Christine Esposito, Associate Editor10.30.17
Leah Robert and Sarah Kelly are sisters who are linked by more than blood these days. The pair runs a boutique that sells natural personal care products and they are creators of a new organic, sustainable made-in-the-USA beauty line called SaltyGirl Beauty.
Each product, according to the founders, is named after women who demonstrate strength, sass and beauty—the pillars of what makes a “SaltyGirl.”
Maine residents Robert and Kelly know strength; Robert is an oncology nurse and Kelly is a breast cancer survivor (diagnosed with Stage 3 while she was 32 weeks pregnant).
It was Kelly’s journey through her illness that spurred the color line’s development. Having lost her hair during cancer treatment, it was a great lipstick and a scarf that helped her “reclaim” her confidence.
Yet Kelly wasn’t confident in the ingredients in that lip color. She was already using natural products for just about every other personal care need but the lone holdout appeared to cosmetics, according to Kelly, who started her career 15 years ago with Tom’s of Maine.
So the sisters set out to find a contract manufacturer that could build a formulation that would mirror their desire for a “safer” product.
“We started at different private label companies…starting with different ingredients that we wanted and what we didn’t want included,” Roberts said. But when the women took a deeper dive into potential partners, they realized that there was plenty of greenwashing going on in the marketplace.
They eventually found the right contract manufacturer to create a lipstick, the key beauty product that buoyed Kelly’s confidence during hercancer treatment. A successful campaign on Kickstarter raised $11,000 which allowed the duo to bring a more robust line to market including concealer ($24), foundation ($42) and a multistick ($25), a tint that can be used on lips or cheeks to create a sheer, natural-looking flush.
“Basic products that people use, day to day, to enhance their natural beauty,” is how Kelly described SaltyGirl’s range.
The SaltyGirl Boutique in Biddeford, ME is the sole brick and mortar location for their new line, but when Happi spoke with the sisters in March, they had just returned from an East Coast swing to find additional retail boutiques. For now, SaltyGirl Beauty products sit on shelves inside their storefront alongside other indie brands that the sisters admire—think Indie Lee, Antonym, Priti NYC and Soapwalla.
In fact, the pair pointed to personal relationships they have with the founders of those lines as instrumental in their quest to create their own beauty brand.
The power of a supportive community is also part of Robert and Kelly’s business model. Ten percent of all SaltyGirl proceeds support the Foundation4Love, a nonprofit they were inspired to create during Kelly’s cancer treatment.
This Fall, SaltyGirl Beauty will be busy at events that have a direct connection to the causes they care about. Kelly told Happi that the brand will be a vendor at the Young and Strong Conference on Oct. 13 at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and will host a Lipstick Beauty Bar at the Young and Strong Gala on Oct. 20. In addition, she will be a speaker at the Well Summit Conference which will take place Nov. 3-4 in New York City.
For the sisters, their foray into the competitive beauty world is designed to make women feel strong.
“Salty is an attitude for us—being confident…being bad-ass,” said Roberts. “That is how we want people to feel.”
Each product, according to the founders, is named after women who demonstrate strength, sass and beauty—the pillars of what makes a “SaltyGirl.”
Maine residents Robert and Kelly know strength; Robert is an oncology nurse and Kelly is a breast cancer survivor (diagnosed with Stage 3 while she was 32 weeks pregnant).
It was Kelly’s journey through her illness that spurred the color line’s development. Having lost her hair during cancer treatment, it was a great lipstick and a scarf that helped her “reclaim” her confidence.
Yet Kelly wasn’t confident in the ingredients in that lip color. She was already using natural products for just about every other personal care need but the lone holdout appeared to cosmetics, according to Kelly, who started her career 15 years ago with Tom’s of Maine.
So the sisters set out to find a contract manufacturer that could build a formulation that would mirror their desire for a “safer” product.
“We started at different private label companies…starting with different ingredients that we wanted and what we didn’t want included,” Roberts said. But when the women took a deeper dive into potential partners, they realized that there was plenty of greenwashing going on in the marketplace.
They eventually found the right contract manufacturer to create a lipstick, the key beauty product that buoyed Kelly’s confidence during hercancer treatment. A successful campaign on Kickstarter raised $11,000 which allowed the duo to bring a more robust line to market including concealer ($24), foundation ($42) and a multistick ($25), a tint that can be used on lips or cheeks to create a sheer, natural-looking flush.
“Basic products that people use, day to day, to enhance their natural beauty,” is how Kelly described SaltyGirl’s range.
The SaltyGirl Boutique in Biddeford, ME is the sole brick and mortar location for their new line, but when Happi spoke with the sisters in March, they had just returned from an East Coast swing to find additional retail boutiques. For now, SaltyGirl Beauty products sit on shelves inside their storefront alongside other indie brands that the sisters admire—think Indie Lee, Antonym, Priti NYC and Soapwalla.
In fact, the pair pointed to personal relationships they have with the founders of those lines as instrumental in their quest to create their own beauty brand.
The power of a supportive community is also part of Robert and Kelly’s business model. Ten percent of all SaltyGirl proceeds support the Foundation4Love, a nonprofit they were inspired to create during Kelly’s cancer treatment.
This Fall, SaltyGirl Beauty will be busy at events that have a direct connection to the causes they care about. Kelly told Happi that the brand will be a vendor at the Young and Strong Conference on Oct. 13 at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and will host a Lipstick Beauty Bar at the Young and Strong Gala on Oct. 20. In addition, she will be a speaker at the Well Summit Conference which will take place Nov. 3-4 in New York City.
For the sisters, their foray into the competitive beauty world is designed to make women feel strong.
“Salty is an attitude for us—being confident…being bad-ass,” said Roberts. “That is how we want people to feel.”
