FAYOLA K J FRASER
Kathryn Nurse is not only a walking testament to the coveted combination of beauty and brains, but she has created an inspiring and extraordinary career by tying the two together. Utilising her well-developed expertise in chemistry, propelled by her many years of interest in science along with her inherited love of beauty products, Nurse has spent the last 14 years creating well-loved beauty products under her company of which she is the founder and CEO, Immortelle Beauty.
From a very early age, Nurse was well acquainted with the concept of learning, adapting and pivoting to different contexts. In her early years, she grew up in Diego Martin with her full family before eventually moving to the UK where her mother was engaged in law school. Not long after, she moved to Grenada as her father was pursuing a job opportunity, and spent two years there, even writing Common Entrance and beginning secondary school. At 14, Nurse’s mother passed away, and she spent her teenage years in the care of and under the strong influence of her father. “My mother was the stricter one,” she remembers, “even now at 82 years old, my dad is one of the most liberal, open-minded people … ever.” This liberality, as a core part of his parenting ethos, reduced the inherent pressure that young people often feel to quickly select a path and stick with it. Instead, Nurse remembers that her father’s parenting style “gave me and my brother the space to discover and decide who we wanted to be and what we wanted to do.”
Knowing that she was always skilled in science, she decided to go to university with all intentions of becoming a doctor. “That’s just what you did at the time when you were interested in science,” she recalls. She spent two years in pre-med. Latent in her mind was that she was drawn to the fashion and beauty industry, partially on account of her mother’s influence in her earlier years. After two years of taking pre-med classes, she decided not to go down the path of medicine. Always one to finish something once started, she continued with her science degree track, instead of opting to start over. One day, while reading an Estee Lauder magazine at a hair salon, Nurse had a moment of clarity, that there was a shadowy scientist behind the scenes making the beauty products that she was reading about. Thus, Nurse pivoted to the beauty industry, and became a chemist, working in a research and development lab in Fairfield, New Jersey, for four years where she learned to develop and formulate creams, lotions, shampoos and other products.
“I’m a Trinidadian through and through,” Nurse laughs, “anyone who only has bad things to say and complaints about Trinidad is a hater.” In 2010, armed with her experience at the lab and missing home, she chose to return home, ready to carve out her niche in the local beauty industry, equipped with her product formulas and business plan. “I never did one business subject,” Nurse chuckles, but she easily and confidently assumed that people would love her products and her business would simply take off. She intended to grow the luxury beauty market in T&T and began retailing high-end, high-cost items. Finding her business unsuccessful because of a lack of sales and confusion on how to locally market the goods, Nurse decided to do a year-long degree in luxury brand management, which took place in Shanghai, Florence and Paris. “What that course drove home for me,” she says, “is that there isn’t a luxury beauty market in T&T,” and she decided once again to pivot, creating high-end products at an affordable price point.
Nurse began anew. In 2014, she started with three products, a lotion, shower gel and oil in four well-known fragrances, at a much lower price than her initial products, and they began flying off the shelves. “It was really hard to start again after what was my first failure,” she remembers, but with the increasing popularity of social media as a marketing tool, her renewed approach to product costing and a better understanding of business, her operation began to thrive.
Remembering the way she almost gave up after that first so-called failure, she contemplated on what keeps her going in those challenging times. “My lifestyle,” she says plainly. She places great value on her freedom. The freedom of being able to choose her hours, spend time with her family, friends and precious dog, and set her schedule is what means the most to her. Nurse does not orbit around her attachment to the products she has developed, but rather “loves running a business that offers me freedom, and being able to solve my own problems.”
Stepping into business ownership, although not an easy transition for her, she found certain aspects of her personality were perfectly suited to this pursuit. Facing her biggest challenge in the reliance on timing and flightiness of imported goods remains a constant, but now in her 13th year as a business owner, her solution-oriented approach has not only engendered her success but granted her peace of mind.
Located in a cosy, beautifully appointed nook on Picton Street, finding the perfect home for her business has been one of Nurse’s career highlights. Being able to have her office adjacent to the store, and be in close contact with her customers is very useful for her, and has provided even more comfort as the business grows. She also is proud of the business’ customer retention and loyalty, and the positive feedback, acclaim and award nominations her products have continued to receive.
“Fail big, and fail early,” have been two key contributors to her success. She acknowledged that she has traits of perfectionism, which is something she has fought hard to let go of in the business sphere. No longer afraid of failure, as it has taught her tenacity and perseverance, she can continuously evolve the business and try new things, as she did most recently with her collaboration with Tropix Swim to introduce a new product in late January to make skin glow beautifully.
Oftentimes, women in business are on the receiving end of scepticism and push back, but Nurse does not find that to be her general experience. Undoubtedly it is her seasoned expertise in chemistry, her confidence in that expertise, her quiet strength and warmth that make it impossible to doubt her. As her business continues to grow and expand, she said she remains committed to having a business that “grows and flexes with me,” and is genuinely her own, not controlled by third-party investors who may not share her vision. As one of the most sought-after players in the beauty industry locally, Kathryn Nurse’s products have become synonymous with excellence, making women feel beautiful and pampered time after time. Her strides earned her the Emerging Entrepreneur Category of the T&T Chamber of Commerce Champions of Business Award in 2020.
There is definitely no stopping Nurse.