One family. One vision. One uncompromising standard.
"The Cotter family, in the orchards Bill planted."
A legacy rooted in Northern California
Our family has farmed Northern California since the 1870s — four generations working the same soil, learning what this valley gives when you care for it honestly.That land shaped Bill Cotter, and Bill Cotter shaped what came from it.
Bill Cotter
"Bill Cotter and his wife Barbara"
In the mid-1980s, Bill and his longtime partner Gary Henderson began planting almond orchards across Yolo and Colusa counties. He chose the Nonpareil variety — the most prized almond grown in California — and he tended those trees the way he approached everything: with patience, integrity, and a standard he refused to lower for anyone.
Bill held a simple belief: what belongs on your skin should meet the same standard as what you put in your body. He saw no reason skincare should be any less pure, any less honest, than the food that comes from good land.
So he invested everything he had — the land, the process, the vision — into proving it could be done.
A vision shared between friends
Bill didn't build alone. Alongside a close circle of friends — among them Tom LeDuc, a kind-hearted visionary whose belief in the project never wavered — the idea took shape: skincare made from the family's own certified-organic Nonpareil almonds, blending nature's purest elements with honest, modern science.
They named it Nonpareil. Without equal. It was the standard Bill set, and the name made it a promise.
Bill and Tom are no longer with us. But what they built together did not end with them — because Bill made sure it couldn't.
The family carries it forward
Today, Bill's family continues to tend the orchards he planted and to uphold every standard he set. Nothing about the process has changed: we still grow Nonpareil — the variety Bill chose — on our own land , still cold-pressed at approximately 80°F to protect their natural vitamin E, still bottled with the same care Bill demanded from the very first harvest.
When you hold a bottle of Nonpareil, you hold the result of one family's complete, unbroken commitment — from the soil to your skin.
"The orchards today — Yolo County, California."
Why almond type matters
Not all almonds are created equal.
Of the many varieties grown in California, Bill chose only one: the Nonpareil. It's the most prized almond in the state — and the reason isn't sentiment. It's chemistry.
Higher oil concentration. More of what your skin actually wants from each almond.
A delicate, thin skin. Which yields a lighter, cleaner oil.
Superior vitamin E content. The antioxidant that makes this oil so nourishing — and the reason we cold-press at 80°F rather than take the faster, hotter route.
Grown in our own California orchard, Nonpareil almonds give an oil that is lighter and more readily absorbed than common almond oil — which makes it particularly kind to sensitive, hydration-hungry skin.
The right variety. The right results.
That's the Nonpareil difference.
