Collection: Triumph & Disaster

Here's the great story behind this great NZ brand from Dion Nash, the Founder...

I come from a long line of boxers and tailors, boxers on my dads side, tailors on my mothers. Needless to say I grew up well dressed and prepared to defend myself, but the contradiction was never lost on me.

At about 13 years of age my father gave me a framed poem called ‘IF’ by Rudyard Kipling. It was at a time when son was rebelling against father, so the poem was promptly defaced and thrown in a bottom drawer, but never thrown away.

The poem is advice from a father to his son on how to be a man. It is about humility, honour, risk and reward. 

More than two decades later when the seed of an idea for a range of skincare products was born, values like these were ruminating through my mind. They are values that I thought would help mould a brand into something capable of reminding us that acts of ritual and preparation are worthy endeavours and that healthy skin is something to be aspire to and be proud of.

So when a tattered old poem that my dad had given me years before was uncovered in the bottom of an old chest and I read the line, ‘if you can meet with Triumph & Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same’, well, the deal was done and the brand born.

Triumph & Disaster's philosophy is to use the best of science combined with the best of nature to produce naturally derived but scientifically engineered products that work. We use local indigenous ingredients such as Horopito oil and Ponga fern extract blended with scientifically proven and natural ingredients from around the globe, such as clay from Australia, Jojoba extract from Mexico and Tamanu oil from Polynesia.

Finally we believe that the future of sustainable business is a path of integrity and honesty (great marketing and a rocking distribution system may also help) and that customers deserve at least this much from the brands they support.

We aim to respect nature, utilize science, create products of ritual and tools for preparation - so we can treat Triumph & Disaster, those two imposters just the same.