Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Something was wrong with Ellie Hock’s mother, Sarah. Her memory didn’t seem to be working right, and she was having trouble writing and speaking. She planned to go to the doctor soon, but on July 4, 2010, she just wanted to celebrate. So her husband took her to get her usual mani-pedi. Later that day, her condition worsened, and she ended up in the hospital, where she was diagnosed with brain cancer.
Despite the aggressive cancer, Hock and her mother continued to indulge in manicures and pedicures together, helping her mother relax and retain a sense of femininity. This past fall, a year after her mother passed away, Hock started her own nail-polish company, Urban Nectar, to honor her mother’s memory.
Hock’s Nail Nectar comes in four lines of colors—Bee Hopeful, City Bee, Country Bee, and Forager Bee—inspired by the other hobby Hock has taken up since her mother died: beekeeping. “My mother’s maiden name was Sarah Ferguson,” says Hock, “and the family crest features a honeybee on a thistle flower.”
Soon after her mother passed, Hock started attending beekeeping meetings with the Eastern Missouri Beekeeping Association. Her mother didn’t keep bees, but she’d loved gardening. “We lived next to a farm growing up,” says Hock. “I was always outside in the field, running around barefoot.”
Last spring, she started her first beehives. While working with them, she discovered the colors that would inspire her nail-polish line. “If you’ve ever seen a frame of honey and you hold it up to the light, it’s just gorgeous,” she says.
Her nail polish doesn’t have the harsh chemicals, like formaldehyde, toluene, and camphor, found in many other polishes, and 25 cents from each bottle goes to the Cancer Support Community of Greater St. Louis, which assisted her mom during treatment. Currently, Philip Johnson Salon/Spa (4581 Laclede, 314-361-8003) and Sweet Boutique (8115A Maryland, 314-932-1222) carry the polish. Hock hopes her polish line will improve beekeeping’s image.
“I wanted to give it a feel of ‘Beekeeping can be cool,’” says Hock. “It doesn’t have to be something weird.”
