How it really started
KD One didn’t begin with a business plan. It started on a film set. For over 25 years, Kareen Holland worked as a professional makeup artist in film and television — including on Hollywood productions, where the daily demands of camera-ready skin took a visible toll on the actors she worked with. Tight skin. Persistent redness. Reactions to the heavy formulations that screens demanded.
She watched it long enough that the actors started coming to her with a specific request: give us something to use under our makeup, and something that actually repairs the damage afterwards. That request was the seed.
Founded in 2003
After years of researching natural alternatives — the kind of plant-based, locally sourced ingredients the cosmetics industry had set aside in favour of cheaper synthetics — Kareen launched KD One in 2003.
The brand grew differently from most. Instead of paid advertising, Kareen built it face-to-face: at markets, in her Wellington shop, in direct conversation with customers. She listened. Eczema, sensitivity, hand inflammation from chemical exposure, the gap between what conventional skincare offered and what real skin actually needed. Then she went back to the workshop and formulated. Over twenty years on, that’s still how every product is made.
Made right here in New Zealand
Every KD One product is hand-made in small batches in a fully ISO 22716 GMP-certified facility — the same manufacturing standard required of pharmaceutical companies. All research and development happens on the premises, and every ingredient is traceable to a reputable New Zealand source, with full origin and quality certification.
In 2015, KD One won the National Top Shop Award — recognition not from an industry panel but from the customers and visitors who came through the door.
Proving it works — with science
Plenty of natural skincare brands talk a good game. Kareen wanted proof.
“Right from the start, I had been observing some amazing results from my natural skincare range. And I didn’t just want people to take my word for it — I wanted to provide solid proof.”
“In July 2016, I engaged the services of an independent, New Zealand-based laboratory to scientifically test and prove the results I had been seeing. Thirteen products were tested from the KD One range of skincare, body care, and medicinal products. The results fully validated what I had been seeing.”
Real numbers, not marketing claims:
- Hand & Body Cream — antioxidant effect on inflammation up to 100%
- Recovery Rub — reduces inflammation up to 90%
- Skin Performance Plus moisturiser — stimulates skin cell reproduction up to 90%
- Antiseptic Balm — inhibits inflammation up to 80%
A variety of products were independently tested — and those results stand behind every product that carries the KD One name.
Four pillars, every product
Every formulation has to clear four bars — the actual questions every product must answer before it goes on sale:
- Affordable — skincare ordinary people can afford to use every day
- Natural — only natural, locally sourced ingredients. No nasties.
- Gives results — proven in independent testing, not just on the label
- Transparent — trusted New Zealand sources, with environmental impact considered from formulation to packaging
What hasn’t changed
Kareen handed over the reins of KD One in 2025 to ensure the brand keeps growing — and to keep doing right by the loyal customers who have used these products for years, some of them since the very beginning.
The formulations, the workshop, the testing, the four pillars: all unchanged.
What started with a few actors asking for something better is now a full range of plant-based skincare, cosmetics, and medicinal balms — used by chefs, nurses, parents, athletes, and anyone whose skin has been let down by something else.
If your skin has been waiting for something gentler that actually works, you’re in the right place.