Posted 09.01.2009

Colorado cool stuff: Belletare Skincare

BELLETARÉ SKINCARE
A self-described “recovering lawyer,” Kim Nolan has a passion for skin care. “I started in 2004, mostly for friends, family and myself, in my kitchen actually,” she says. From there, she found a contract manufacturer for her all-natural, mostly organic recipes, which include such exotic ingredients as acai pulp oil, pomegranate seed oil and olive butter.
The line includes three products — Crescendo Bath and Shower Gel, Intermezzo Body Polish and Brava Body Lotion — available in three different essential oil blends. Filling a premium niche combining “purity and performance,” Belletaré “means ‘to beautify’ in 16th-century Italian,” Nolan says. “Our big deal is creating an escape and an experience for our customers.” $18 to $45 retail.
Made by Belletaré LLC, Denver, www.belletare.com.

 

NATIVE EYEWEAR
After relocating from Pennsylvania to LoDo last year, Native Eyewear nearly doubled the size of its catalog in 2009, adding seven new styles of high-performance sunglasses with interchangeable lenses. The 10-year-old company also makes two lines of ski goggles.
“We moved to Colorado last November for branding and strategic reasons,” says Jacqueline Mariash, the company’s marketing director. “It’s the epicenter of mountain sports.” Native’s sunglasses feature “amazing grip, self-adjusting nose pads and a venting system to not fog up,” she says.
Mariash, herself a world-class duathlete and triathlete, wears Native’s Dash XP while she races. $89 to $149 retail.
Made by Native Eyewear Inc., Denver, (888) 776-2848, www.nativeyewear.com. Also available at REI and Christy Sports locations in Colorado.

SWING WIZZARD
Keith Rogers was bent on improving his golf game in winter 2008 when “an epiphany” struck. “I grabbed a couple of clubs and some duct tape from the garage,” says Rogers, “and made the first prototype.”
By summer 2009, Rogers and neighbor/golfing buddy/business partner Jim Peaslee had refined the prototype and sold their first Swing Wizzard. Featuring club heads on either end of the shaft, the patent-pending Wizzard helps users zone in on their own specific swing planes. “It’s not designed to strike balls,” says Rogers. “It’s designed for you to work on your fundamentals.”
The average user can cut six to eight strokes from their score by practicing with the Wizzard, Rogers says. $149.99 retail.
Made by Wizzard Golf LLC, Littleton, (303) 880-2222, www.wizzardgolf.com. Also available through numerous teaching pros throughout Colorado.

BOWLING-ALLEY-WOOD TABLES
Denver native Christy Vranesic Brant opened Lulu’s Furniture & Decor in southeast Denver in 2007, selling all sorts of funky and stylish furnishings and housewares in the University Hills neighborhood.
She recently began collaborating with local flooring wiz Frank Chik and table maker Jarred Roy of Denver-based City Lights Construction on tables made from wood reclaimed from bowling lanes. Chik sourced the first batch of lane wood from the Denver Athletic Club, then connected with more from a bowling alley in Trinidad. Roy added stylish yet heavy-duty legs to support the stylish yet heavy-duty final products. “If you can throw bowling balls on it, you can do anything to it,” Brant says. $1,000 and up retail.
Made by Christy Vranesic Brant, Frank Chik and Jarred Roy. Available at Lulu’s Furniture & Decor, 2553 S. Colorado Blvd., University Hills West Plaza, Denver, (303) 756-2222, www.lulusfurniture.com.