30-year-old Harri Magaldi started My Neighbor’s Tallow in May of 2024. When her daughter presented symptoms of eczema, Harri wanted to find a way to treat it without using steroid creams. Instead, in the fall of 2023, she began experimenting in the kitchen to create an all-natural balm to help soothe her daughter’s skin. She works closely with Kinderhook Farms, a regenerative farm in Valatie, NY, Woven Stars Farm in Ghent, NY, and Grimaldi’s Farm in Ghent, NY, to source of her tallow. Tallow is a rendered form of beef fat high in vitamins A, D, E, K, as well as in many fatty acids and Omega 3s.
“I decided to call it My Neighbor’s Tallow because, after making it for my daughter, I began sharing it with my neighbor who had just recently had an emergency operation and was trying to heal her scar. The name came pretty organically that way,” Harri said.
The baby behind the balm
Surprisingly, Harri’s background is not in skincare or esthetics at all. She got her degree in psychology and statistics in the UK and started her career working on Wall Street at Morgan Stanley, where she worked in sales and trading for nine years. She anticipated being a working mom, but after she had her daughter, Wilhelmina, she felt more pulled to stay at home with her.
“It just kind of naturally fell into fruition,” she said. “So, now I’m a stay-at-home mom and a small business owner.”
Being her own boss has also allowed her the flexibility to spend more time with her daughter during the crucial stages of early development and do something she’s passionate about in tandem. “Becoming her mum has been a really big part of this project. She’s the reason why I started it.”
It makes sense then that, other than her daughter, a group that was perhaps most influential in helping Harri develop her business are the mothers in her local community.
“When I moved up here full-time with our new baby, I didn’t have a lot of fellow mother friends with young children. I started going to the library and made friends there, and the support was just unmatched. They kept telling me, ‘You should make this your business,’ and ‘Why are you giving this away for free? This is the only thing that is helping my baby’s eczema.’”
Simple, sustainable skincare
Right now, My Neighbor’s Tallow sources its tallow from Kinderhook Farms. “I know them and they take such good care of their animals,” she said. “At some point, I’ll have to source from another farm as I expand, but for now, I get all of my tallow from them. I trust them wholeheartedly.”
The first month of running her business went well, and Harri utilized wholesale as a means to advertise. Now, My Neighbor’s Tallow products can be found in 15 shops in the Hudson area, including the Kinderhook Farm Store, Churchtown Dairy, the Hawthorne Valley Farm Store, and Kitty’s Market. She has just secured some partners in Connecticut and New Jersey as well a few overseas, too.
Harri typically makes bulk inventory two to three times per month so that she has products in storage. The shelf life for her products is 12 months, but she doesn’t like them to sit too long before they make it to the consumer.
She also tries to keep the number of ingredients in her products as low as possible. “I don’t like that many skincare products have so many additives. I have a maximum of five ingredients in each product,” she explained. “I want to be as transparent as possible, and I want my products to be safe for you and your little one.”
When she first started My Neighbor’s Tallow, her plan was to keep the business small and local. However, things have shifted as she’s seen increased interest in her products from people who are not local to the Hudson area. Now, she’s selling across the United States and even abroad as far as Dubai, teaching her new lessons in managing scalability and feasibility of production.
“I started off trying to make too many products at once, but maybe that was a good thing because it allowed me to sample products and learn what consumers want. I was able to discontinue a few items that weren’t selling and I built my inventory for the other, more popular products.”
Harri takes requests from community members and is constantly searching for feedback on how to improve her products. Her pop-up spots at the Hudson Farmers Market have been vital for talking to locals and tourists alike and finding out what they want in their skincare products.
“I love talking to community members about their preferences on sizing, whether they prefer a jar or a different container, what they want from their everyday skincare, and other questions like that,” she explained.
Harri encountered a hiccup when she was deciding on how to ship products. She wanted to be as eco-friendly as possible, so she opted for recycled crinkle paper for the packing boxes. Unfortunately, a couple of products got damaged or smashed by the time they made it to the consumer, and Harri quickly realized she was going to have to pivot. She worked out a new eco-friendly recycled paper bubble wrap fix for all her shipping orders. She also worked closely with Pro Printers in Hudson to make her labeling; she uses eco-friendly linen-based paper for all her labels now.
Lessons, big and small
For Harri, the most challenging part of starting My Neighbor’s Tallow was actually having the courage to do it. “It’s daunting to start something and put it out there for everyone to see. Not everyone is super encouraging of women trying to do it all, but I’ve found that once you believe in yourself, people are encouraging of you.”
Because it’s so different from what she did for work for so many years, Harri was especially cautious and concerned that her skills might not transfer to this endeavor. “I kept thinking that just because I was good at my previous job in finance didn’t mean that I was going to be good at running a business.”
The transition was a big learning curve for her, and she readily admits that she’s still actively learning every day. She’s constantly in conversation with other business owners about ways in which she can improve her business practices, marketing tactics, and more.
Another learning curve has been her work-life balance. When you’re an entrepreneur and you are both the boss and the employee, it can be hard to separate your personal life from your time at work.
Harri has found that the best way to maintain a balance has been to be as transparent as possible. Before going on a recent vacation, she emailed all of the customers who had outstanding orders, letting them know that there would be a delay in delivery and that she would include a free gift in each order to make up for the potential inconvenience.
“I also stay real on Instagram. I’m doing this while my daughter is napping or asleep, or I’m making balms while she’s crawling around on the floor and having breakfast,” she explained. “It’s all about being transparent. I’m a mom who’s struggling to get things done, and if something is a day late, I hope that my customers know that it’s packed with love, and normally there’s a free goodie inside, too!”
One thing Harri wishes she knew more about before she started My Neighbor’s Tallow is marketing. “I wish I had more experience pitching myself to buyers, but it’s all a learning curve, and I do think my sales experience on Wall Street has been helpful with business meetings and face-to-face sales at markets. It’s nice to learn again and feel invigorated by the work you do,” she said. “I love being a vendor. Being able to speak and interact with my local community feels really good and makes me feel more complete as a person. It’s so nice to receive feedback from clients about changing their skin for the better instead of just making a bank money when things go wrong in the world.” •
To learn more about My Neighbor’s Tallow, visit its website, myneighborstallow.com, or keep up on Instagram: @myneighborstallow. Use the discount code “MainStreetMag20” for 20% off of your first order!
