Editor’s note: Made in Tarrant is an occasional Q&A series on small businesses started in Tarrant County. Submit your business here.
What: Fort Worth-based Sun Coast has unveiled Sun Coast Salt Scrub, a new loose salt scrub skin exfoliant formulated to help brighten and promote more supple skin, boost hydration, and minimize fine lines and wrinkles.
Sun Coast comes in five scents inspired by the world’s coastlines, including:
- Bali Breeze – lemongrass and bergamot citrus
- Malabar Drift – sandalwood, juniper berry, frankincense, lavender, and cypress
- Moroccan Nights – grapefruit, frankincense, and lemon
- Santorini Spring – lavender and wild mint
- Wailea Wild – bergamot citrus, rose, sandalwood, and jasmine
Where: Sold in a 22 oz. jar with a suggested retail price of $48, Sun Coast Salt Scrub is available for purchase online at www.GetSunCoast.com, on Amazon, on Dillards.com, at Dillard’s locations across the southern U.S., at Belk stores starting in September, and at hotel spas across the U.S.
Business editor Bob Francis spoke to Hollie Palmer, Sun Coast CEO/president and mom to two young daughters and a son.
What inspired you to start Sun Coast?
Palmer: I couldn’t find a scrub product on the market that checked all the boxes, so I created my own. Our Sun Coast Salt Scrubs are a fresh, but purist, take on the growing category.
So how did you start the company?
Palmer: I owned a company called New Resurgence. I bought Sun Coast from someone else. I rebranded it and reformulated it. There were just a bunch of things that I wanted to change about it. So I bought it two years ago. And started reformulating and rebranding it, and then launched it in June this year.
What were your biggest challenges?
Palmer: The whole thing is I want something that is non-oily, greasy, doesn’t leave residue on your skin or in your tub. Also, just making sure everything is clean ingredients and sustainable packaging and all that. That’s probably the biggest challenge. It’s just making a good product without any chemicals.
That was probably the biggest challenge. And then building a team that can help you, that you trust people and helping me just along the way has been really important, too. Hiring a consultant has been really helpful, and a marketing firm so that we cover everything to get the brand known.
Who did the product design?
Palmer: We worked with PAVLOV on the design.
How did you get the product into the retail market?
Palmer: All the department stores, right now, are realizing that beauty is going into the clean market industry. So Belk and Dillard’s, they’re building out clean bath and body and beauty stores within their stores. So they’re looking for new brands to put in there, what they call clean beauty shops.
They’re starting in 20 of their stores with their clean body shops, and then they’re going to 60 and then 80. So they’re out looking for brands. That’s kind of why I think I’m able to get in, because I match what they’re looking for. Just a new kind of inventive product that’s clean then that they can put in their clean body shop.
Do you have some advice you give to other entrepreneurs?
Palmer: Part of it is getting people to help you so you’re not taking on everything yourself and trying to wear all the hats, which I was trying to do in the beginning. You get overwhelmed. So just building a small team that can help you and support you has been the biggest help for me. But also just having a lot of trust in my gut and not listening to too much outside chatter. I think as an entrepreneur, you are a little nervous, and that’s okay to feel a little scared or afraid, but I’ve been just going with what I feel and it’s working. But I also am not trying to wear all the hats.
Do you have a small business in Fort Worth? Submit your information here.Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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