French Connection: nail and skin care product maker ORLY International, inventor of the original French manicure, has grown by seeking something different in a traditional industry.

The Original French Manicure, it turns out, was invented in Tarzana.

It began as a simple solution for harried Hollywood makeup artists, who, until the advent of the now ubiquitous style, a clear coat along the nail coupled with a dab of white at the tip, were spending hours continually matching nail color to the wardrobes of leading ladies of the time.

Simple, perhaps, but it has helped to take ORLY International from its humble beginnings as a beauty supply retailer to a $22 million nail care business distributed in 66 countries worldwide.

Since its origins in 1975, ORLY has expanded into a range of nail and skin-care products. And this year, as the company settles into its new, 75,000-square-foot headquarters, manufacturing and distribution facility in Van Nuys, ORLY is set to expand yet again. Its newest line, SpaRitual, moves the company into new distribution channels, upscale day spas and salons.

Jeff Pink, the company's founder, president and CEO, never imagined he would one day lead such a company. What he wanted was a neighborhood parfumerie much like those he had seen in Europe but never existed in the U.S. But while ORLY may appear to diverge from that goal, the underpinnings of his business are not so different after all.

Like the idea of the parfumerie, ORLY's growth has come from putting a new twist on an otherwise all too familiar industry.

"My belief is if you are going to have a business, it has to be unique in nature," Pink said.

Sticking it out

Interested in learning the cosmetics business, Pink hooked up with a beauty supply shop proprietor, Jack Sterling, who offered him the option of learning the business by becoming an employee or, for $2,500, opening a branch store under the proprietor's wing.

"So I decided to take a shortcut," Pink recalled.

The Tarzana shop was not what he expected and Pink almost bagged it. But Sterling convinced him to give the venture more time.

Little by little, as he called on beauty salons and began talking to manicurists, Pink began to change his mind. There were just two companies distributing to the professional nail care market at the time, Revlon and L'Oreal, and the products available were limited.

"I decided there's a window of opportunity here," Pink recalled.

Salon manicurists of the time had only two options, paint a customer's natural nails or provide artificial nails. And Pink realized that if he could provide products that would enhance and improve the appearance of natural nails he could develop a niche.

"I saw there was a gap between what they needed and what existed," Pink recalled. "I liked the idea of (being asked) maybe you can make it for me."

His first effort was a nail strengthener called Romeo, a product that had not existed previously, followed by Ridgefiller, a mixture to smooth out uneven ridges along the nail that Pink concocted using a top coat mixed with baby talc.

Then came the Original French Manicure. After selling it exclusively to studio makeup artists, Pink decided to package the pair of bottles in a pouch, calling it Natural Nail Look and market it to consumers. But his idea didn't catch on at first.

Then he took it to the fashion shows in Paris and used it on runway models.

"We used it at the fashion shows," Pink recalled. "In France, no one ever heard of it, but in the U.S., everyone thought it came from France."

By the late 1970s, stars like Barbra Streisand began appearing with their new nail look and the style became a nationwide hit.

The ORLY line grew to include 105 permanent and another 50 or so seasonal and fashion nail lacquer colors along with an extensive line of care products including basecoats and primers, topcoats, lotions for hands and feet and spa kits for home manicures and pedicures.

In 1986, it began distributing internationally and now counts Japan, Russia and the U.K. among its largest customers after the U.S.

Then in 2002, ORLY introduced yet another simple twist.

"I was sitting in my showroom in Chatsworth and I thought, no one looks at the packaging of nail polish," Pink recalled. "Since 1932, the packaging was always glass with a hard plastic cap."

Aware that it was always a struggle to get the plastic caps open, Pink began working on a solution, a patented Gripper Cap, made of rubber introduced in 2002.

The latest introduction, SpaRitual, a line that touts itself as eco-friendly with products that are vegan and free of the chemicals used in other nail care products, is designed to move the company into upper end salons.

"ORLY is currently the larger portion, but SpaRitual will be much bigger," said Pink. "Nail salons are more diversified. Now, everyone is becoming a day spa. The industry is changing to where they can do everything."

Spotlight

ORLY International Inc.

Year Founded: 1975
Core Business: Cosmetics manufacturer
Employees in 2000: 62
Employees in 2006: 85
Revenues in 2000: $13 million
Revenues in 2006: $22 million
Driving Force: The transformation of the beauty care
business into fully-diversified salons.