About Us

Our Story

It all began in 1949 in a pharmacy in Melrose, New Mexico, where a pharmacist successfully developed a skin care cream for his customers who couldn’t find a treatment for various skin conditions. Vernon Furlow, who was a traveling salesman and sold products to the pharmacy, purchased the formula  from the pharmacist and took it back home to Amarillo, Texas where he and his wife, Charline, began mixing the cream formula in a little white dishpan with a wooden spoon. Through a succession of cosmetic chemists and clinical tests, the cream was stabilized and perfected to the current cream and the name appropriately changed to Melrose Hand and Skin Cream. The original ingredients have remained the same for 70 years. It was originally sold in various grocery and drug stores throughout the US and through its mail order business with customers as distant as the UK and Russia.
“Mel” happens to be the pharmaceutical term for honey, not an ingredient, but the connection, we think, is right for the pleasant sensation that it is. As for the “rose,” we aren’t adding flowers in the cream either, but once upon a time, the rose was the symbol for the secret and the intimate. You will discover that this, too, is beautifully appropriate. Melrose, the trademark and style, is sold with much love, and for much less.
Upon the death of Vernon Furlow in 1999, Vernon Furlow Co, Inc, passed to his son, Vernon Furlow Jr, who transferred it to Houston, Texas where it is made today and sold online only. The original ingredients remain the same with only minor tweaking using modern equipment for a smoother, silkier cream. It still contains natural glycerin, the active ingredient.

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Late Founder

Vernon Furlow, Sr. of Amarillo, Texas 

Made & Distributed in Houston, Texas