Flamingo Estate

Pleasure Principles Down Under. Thank you to our beloved MECCA family in Brisbane and Melbourne for the best Aussie welcome ever! And thank you to my mother for coming along for the ride (that’s her in the big hat!)Next stop Canberra and Sydney… X Richard

Raise a glass to the garden x Richard

TODAY ON SUBSTACK: New Zealand, New Zest! This week I’ve been in Auckland on my book tour, visiting the MECCA team members who shepherd our little brand in New Zealand and Australia. And it has completely blown my mind.

I’ve always admired those rare places where hospitality is generous without becoming theatrical. Service without servitude. You occasionally find it in a great family-run hotel or restaurant, but here it seems to expand to an entire country.

Some of this is manaakitanga, the Māori idea of hospitality and care: treating a guest in a way that raises their mana, their dignity and standing. How you care for another person reflects on you, too.

I saw it everywhere. In the warmth of the MECCA teams, but even more in how they treated one another when nobody was performing for anyone. The casual kindness. The checking in. Making room for somebody else to speak. But what moved me most was discovering that this ethic of care doesn’t stop with people. It extends to the land.

Kaitiakitanga is the Māori idea of guardianship, caring for the natural world for generations to come. New Zealand has written this idea into law in extraordinary ways. Te Urewera, the Whanganui River and Taranaki Maunga have all been granted legal recognition in ways that reflect the idea that the natural world is not merely property, but has standing of its own.
I felt that same reverence at Ahi the extraordinary restaurant by Chef B E N B A Y L Y where every ingredient came with a story about a grower, a fishing family, a place, and the responsibility of taking food from the natural world.

I met Anthony and Angela from Anthony and Angela Tringham at a rainy farmers’ market. Within minutes Anthony had invited me back to their farm, where we drank rosé and ate oysters and tomatoes on homemade sourdough around their kitchen table. I arrived a stranger and left feeling as though I had known them for years.

That’s what has stayed with me most about New Zealand: Everyone is a friend, and there’s no need to show off. Not making yourself smaller for another person, but not needing to make yourself bigger either.

Lots more on Substack today, free for all Flamingo Members. x Richard

Give yourself a hand. The Mini Rich Cream Trio brings together three of our favorite creams for the parts of the body that do the most work: Mānuka Honey Rich Cream, Jasmine Damask Rose Rich Cream, and Sage Rich Cream for Hands & Feet. Three very different moods, packed into one joyful little box. Mānuka for deep comfort, Jasmine and Rose for softness, and Sage for hands and feet that need a little more attention. Small enough to travel, generous enough to share, and extremely useful to keep close by. X Richard

I’m in Auckland right now on my book tour, spending time with our friends at MECCA, and it has reminded me how long New Zealand has been part of the Flamingo story.

Our Mānuka honey comes from here, high on the slopes of Mount Taranaki, where the terrain is so remote the hives have to be flown in and out by helicopter. A few years ago, my dad introduced me to the remarkable beekeepers who work there and told me, with complete certainty, that they made the best Mānuka honey on earth. He was right.

We use their honey in our whipped Mānuka, and also in our Mānuka Rich Cream, which has become one of those things I reach for constantly. Hands, knees, elbows, feet, anywhere the skin feels dry and a bit defeated. We pair the honey with lanolin, calendula and shea butter, and keep everything else out of the way.

Being here makes me love it even more. There is something about New Zealand, and the care people have for the land and what comes from it, that you can feel in the ingredient itself. X Richard

Green Goddess is our hymn to the garden. The soap wakes up all the nooks and crannies of our bodies, and the candle tickles a part of your nose you forgot existed. They’re difficult products to describe because they’re the most alive things we make, filled with the best souvenirs from the garden: Basil, Mint, Rosemary, and Ginger. It’s not easy being green. x Richard

Prinsesstårta is back, sweeter than ever. A new edition of Milk Bar Soap with the scents of marzipan, vanilla custard, and warm spices. 🍦🍦🍦x Richard

Just got the film back from the NYC book tour last week…some great meals on the run (never leave home without your own olive oil). I learned that our lavender water is great for NYC cabs. And that our travel set is a life saver for a red-eye. Thank you to friends at The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel for finding me a room at the inn. New Stop is New Zealand. See you tomorrow Auckland! X Richard

These are my Everest Bells, one of the personal objects we are selling in The Great Estate Sale (on our website now). They were the only things I bought while walking down from Base Camp to Namche Bazaar, and they have been hanging in the goat shed at Flamingo Estate ever since. The bells are traditionally worn around the necks of dzo, a cross between a yak and domestic cattle, used to carry supplies along the lower trails of the Khumbu. Bigger and stronger than cattle, dzo are better suited to the warmer, lower altitudes. Higher up, toward Base Camp, they give way to pure yaks, built for the cold and thin air. Beyond Base Camp, no animals go at all, and everything is carried by Sherpas and porters. Cast in bronze, the bells are traditionally made by metalworkers in Nepal, including Newar craftsmen of the Kathmandu Valley. Inside hangs a clapper made from horn, while the bells themselves are suspended from thick straps woven from yak hair. On the trail, you hear them before you see them. A small piece of Everest that has lived at Flamingo ever since. X Richard

Ablaze with the Mandrake candle from our witchy impractical magic box x Richard