Indulgently natural
Karen Murrell is a very modern green goddess. She makes an all-natural lipstick that feels good on and comes in a stylish black canister - biodegradable, of course. She shops on eBay for designer labels and lives by the beach for environmental inspiration.
We meet over coffee in a Takapuna organic cafe. She's wearing an olive green strapless "DVF" number [Diane von Furstenburg] and her trademark lipstick. The red version is packaged in a pretty (and recycled) cardboard box, colour-matched to a pohutukawa blossom.
Murrell is ecstatic because style.com has this month named her certified organic skincare as one of the best things to come out of New Zealand, up there with Marlborough sauvignon blanc and Flight of the Conchords. She's waiting to hear about distribution in Australia, has signed up a new outlet in Sweden and Henri Bendel in New York have asked for product samples. In mid-April her lipsticks go on sale in Paris department store Bon Marche.
For most young New Zealand women the idea of selling lipstick to the French might be terrifying, but the willowy brunette is born for the job. She's been in the beauty game all her adult life, heading from university to the cosmetic counter at Smith & Caughey and in 2002 she co-founded and came up with the formulations for Skinfood, a pioneering natural range that found its way on to supermarket shelves here and in Britain.
In 2007 she split from the company after a business relationship soured, determined to pursue her own vision. At the same time, a personal relationship foundered and though Murrell likes to keep her private life private and focus on the future, it's obvious a lot of personal soul-searching and rebuilding has led to Karen Murrell Enterprises, which takes the slogan: "The business of beauty now has a conscience. At last beauty is becoming beautiful from within."
Ten products, five for lips, priced at $25 each, and five for skin comprise her range, which sells in New Zealand at Farmers. It eschews the often dull brown and green packaging of many natural products, in favour of a fresh, modern look.
"Natural is colourful," explains Murrell, who spent a lot of time getting the design-style she wanted.
"Why should we have to sacrifice our usual appearance considerations?"
The lipstick line, with its canister made from PLA, a corn resin-based material that breaks down within 100 days, is the standout product, being all natural and moisturising. Women are said to consume nearly two kilograms of lipstick in their lifetimes, so with consumers looking for natural alternatives, it's something of a beauty holy grail to come up with a high performance, "got to be good for you" lipstick.
"We've got a niche of our own at the moment," says Murrell.
She reckons women only need the balm and the four colours she offers, though she does admit to being a makeup junkie who on a recent trip to Australia spent as much time checking out the Chanel counter as the natural skincare.
Her aim is to be judged alongside the big prestige brands, not tucked into a corner, though in her years in the business she's noticed the mainstreaming of natural skincare. To assure her customers she's the real deal she took the tortuous and expensive route of gaining globally recognised EcoCert approval.
"It was a not negotiable to be internationally competitive on the shelves of the world's department stores."
Murrell says creating market segments is her career aim and exporting is essential if she is to be competitive. But it's clear that the business brain is driven by the passionate heart of a craftswoman.
Each of her products has a back story: the range's hero ingredient tamanu oil is sourced from Vanuatu where it is prized for its healing properties; the unusual addition of oats makes her Nature's Essence Body Scrub more moisturising; she travelled to China to come up with a rubber-look, recyclable matte black plastic container; and she (Opposite page) Karen Murrell from Karen Murrell Organic Skincare and Natural Lipsticks on Takapuna beach; (top) Jenny Aitken from Hue salon; and (above) Dr Rosy Fenwicke of Workout Zone.
originally made her True Miracle Intense Balm to ease her 94-year-old grandmother's psoriasis.
"They're all full of love."
- karenmurrell.com
Skin fitness
Rosy Fenwicke is about to run her first marathon, but not for this livewire Wellington doctor a slog around the bays. She's flying out to France next month to compete in the Paris Marathon on April 10.
"If I pay that much money I won't be able to back out," she jokes.
After the gruelling event she plans to treat herself to a holiday. Along for the ride will be a bag of Dr Fenwicke's trademarked Workout Zone skincare, a range of "skin fitness" products she's developed especially for active women like herself.
The idea is skincare that works in sync with exercise. "It's a really neglected area, some people think that you just have to have the right bike and it shows."
Determined to have the right skin too, and sick of products that just slid off her face, Fenwicke developed two four-step ranges for use indoors and out.
They've already had some of the toughest testing possible, at the hands of athlete Elina Ussher, winner of the last Speight's Coast to Coast World Multisport Championship.
Fenwicke says the increased blood supply to the skin that results from exercise means it's a perfect time to get absorption from the right products. "A facial as you go."
It can take four to five hours to rehydrate after a workout, so retaining moisture throughout is important and good sun protection is essential.
"I wanted something to use when I'm running." That something is a certified SPF30 moisturising block. There's also a tinted mineral SPF20 which can be worn under makeup.
Fenwicke keeps up with scientific journals to find out "what's good and what's hocus pocus" and she uses recognised effective skincare ingredients such as alpha hydroxy acids and vitamin A. She's developed a rehydrating body cream that rubs in and showers off and an exfoliating cleanser. The products retail for under $40 and can be used by women and men.
To get the word about her range out, Workout Zone sponsors road and cycle events, including the Elite Women's Road Race in Taupo and the Harbour City Marathon in Wellington. Fenwicke also backed a sports shoe recycling drive at this month's Auckland Round the Bays Run, following on from a similar effort in her hometown.
It can take up to 1000 years for the plastics in old running shoes to break down in landfills, so the aim of the annual Great Workout Zone Sports Shoe Recycling Project is to dispose of unwanted trainers responsibly.
After sorting, wearable shoes are sent to Papua New Guinea and "past it" ones ground down to make sports ground surfaces. Fenwicke's own packaging is recyclable, part of her original vision dreamed up while lying on a beach in Thailand in 2005.
Since then it's been a juggle managing a medical career, exercising, and developing her products to market readiness including testing on runners, cyclists and gym instructors. Then there have been ever-longer training runs to complete in preparation for her marathon effort.
The multi-tasker reckons you really can "sweat yourself beautiful".
Good news for the less active is that she's also developed a handcream that gives you a workout without lifting a finger. Reinvigorate: Hot Honey Handcream contains chilli and while it's ideal to keep runners' fingers tingly warm in winter, it also helps spread a relaxing feeling through typists' tired fingers.
- workoutzone.co.nz
Dye and DIY
Jenny Aitken's business baby number four is due next month, but this sole mother seems to be taking the latest arrival well within her capable stride.
With three specialist hair dye salons open in Mt Eden, Ponsonby and Balmoral, and Takapuna to come around mid-April, she seems remarkably relaxed. Especially, with school holidays just round the corner for her children aged 11, 12 and 13.
Aitken obviously has a practical, pragmatic streak, which her clientele shares, judging by how her business has grown to four salons in just over two years.
The concept is dye and DIY, with Hue offering specialist colour consultations and then keeping costs and time sitting around in check by having customers blowdry their own hair.
"A 20-year-old might be there straightening their hair for 45 minutes, the mums do a quick blowdry and are in and out." (Help is available if needed.)
Customers are drawn to Hue because they want a more professional result than they can get at home or because they're finding top salon prices too steep. All colourists are trained, and range from industry veterans down to academy graduates. Aitken says because her nearly 30 staff are all specialists they have to love what they're doing and this enthusiasm delivers good results.
Aitken takes care of the "look and feel" of the salons, and her business partner, Grant Stapleton, sorts logistics and secures the all-important locations in easy-to-reach suburban spots, with parking nearby.
Salons are bright and friendly, with customers looking in, not out, encouraging a welcoming atmosphere. The Mt Eden salon won a retail design award.
Hue offers professional ranges, including Schwarzkopf's Essensity natural dye and shampoo collection.
There's also real-time online booking and computerised colour records for each customer.
"We try not to take our regulars for granted," says Aitken, but she admits that for many the drawcard is not the full salon palaver, but being able to be in and out in just over an hour.
The original idea for Hue came after a cash-strapped Aitken visited a small Glenfield salon, Just Colour. Around the same time she heard an advertisement for franchising and got in touch with a man who became her business mentor and encouraged her to apply for small business funding to turn a budget service into something cool and contemporary.
She then met Stapleton and more work followed to turn what ended up being several years of planning into a paying reality.
"I had a lot of intuitive ideas about what would work, but being with the business guys I had to test them."
Aitken is confident she's onto a winner and has big plans to expand, without franchising, here and, if she can, overseas.
"Women need colour done way more often than a cut."
- hue.co.nz
