How Kester Black won new customers by saving 100,000 damaged nail polish bottles

The founder of ethically produced cosmetic brand Kester Black has shared how her team rescued more than 100,000 units of nail polish from waste in the wake of a devastating flood.

Anna Ross used this experience to help other brands hit by disasters find creative solutions, while also advising them to make sure they read the fine print of their insurance policies.

The New Zealand-born entrepreneur came to Melbourne in 2009 and launched Kester Black’s first six nail polish colours in 2012, and later registered the business in 2014.

In the last week of January 2023, Auckland experienced heavy rains that resulted in the flooding of the warehouse that stored the company’s stock. 

With more than 100,000 units of stock stored in the facility, the package alone was worth $70,000. This was the biggest-ever order of stock for the business.

The damaged Kester Black stock in the warehouse. Source: Supplied

Speaking to SmartCompany, Ross says the business was insured by the warehouse’s own insurance company. However, the insurance company would not pay out as it deemed the warehouse to not have been negligent in the handling of Kester Black’s stock. 

The business was left with huge amounts of nail polish that was extensively damaged by the flood – and no insurance support.

The salvaging process of the units included unpacking, throwing away black moulded cardboard, and scraping packages stuck to the nail polishes. 

As it sounds, the process was extremely tedious and expensive. The nail polish company had to make sure that the products were safe for consumers.

“We made a big loss on the nail polishes,” said Ross.

“The process of actually handling each one would have cost more than the cost [of the product].”

The other option for Kester Black aside from saving the nail polish was to throw the nail polish into waste, however, Ross didn’t believe that was an option for the eco-friendly brand.

“Kester Black was built on sustainable values,” she said.

Due to the mould, the team had to fill 1100 litres of cardboard into wheelie bins for disposal, as they could not be recycled.

“That was devastating and having to throw out nail polish, which was a plastic film, into the landfill, I just couldn’t do it,” Ross said.

What happened next

Instead, Kester Black turned to its community and launched its ‘Perfectly Imperfect’ sale in December, offering the products at heavily discounted prices. 

Not believing that customers would actually want to buy the nail polishes that had been in flood waters, Ross was surprised at the response she received. 

Once the sale went out on Boxing Day, the salvaged nail polish was gone within two weeks, breaking records of the most purchases for the company.

A damaged batch of Kester Black nail polish bottles. Source: Supplied

“We’ve got a lot of customers who want to buy the brand, but can’t afford it because $28 for a nail polish is really expensive. And so dropping them down to $10 allowed a whole lot of first-time customers to experience the brand as well,” she said.

After the flooding, Ross could not get insurance in the Auckland warehouse that had stocked the cosmetics and has now decided to move all Kester Black stock to a different location in Christchurch.

“People have blind faith in insurance,” she said.

Lessons learned

One of the lessons that Kester Black would advise other businesses to do is to communicate with customers and keep them in the loop with what is going on and how this may affect their experience with the company. 

“It also sort of just helps manage expectations,” said Ross.

“If this was just a sale of good stock, and we had taken this long to fulfil the orders, then it would have been cancelled and everybody would hate us,” she said.

“The other thing that I’ve learned is never to rely on somebody else’s insurance”

“It was a really big, big loss and affected us for the rest of the year. Basically, we’ve just tried to claw our way back from it all year,” she said. 

Ross is advocating for businesses in Australia to learn from Kester Black and protect their goods during disasters whilst also investigating insurance companies.

“When we shared our story, lots of people from Queensland got in touch with us and said, ‘My uncle lost everything’,” she said.

“They actually took all of the insurance companies to the ombudsman. And they all paid out.”

One takeback for the brand has been the loyal customer base and the incredible support Ross says she received throughout the process.

“Our customers are the best people ever,” Ross said.

“I’m so glad that we built the company around ethical sustainable values because it means that we attract the right customers.”