Win a Tailor Skin Fitness prize pack Fitness Journal

Our Fitness Journal team loves to celebrate natural skincare – and the people behind it, particularly when it is made with care in New Zealand. This month we take a closer look at Tailor Skincare and the passion of the Kiwi behind the brand.
Tailor Skincare’s list of ingredients read like a recipe for goodness. Packed with distinctly New Zealand flavour, ingredients include New Zealand grown hazelnut, grape seed, blackcurrant seed and kiwi seed oils, bentonite clay, organic rice flour, kowhai, kawakawa and harakeke.
The distinctive Tailor blue glass bottles are jewels of perfection; fuss-free, focusing on the ingredients within and housing everything from detoxifying facial treatments to hydrating serums.
Made with love by Sara Quilter, from her Wellington base, the range includes eight products for all types of skin. We love the fact the ‘mini bottles’ let you try out the range to ensure it’s exactly what your skin needs.
The story behind Tailor Skincare has unlikely links to the world of organic fertiliser. Working in organic agriculture in California five years ago, Sara’s research included how healthy soil acts as its own ecosystem, with minerals and electrolytes working together to nourish plants to help them to grow.
“I discovered the similarities with the benefits of raw foods and how natural materials nourish our bodies, particularly our largest organ…the skin,” she says.
“That led me to question what I was putting into my own body and skin and after discovering what was actually going into the skincare products I used, I had a “hallelujah” moment when I poured a brand new bottle of purple toning solution down the drain.
“I decided to take the knowledge and passion I had for natural and organic ingredients and make my own products.”
In suburban Taranaki, having turned her father’s shed into a mini laboratory, she began mixing small batches of her signature product with her Kenwood cake mixer and rubber spatula.
With the hero ingredient of bentonite clay, which she managed to source in Hawke’s Bay, Sara was up and running.
“I discovered through my research that bentonite clay is exciting because of its detoxifying and healing properties.”
Remaining focused on quality, natural materials, Sara personally samples all of the ingredients before they are approved for her recipes. Only vegan ingredients are used, with the exception of locally sourced beeswax.
My focus is always going to be on finding the best,” says Sara. “No two ingredients are the same. Where I get them from and the nutrition they can offer our skin is very important to me.”