Once an overnight success—in her DIY soap class, that is—Heather Swanepoel has grown Monroe, GA-based Rinse Bath & Body Inc. into a 30-employee-strong company that makes natural bath and body products sold by independent boutique shops as well as at Disney Springs. She tells us how it all began back in 2003.

Your business card says “can’t knit” under your name? What is that all about? Ha, I’m glad you caught that! We are not a very title’y company and although there are some things that only I can do, I pitch in and do whatever needs to be done when I can, as I expect everyone on our team to do. I don’t want a title to get in the way of how the company was started or what my role (or anyone else’s) is in servicing our customers.

The abbreviated history of Rinse…In 2002 I taught myself to knit because I needed a creative outlet, but I couldn’t knit anything other than squares and rectangles. Trying to find something that I was good at and that interested me, I took a class with my ever-so-crafty mom. We stood side by side melting, mixing and stirring soap. The next day when we uncovered our concoctions, my soap was perfect—ironically enough, my mom’s soap didn’t turn out. I was hooked.

To justify to my husband why I had to make more soap, I gave it away to anyone who would take it. As I was formulating recipes and experimenting with ingredients, I was perfecting my products. The people who I once had to beg to take products off my hands started making requests and insisting on paying for them. That’s when my husband and I looked at each other and thought we might just be onto something. In July of 2003, Rinse Bath & Body was formed.

Rinse’s hero product is: At the moment I would say [it is] our deOdor Stick, a natural deodorant that actually works. So many people, myself included, tried to find a deodorant that isn’t filled with chemicals or metals that actually gets the job done before they found ours. The funniest part is, because of all of my own natural deodorant trial failures, we avoided making a deodorant for years.

Our newest product is: sunscreen!!! We have been working on a natural sunscreen, formulated with clean ingredients for years, and we finally have it...

The most challenging part of running Rinse this year has been:  the travel that is associated with our growth. Now don’t get me wrong, I love our growth, which is amazing,  and I love to travel, but I also love to be in our store with our fabulous team getting things done together and I love to sleep in my own bed with my kids running around. It’s so hard for me to turn things down or send someone in my place—I just want to give my all to everyone, but as I have learned first-hand, that isn’t a healthy option for anyone.

Betty Ceus, founder of Natural Bunch Kids Haircare, asks, “In regard to entrepreneurship, what are you doing to empower our children and generations to come?” Oh, that’s a great question! We are all about growing leaders at Rinse and providing an amazing culture in which our team members can thrive and this includes teenagers. We are intentional about bringing on teenagers and recent graduates to our team. We teach them work ethic, the why behind the things they do and the things we do as a company, how to communicate with others, how to (and what it means to) be a leader, how to exist in a gossip-free environment (a swift change from high school) and how to provide the best customer experience possible. We try to equip them with all of the skills they will need to succeed in achieving their goals.

The single biggest challenge facing indie personal care/beauty brands is: being seen/heard through all of the noise. The personal care industry has been a fairly saturated market with some really, really big players. Indie brands found a way to innovate and create a niche. They worked hard, challenged the status quo and offered consumers options that the industry didn’t even know they needed. Now the once roomy niche is becoming crowded and standing out from all of the other brands who are trying to do the same things you are isn’t easy.

Rinse has found success: through a lot of blood, sweat and tears (okay, maybe not so much blood and thankfully not a lot of tears either) but a lot of sweat. We have worked hard over the past 15 years and have been intentional with every decision we’ve made to stay true to who we are—a natural bath and body company who creates products you and your skin will love. We have built vibrant partnerships, we have sought out and forged our way into retailers and industries that didn’t really get us at first. Through it all, we have always shown our heart and we have never forgotten who we are here to serve—our customers.