An Accidental Business
December 2005 - Life & Leisure

Several generations of ingenious women have turned their home-made beauty preparations into front runners in the increasingly glamorous business of natural skincare.

WHEN ANNIE PORTER GREW tired of paying for layers of fancy packaging encasing cosmetics she felt did nothing for her skin, she thought of her grandmother, Nellie Tier. Although the two had never met, Annie's mother had told her countless stories of the soaps, creams and oatmeal scrubs that the resourceful Nelson woman used to make for her family. "She was a great believer in natural things," says Annie. "There was never a piece of lemon peel that went past without her rubbing it on her elbows or using it to brighten her skin in some way."

This inspired Annie, the co-owner of Auckland's Masterworks Gallery, to try her own hand at creating a basic moisturizing cream. Sensing that her grandmother's modest blend of petroleum jelly and talcum powder was somewhat outdated, Annie started from scratch. "It took me a tremendously long time to learn how to do it," she says. "I read hundreds of books and spent hours researching on the Internet. It became a consuming passion."

Before long, Annie had transformed the basement of her Ponsonby villa into an amateur beauty laboratory. Scents of geranium, rose and sandalwood waft ed down the street, arousing the interest of neighbours. Her enthusiasm inspired Masterworks co-owner Sara Sadd to create a liquid soap which today forms part of the Nellie Tier range. Annie encouraged friends and family to trial and grade the products and their feedback was overwhelmingly positive. She began producing twice as many batches in order to satisfy their demands for more.

The big break came in September 2004 with the opening of body and bath boutique Isabel Harris in central-city Queen's Arcade. Word of Annie's concoctions had reached the owner, who promptly asked her to create a range for the new store. Annie's daughter Victoria, who had worked in marketing and promotion before the birth of her two children, convinced Annie that her growing collection of hand creams, body creams and lotions, bath salts, liquid soaps and body scrubs had real potential.

New Zealand body and beauty products have become a growth industry in the last few years with local brands such as Trilogy, evolu and Living Nature selling hot off the shelves both here and overseas. Annie agreed that the time was ripe to share her products with the rest of the country so she formed Nellie Tier together with long-time business partner Sara. They were not discouraged by the thought of competition because they felt that their products were unique. "We wanted something that smelt good and felt very luxurious but was still as natural as we could make it. These products weren't designed on a budget. We source pure essential oils and botanical extracts."

The decision to launch the range at Isabel Harris meant a race against time. The two women were faced with transforming their home-made goodies into marketable products in just two months. Annie and Sara's 20 years of business experience ensured a relatively smooth transition but there were still lessons to be learnt. "The labels were the most hideously expensive part and initially we didn't get them right," Annie recalls. "The paper we used marked terribly and we had to replace the whole lot. It cost a fortune." Fortunately, other mistakes have been much easier to laugh about. Victoria recalls the anti-stretch-mark cream that her mother created for her: "It was like a chemical reaction, it was hilarious. It bubbled and exploded in my bathroom!"

Victoria directed the move into the marketplace which has been aimed at forming strong relationships with a small number of boutiques. Store staff receive training in the technical and scientific aspects of the products and are also told the Nellie Tier story behind them. "They love the story, it really helps them to identify with the product," says Victoria. "We notice that sales increase dramatically a week after training."

The company's philosophy is deeply rooted in the memory of Annie's resourceful grandmother and celebrates the generations of females who have followed. "It's about women," says Annie. "We are very powerful." Nellie Tier labels are printed with the Christian names of every female descendent of both her and Sara's grandmothers – names that range from the Nellie, Constance and Maud from times gone by to the Clover, Jet and Kushla of today. Every time a baby girl joins the family the labels are reprinted, which has proved to be a costly exercise. "My daughter-in-law is giving birth later this year," says Annie. And, jokingly, "Not to a girl, I hope. We don't want to have to re-do the labels again!"

Annie, Sara and Victoria now supply Nellie Tier products to 11 stores with plans for another four. But we won't be seeing Nellie Tier on supermarket shelves. Annie stresses that she wants to keep things as small-scale and exclusive as possible, for now at least. "I didn't ever set out to go into a market situation. It was a hobby, an interest. I just wanted to make it better and better and get more creative with it. It's an accidental business."

Download and save a PDF of this article featuring Nellie Tier in December 2005's Life and Leisure Magazine