The Pure Drive Of Starting Your Own Business
Lara Henderson clearly remembers the moment she realised she probably wouldn’t be going back to corporate life after having her first child. “I had just emerged from the blur of the first four months of having a newborn, and I went out to meet with a mentor of mine.”
“I had been working at BMW as the New Zealand Brand Manager for almost three years and we were talking about my next career move,” she says. “I had been toying with the idea of going back into corporate and then I started telling him about this idea I had for a business. He could hear how excited and passionate I was about it and quickly stopped me in my tracks and said ‘Just do that, just start that business.’ It was the kick I needed to take the leap.’”
And that was the start of PURE MAMA, which despite only being in the market for two and half years is already available in the New Zealand and Australian online stores of the international prestige beauty giant, MECCA – and boasts fans like Kourtney Kardashian. It’s a natural body skincare range focused on pregnant women to encourage them to take care of themselves, and their skin, while they are doing the very important job of growing another human.
It all came about when Henderson herself was pregnant and was startled at the lack of body care available for expecting women. “I went for a pregnancy massage and asked them what I should be using on my skin as it stretched and changed – they really had no idea and couldn’t recall any quality brands. I looked around in both New Zealand and Australia and found nothing that really resonated with me.”
After tirelessly searching for the right products, Henderson was not only overwhelmed with conflicting information on the safety of ingredients, but was shocked by the amount of synthetic ingredients and fragrances that were being used. “It felt like an outdated market landscape that was failing to acknowledge the complexity of motherhood, especially around the physical and emotional changes women go through.”
There were – of course – the pharmacy standards like Bio Oil and Mrs Palmers “but nothing that actually made me feel good, smelt amazing, and had high-quality natural ingredients. I continued to look online globally and there were some, but all highlighter pink and branded, cutesy balloons and full of questionable ingredients. Plus, not many focused solely on pregnancy, which made it really confusing.”
Having worked in advertising agencies and marketing she understood what it would take to build a premium brand and sell a luxury product. She reflects on the moment she realised she was no longer talking, and now actually building a brand from the ground up. “I knew there was no turning back after I went through the process of purchasing the URL from an American company. Being ambitious from the get-go, I knew I wanted the dot com to ensure we could go global – someone else had it so I had to pay 6K for the privilege which, back then, was a lot of money when you are on maternity leave and down to one income.” From that moment she knew she was all in, and right from the start had places like MECCA and Sephora in her sights. There was definitely a gap in the market and I knew we could build a beautiful brand to fill a white space for them.”
And so ensued two years of product development, research, brand refinement, packaging trials and everything it takes to get something like PURE MAMA to market. This was clearly time well spent as they sold out three months after launching online “That was proof of concept to me,” says Henderson “It was obvious we were on to something. Women often forget themselves in the pregnancy process, it’s all too often about the baby and finishing up work and doing all the millions of things women do when they hold the majority of the mental load. We put ourselves last and we wanted to develop something that was not only great for the skin but a reminder to women to do something for themselves amongst all the madness.”
The unique blends they developed prioritised potent, natural ingredients commonly found in facial skincare such as Rosehip, Avocado, Raspberry Seed, Pomegranate seed oils and concentrated levels of Vitamin E. “These ingredients work wonders in promoting skin hydration, elasticity, and restoration.” says Henderson. They then combined these with well-established base blends of Coconut and Almond oils to introduce a novel, nourishing skincare range specifically designed for pregnant women and new mothers. Their product range includes the three times sell-out Belly Oil, a luxurious Bump Scrub, restorative Nipple Butter and a Magnesium Body Rub, alongside beautiful gift sets that have fast become a staple at any New Zealand baby shower.
And despite a beauty industry insider saying they were looking at three to five years before breaking into somewhere like MECCA, they were in conversations nine months after launch and available online 12 months later. “I navigated that first year with only one employee and my sister at my side who was working in corporate as a CFO at the time, and they still are a huge part of driving the company forward today. We had that conversation with MECCA and they soon realised that PURE MAMA was a brand that would work really well with their offering. Within half an hour they’d pretty much said ‘We’d love to have you’. It was amazing and somewhat surreal as I was only three weeks postpartum with my second child when I took that call.”
Of course, it hasn’t all been sunshine, rainbows and a hassle-free trajectory. While the core trio have an extensive background in sales, marketing, and finance, manufacturing is a whole other beast. “It was a completely new industry and we found ourselves constantly in uncharted territory, like realising there are 10,000 different ways to make a glass bottle – or 20 versions of the same colour when printing with different suppliers!” They’ve had their moments, like when they had to discard 6000 defective tubes. “Thankfully that was a one-off and whilst we learnt the hard way, we actually learned so much from that experience. As a team, we are deeply committed to the integrity of our range across the board so we never settle on something unless we all love it, and would genuinely use it ourselves.”
Excitingly PURE MAMA is launching into the US and China this year. “We know that’s going to bring a whole new set of challenges – it already has! But we are conquering them one task at a time. We’re so ready for it and couldn’t be more excited!” And while the success and future expansion of the company is incredible, there’s also a secondary triumph in that this business is now run by a group of five women who all still have reasonably young children – along with the challenges that can bring. “We all have small kids – eight under sixes between us and we have this amazing understanding. We often chat late at night once the kids are asleep – and all fully understand if someone can’t make a meeting or deliver something when they thought they could. We all have the same hustle and same vision so we are always able to get everything done, even if it’s not in a conventional nine-to-five kind of way.”
It’s clear Henderson is incredibly proud and grateful for her team “We all bring our own expertise to the table and everyone completely understood my vision from the start – and understood where we are going on a global scale to be the number one premium pregnancy skincare brand in the world. I think some people thought we were going to sell at the Sunday markets” she laughs “But it’s not quite that.” It’s clear PURE MAMA has had big plans from the get-go.
And while being stocked in the hospital bag of one of the world’s most famous reality TV stars isn’t something you measure in financial reports, it was exciting to find out Kourtney Kardashian considered PURE MAMA a pregnancy essential “She’s known for being really particular about what she puts on her skin so it’s a pretty big buzz!” says Henderson. And all this from a company with a staff of five running from Papamoa and Auckland. It just goes to show that if you find a niche and have the determination to be the best, not only locally but globally, anything is possible.
