Ahava: Israel’s Best Kept Secret

The Dead Sea is sixty-seven kilometers long and eighteen metres wide situated between Israel to the West and Jordan to the East.  At four-hundred-and-twenty metres below sea level, it is the lowest point of dry land on Earth and nine times saltier than the Mediterranean.  Now I know what you’re thinking.  What do these geographical tidbits have to do with the beauty industry?  The answer is quite a bit. 

            Many women are catching on to what Israelites have known for decades.  Ahava (the Hebrew word for ‘love’) is an Israel-based beauty and cosmetics manufacturer that extracts the salient minerals from the Dead Sea and harnesses them for their therapeutic properties.  Much of the company’s popularity – whose product line includes everything form body lotions, moisturizers, soaps, bath salts, shower gels, night creams, and shampoos – was largely spread through word-of-mouth from tourists visiting Israel and surrounding regions.  And the numbers prove it.  As sixty percent of their sales are derived from thirty countries worldwide including Germany, the UK, the US, and, of course, Canada.

            Ahava was established in 1988 by three kibbutzim, communal living communities in Israel that are largely agricultural-based.  Today, its products are manufactured by Dead Sea Laboratories in Holon, Isreal, and have over a hundred and eighty employees backing its name.  One spa in Edmonton (aptly named the ‘Ahava Day Spa’) uses their entire product line in the course of its daily operations, everything from massages to facials. 

            What makes Ahava special is the Dead Sea’s salinity.  The high salt levels make it impossible for living organisms to survive other than a few microscopic exceptions such as algae.  Similarly, the low content of allergens and its great depth have made Ahava products legendary for their purity.  

            But it isn’t just the mineral-enriched water that is greatly sought after.  The mud discharged from the Sea is also utilized as many people and scientists believe it has special healing uses.  Magnesium, Bromide, Chlorine, Calcium, Potassium Sodium; these are elements found in no other sea or ocean around the world, each having their own cosmetic advantage, from accelerating cell regeneration, to supplying energy to skin cells, to helping treat skin ailments such as psoriasis. 

            This idea is nothing new however, as the Dead Sea is often considered one of the world’s first health spas (for Herod the Great) and has been utilized for a variety of products, everything from Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilizers.  But in a world where dozens of new product lines are released each month, it is easy for the consumer to get bombarded by advertisements that make more promises than they can deliver.  However, there’s something to be said for Ahava.  If past performance is any indication, I have no doubt these products will be selling well for years to come.