’s succeeded in formulating a 100% natural sunscreen that is SPF50 and invisible. Bringing together her nursing and naturopathy experience alongside her learnings on her travels gave this stubborn spirit confidence that she could make it happen. “Our coral reefs are dying at a phenomenal rate, our forests are being chopped down – 80% of our plants are found nowhere else on Earth and our health is failing due to the chemicals we are dumping on all of it. It must stop and we have the solution right here. We can grow our own sunscreen and take that medicine straight to the reefs to heal them and not poison them, right there on our skin” Bright is passionate about getting her World’s 1st Biogro-certified natural (100% ingredients certified) sunscreen SPF50 out there now, before it’s too late. Earth’s Kitchen has achieved what no other natural sunscreen has yet – this combination with a soft silky finish, water resistant for 2 hours, certified non-GMO, cruelty free and has a beautiful aroma. Hawaii, Mexico, Palau Islands + Bonaire Island have passed a bill banning chemical sunscreen due to it’s proven toxicity and killing coral. Jules is branching out to the Hawaii market this year to launch her next-level sunscreen there, in a much needed market with over 10 million tourists visiting per year. “Although it took me 18 years to perfect my formula, science and the law have now aligned, so it is actually right on time” Jules smiles |
Coconut
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One day she and a friend were riding along on an Enfield motorbike at about 80km / hr, generally no helmets were worn in India. All of a sudden a stray dog shot out from the roadside forest in front of them, it was too late, they hit! Jules sustained injuries on her arms, legs and face – bare skin hitting and skidding on metal road at 80km/hr. The pain was excruciating. Two families came out from their remote homes not too far from the village. The strangers helped them into the house and totally took control of the situation. First Jules was offered a ‘toddy’ drink – coconut alcohol to ease the pain. The children were sent outside to gather healing plants, which they quickly did and made up poultices and herb drinks. Jules and her friend were strongly encouraged to drink up the bitter herbal preparations. Next coconut milk was poured onto all the wounds and the clean out process began, all the while they were drinking herb drinks and toddy. Strangely the pain started subsiding and a feeling of calm and happiness took its place – what a drink! At this point toddy was poured onto the wounds as an antiseptic, coconut milk given to drink. Milk soaked cheesecloth and mashed up plant poultices were applied to the wounds and this process continued every two hours until sleep. They stayed the night and the next morning when the bandages were taken off, Jules couldn’t believe her eyes! Miracle? “In all my years of nursing I had never seen wounds like the ones I had, heal so fast after one day. It honestly felt like a miracle had just occurred” Jules Jules was given a bottle of coconut oil and told to apply it without fail 3 x day to the affected areas. After two weeks there weren’t even signs of scars. After having this experience Jules knew that there was knowledge here that these people were brought up with that was largely untapped in the western way of living. The children just ‘knew’ which plants to go to for which particular ailment, how to harvest them and how to prepare them. Jules vowed to bring up her own children one day, with this kind of knowledge, so that they knew, that no matter where they were in the World, their medicine was growing locally. Jules stayed on in India and learned the ways of alchemy and plant magic. |
Qualified?
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On returning home to New Zealand, Jules got straight to work on bringing this synergy between humans and the plant world home. She embarked on a 6 year journey obtaining her diplomas in Naturopathy, Medical Herbalism and Body Therapies – specializing in local Maori medicine (Rongoa) and NZ Native Forest Plants. Jules then went on to teach Bush Medicine workshops locally and in Auckland on the Marae where she was invited back each year due to the popularity of the courses. She also taught these workshops in eco colleges and for the locals, to empower people to discover the diversity of food and medicine we have growing all around us. With this knowledge and with the guidance of her Maori mentor, she put remedies together utilizing the skills which she had picked up throughout her travels from ancient practices and new technologies. Beginnings: To Jules delight, she was getting phenomenal results! Using all of the experience and knowledge she now had in her toolkit, she set out gathering beautiful organic and wildcrafted plants infused with pure nut and seed oils, creamy plant butters, active honeys and energised water, making balms, crèmes, remedies, teas, serums and infusions, tested only on willing humans! It started off with family and friends coming to her with echzema, dermatitis, psoriasis, scarring and wounds not healing. As Jules had permanently healed her own debilitating dermatitis on her lower legs and then her nieces echzema using her native plant remedies others started to enquire. Laboratory: Jules found she couldn’t keep up with demand as word spread about her remedies, in this beautiful coastal town in Northland NZ. She got her first laboratory and started up-scaling her quantities, as now natural health care clinics and shops were wanting to stock her 100% natural products, using the same potent recipes, organic and wildcrafted plants and totally natural ingredients. She energised her filtered rainwater with quartz crystals and Reiki, the way the Saddhu baba had taught her during a 9-day alchemy – intensive cave stint, making herbal remedies. Word of mouth was her only marketing and it spread like wildfire! In her own Natural Health Clinic Jules was using her own remedies, and had additionally gained her Traditional Rongoa Practitioner (Traditional Maori Medicine) qualifications with astounding results and the media became interested. Jules’ workshops became sold out and once again she was finding it hard to keep up with the demand for her products. She had been working on a spa range and opened a Day Spa with a good friend and neighbour together using Bright Earth products with tremendous results and popularity. Love the Skin You're In! Jules’ Bright Earth Skincare became the only skincare that many people were using both in her town and abroad, in the cities she was teaching in and use of the products spread from the workshops she was teaching. The message was clear – people wanted organic, totally natural, active, divine-smelling, healing skincare. This was the bench mark that Jules worked to, allowing the magic to weave itself in. The testimonials were astounding. Stories of babies with echzema, one had it from head to toe – clearing completely within weeks and calming the baby dramatically. People said their facial psoriasis and dermatitis had cleared up immediately on starting to use Bright Earth Skincare instead of their previous chemical laden one, just from using the Day Moisturiser. One 84 year old woman was on the “verge of suicide” after the dermatologist had advised her to put Pinetasol directly onto her lower leg echzema – the stinging, pain, rawness and smell drove her mad, not to mention lack of sleep from itching and tar road smell. After using Bright Earth Echzema & Dermatitis Crème for one week, her legs completely healed, even after years of the condition. Global: Then the inevitable happened. Jules was discovered by an international marketing company based in New Zealand with a global platform. Over the next few years they worked together to test out and formulate a unique divine luxury spa skincare range based solely on NZ Native Plants and 100% Natural using Jules’ patented preserving process. Together they did rigorous testing to ensure that the 100% natural preservative could withstand the toughest international lab tests – and they succeeded. Once again Jules had to upscale the size and scope of her laboratory. This time, she invested in a beautiful large laboratory based right in the middle of an 800 year old NZ Native Forest – perfect. From this laboratory new products were inspired , invented, born and skyrocketed. Jules made her own oils from the plants on her property. Her other ingredients were sourced from projects that encouraged Maori growing and harvesting in traditional ways and biodynamic principles. The Lab was organically run, right through to the clean down process using organic products. Happy moment: Jules: “I was taking a large group through on a ‘Bush Medicine and Food Workshop’ on our property, through an ancient beautiful forest complete with a giant underground spring. Our 5 year old blonde daughter spontaneously ran down into the forest with our golden retriever pup. She blew away the participants as she named nearly every tree we passed; she was chewing on a kawakawa leaf explaining what she uses it for, and how to ‘ask’ the plant for medicine from your heart. With each plant she explained how to use their medicine with love and thanks. She talked about foraging for tasty curries too and which plants are best, including so called “weeds” – chickweed pesto, mustard seeds, dandelion, plantain. These plants were her friends and she knew them well. I realized that I had kept my vow all those years ago that I would bring up my children to understand and love their environment, knowing all they needed was right here. It brought a tear to my eye seeing the huge impact she had on these adults. From the mouths of babes.” Sublime 100% natural products with efficacy, luxury, potency and beauty in every way. |