Source: Radio New Zealand
Blair Coates kneeling on the riverbank with his arm around his black lab Storm RNZ/Sally Round
When Blair Coates’ parents took a skinny dip in the river running through the family farm one hot summer’s day, little did they think it would inspire a skincare production line in the former cowshed.
“I can’t actually remember a time it wasn’t called Nudi Point, and it’s just always been a very, very special place,” Coates told Country Life.
- Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts
- ” just couldn’t seem to work out why or how to get rid of it, and it was so bad that I was not confident to go to school on quite a few days, and I would wag school, or I would make up some excuse as to why I’m not feeling well enough to go because I was just getting teased and bullied.”
Coates called his range of serums, balms and other skincare products after the swimming hole because “my number one criteria for the range was that it was 100 percent natural.”
The former city banker and music teacher was also inspired to strike out in skincare after dealing with bad skin as a teen.
Blair in the production area for his skincare range, a converted cowshed on the family farm RNZ/Sally Round
Coates said he became “quite obsessed” about learning about skin care and all of the elements that help clear the skin.
He returned to the family land in the Takahue Valley south of Kaitaia 12 years ago and decided to launch Nudi Point using his earlier training as an aromatherapist.
His husband and mother are also involved in the business.
In a pristine lab, without a whiff of the cows who used to come through here, Coates showed Country Life how he mixes up a serum of several essential oils and decants it carefully into small blue bottles.
“We like to think that a little bit of Nudi Point magic goes in every little product that we send out.”
Blair blends essential oils and bottles them for his customers RNZ/Sally Round
That sense of place is an important selling point for Coates, especially as his is a small rurally-based business, now more reliant on online sales as retailers shutter in the cost-of-living crisis.
“I think it matters, you know, it’s more than just a bunch of products that someone made and put on a shelf.
“It just shows a little bit more attention and care to everything that’s created.”
Still part of a river reflecting the native bush on its banks, the swimming hole which inspired Nudi Point RNZ/Sally Round
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand