16-year-old student entrepreneur Maggie Drover has founded a vegan-friendly product line of nail polishes, Newfoundlacquer
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Originally from Hodge’s Cove, a teenager currently residing in Paradise is putting her mark on the cosmetics industry by creating a vegan-friendly nail polish line, Newfoundlacquer.
Maggie Drover, a 16 year old entrepreneur and student at Holy Spirit High, has been hard at work with a little help from her family. She has successfully created a line of vegan-friendly nail polish, which is also 10-free, meaning it doesn’t contain the ten most common and harmful toxins found in drug store nail polishes.
Vegan-Friendly & 10-Free
“It’s better for health reasons,” Drover shared in an interview with The Newfoundland Herald. “It’s healthier for your nails, and animal products is actually one of the 10. I wanted to have a healthier alternative than regular nail polish because regular nail polish is filled with toxins that can get in through your nails and it messes with your hormones and that kind of stuff. A lot of people just don’t think about it you know, it’s just nail polish.”
The process involved months of research and experimenting by mixing through trial and error. However, the line of nail polish is officially up and running, with the first collection containing 45 colours, which are available for sale through her business.
“It’s been a concept since January 2017, so I just got the idea then I did some research into suppliers, and then I got my first order come in the middle of March, so I had a little order which I worked on. Then I made some bigger orders in the summer, got some stuff, did some more experimenting, booked a couple events, and here I am today. Less than a year,” she shared proudly. 
Why Vegan-Friendly?
You’d be surprised to learn that the majority of products, whether it be cosmetics, clothing or cleaning products, actually contain a high amount of animal by-products.
Maybe you’re not vegan, or even vegetarian, but it’s definitely unnecessary to consume and support the use of animal products, or testing on animals, in products that we purchase.
“I’m not vegan, I use to be, not anymore for medical reasons,” Drover explained. “I do think that it’s a great practice to have with cosmetics, like nail polish, to not use animal products because it’s just unnecessary to have them in cosmetics when there’s so many options that don’t use animal products.”
With “vegan-friendly” becoming more popular, as people become more and more aware of animal-cruelty, it’s a perfect business plan with nothing but benefits for Maggie herself, and the consumers.
“I’m not a big make up person,” Drover shared, “but I do enjoy painting my nails from time to time, so I figured it would be better to have a product that I can use, and not many people in Newfoundland make vegan-friendly nail polish.”
It’s obvious that taking the route of vegan-friendly and 10-free nail polish was a fantastic business plan for Maggie Drover – being only 15 when she began the business journey and using it as an alternative to finding a part-time job – but what are her future plans for Newfoundlacquer?
“I think I’d like to keep it at nail polish for a while, again just to keep that originality. The goal is to have a new set of colours every season, like a winter collection, a spring collection, that kind of stuff,” she explained.
“It would be best to retail in shops and salons as opposed to going to events all the time, with the exception of a couple big events around the holiday seasons or in the summer or something. It would be ideal to retail in like high tourist areas, especially with the Newfoundland branding. I think I’d rather be in like locally owned salons and shops, as opposed to chain shops. Local supporting local.”
For more info on Newfoundlacquer, visit www.facebook.com/Newfoundlacquer