Group therapy... for the girls

Online shopping might be convenient, but it's no substitute for a night on the town in the comfort of your own home, finds Julie Jacobson.

My hairdresser's got a hangover.
She hosted a Tupperware party last night. There were cocktails - too many - and the last guest left around midnight. She woke up this morning feeling a little seedy, but with a bucketload of brand new plastic containers.
The party, as they say, went off.
Tupperware, invented by an American in the 1940s, was introduced to Australia 50 years ago this month. New Zealand's first Tupperware party was held 22 years later, in 1973.
The popularity of the plastic kitchenware has waxed and waned since then. The selling concept - take the product to the people - is, however, more fashionable than ever, although where it used to be the Rawleigh's man with his balms or the encyclopedia salesman with his glib patter knocking at your door, these days it's far less domestic.
Can't be bothered traipsing around the clothing stores for that new winter outfit? Don't want to spend precious time in a waiting room while the dental hygienist scrapes plaque off someone else's gnashers? Need a pedicure? Looking for a new, er, sex toy? Lawyer? Frypan?
Then pick up the phone. There's a mobile service for just about anything these days, and chances are one of them will be coming to a living room near you soon.
Lillybeth Melmoth's first foray into party planning was as a brand ambassador pushing a well-known range of beauty products. Three years ago, after training as a makeup artist, she launched A Beautiful Education, a mobile cosmetics consultancy.
Gather six of your mates, upend your makeup stash - the kitchen table is as good as anywhere - and Melmoth will have you reciting the lexicon of cosmeticary in the blink of a well-defined eye.
The three-hour "small group" workshops cover everything from colour therapy, classic makeup techniques and dash-out-the-door tricks to customised skincare advice and personalised beauty reports. It's a whole lot more serious than the stylist's Tupperware gig.
Melmoth discourages partying, "mainly because food and drink tend not to mix with powders, face creams, eyeshadow ... to be honest there's not usually a lot of room on the table for anything else anyway. And most of the women will usually have had a glass or two of wine before we start."
One-on-ones, or private consultations, cover similar topics but can be tailored to individual needs.
Melmoth says most women choose to have her visit their homes, but she has "done" brides in their hotel and motel rooms, made up female bodybuilders at competition venues and groomed office workers at their desks before an evening work function.
Occasionally she teams up with a hairdresser friend who has a home-based salon for clients "who just want to get out of the house".
"Most people find the mobile service a lot more personal," Melmoth says. "They use it as an opportunity to try anything and everything, which you don't do when you're at a beauty counter in a department store with people walking past. You can retain a bit more dignity doing it at home."
The workshops are popular with working women and as a more sedate alternative to the traditional, rowdy hen's party, though you can bet the Cheryl West lookalikes Melmoth found herself making up before an Outrageous Fortune party wouldn't have been too well behaved.
"I've had some teenage girls who have done a workshop for a birthday party," she says. "But generally it's women in their 40s to 60s who either tend not to wear makeup because they're not sure of what to use, or who do but aren't happy with how it looks. It's a bit of upskilling, really."
British chef Jamie Oliver launched his Jamie at Home direct-selling scheme in 2009. It now has more than 4000 consultants working the party-plan circuit. A unique selling point is Oliver's appearance, albeit through technology, at the host's house - "Jamie will pop in via DVD to demonstrate a gorgeous recipe to you and your friends", pronounces a recruitment page on his website.
For Steph McEwen, it's not so much a case of just popping in, but of overseas buying trips, trend-spotting and packing and unpacking the car. Her Indulge boutiques run along similar lines to the Minneapolis business of the same name, opened by two friends four years ago to cater for at-home mums - guests "shop" at a store set up in the host's lounge. Stock includes an ever-changing selection of giftware, clothing, accessories, jewellery and art.
McEwen, who has just returned from a whirlwind 10-day buying spree in Bangkok, says it's a panacea to the solitary world of online shopping: "It's about getting women together so they can have a night out, plus I had done some Tupperware [selling] and could see the party-plan concept worked - women just love getting out and buying things that way."
She also has two young children which, as any parent knows, is not conducive to leisurely shopping.
"I started Indulge in June last year when my kids were at that age where I could never get in to the shops or never had enough time to look for decent presents or something nice for myself ... so really the idea came about from a mix of those things combined with the ease of being able to shop in the evenings when you've got a glass of wine in your hand."
The former teacher transports stock to the host's house in the back of the family car. She spends an hour setting up and gives customers as long as they need to shop. There's no waiting for orders - purchasing is on the spot - there's no disinterested staff to muddy the experience and usually there's no more than three of any one item.
Says McEwen: "Most of the hosts are women who like entertaining. Some women are real party-goers, some are real party-havers, and it's generally the havers who will host a boutique."
Her clients range from stay-at-home mothers to working women, people looking to do a year's worth of present-buying in one hit, to others just wanting a one-off gift for themselves. "It's a real mixture really ... and I've met some neat people. I've definitely made some friends - there's been quite a few times where I've been packing up and thought I would have liked to have stayed and had a drink."
The Direct Selling Association - an organisation set up to develop and maintain standards within the industry - says a resurgence in party-plan selling in New Zealand over the last few years reflects a global trend, with personal-care products (including cosmetics) the biggest sellers, followed by nutritional products, clothing and jewellery. Women make up 95 per cent of the workforce.
Bucking convention is Ingo Haan, a German-born, Tauranga-based dental technician. During the day, Haan makes specialised implants, crowns and bridges. After hours he's "Mr Sparklewhite, the mobile teeth-whitening man".
His signwritten car is, appropriately, very clean and very white. Haan's been doing in-home whitening, using an LED/gel combination, for 15 months. He was inundated with calls following a recent coupon offer, picking up almost 100 new customers.
"Because I have a day job, I do it after work and at weekends, which also suits my clients," Haan says. "A lot of them work full-time, so they find it a lot more convenient. Plus, some people don't want to go into a dental practice just to have their teeth whitened, and it's a lot more comfortable in your own home."
The process takes between 30 minutes and an hour, depending on the treatment.
And yes, he does do teeth-whitening parties. "If you get a group of five or six people together, I'll even bring free champagne and white chocolate ..."
Now that's service.