East Belfast distributor Talza has just announced its partnership with one of Europe's most exciting beauty brands.

NUXE, the Parisian cult brand that evolved from a small aromatherapy and phytotherapy lab into an international skincare company, with 88m euro annual sales in 45 countries, will debut in pharmacies across Northern Ireland this year thanks to the new partnership with Talza.

NUXE's dynamic Chairman and Founder Aliza Jabes (pictured above) visited Belfast last month to launch the brand at a reception at the Ormeau Baths Gallery. The Paris based working mother in her 40s combines cosmopolitan glamour with an entrepreneurial zeal that saw her take over a small aromatherapy lab and start her own beauty brand at just 26.

NUXE benefits from a following of A-list celebrity devotees which includes Uma Thurman, Anne Hathaway,  Charlize Theron, Heidi Klum, Courtney Cox Arquette, Penelope Cruz and Sarah Jessica Parker - just a few of  the independent trend-makers who have claimed  NUXE products as part of their grooming repertoire. The celebrity association has helped build the brand presence in key markets of Europe and Asia.

Mrs Jabes designed many of the NUXE products to meet the everyday skincare needs of modern, busy working women like herself, and has concentrated on making NUXE available to consumers primarily through pharmacy retail channels, a pioneering move that has paid dividends – NUXE is now market leader in its native France.

With the women's skincare market proving to be reasonably recession-resistant, NUXE's arrival in Northern Ireland coincides with a growing appetite amongst the mainly female target audience for natural, organic products.

Lynne Hanna, Talza's General Manager, reports a very positive response in the first dozen pharmacies to stock the brand.  "NUXE's credentials - 80% natural origin and both paraben and phenoxyethanol free – are exactly in line with what women want. They are pure enough to be used on new born babies right up to octogenarians."

Key Nuxe figures
Developed Turnover  2008      (% vs 2007)
• Global Turnover: 83 millions €, +26%
 France Turnover: 54 millions €, + 18%
 International Turnover: 29.3 millions €, +54%
• Nuxe is distributed in 45 countries
• It is distributed through: 4,420 pharmacies and parapharmacies in its native France
• and  5.500 (94% in pharmacy/parapharmacies) outside France