Rick Hallifax, Managing Director of Merino Skincare, talks about how the company was founded in 1980 by Dr Chris Martin, a pharmacist, from Whangamata New Zealand.

(Map of New Zealand)

Chris kept being asked by his pharmacy customers for a decent skincare cream for their dry and damaged skin and one that “really worked”. Well, Chris remembered his mother had always told him about how good lanolin was for his skin. So one day he decided to give it a go and went out the back of his chemist shop to start making his first lanolin cream. It took a year of experimenting and researching before he came up with the final product - Merino skincare cream. He rang to tell his mother and yes she was very pleased!

Then with the help of his family, he started production putting the cream into handmade vats and making enough to start selling it in his pharmacy. Well it took off as his customers said it did “really work”. A bus load of tourists turned up as word had spread and they were looking for Merino skincare made from New Zealand lanolin -this was the first of many.

The business blossomed and new products were added, yet the hard won recipe remained the same.

Now over 40 years later Merino skincare has became widely known, is sold in many of the pharmacies throughout New Zealand and exported around the world. In 1990, the manufacturing base was shifted to a modern plant in Auckland New Zealand where it remains today.

Rick Hallifax | Sophie Hallifax | Alex Hallifax

 Then in 2006 Rick Hallifax and family, discovered the cream and loved it so much they bought the company. We hope you also love using Merino skincare to nourish, moisturise and repair your skin.  

As Chris said, in the end his mum always knew best!