Whippin' It With Red
Welcome to Wippin' It With Red; a place where Natural Red provides behind-the-scenes information about our company, fun facts about key ingredients, and product spotlights with coupon codes! Today is our seven-year anniversary—in commemoration of our journey, we are starting a blog to give customers a glance at where we came from and a peek at where we are now! As a thank you to our customers, Natural Red will include a free Cracks Are Wack with orders over $30 during the week of 9-27-2021.
Today we’ll take a look at how Natural Red began and how we keep this business running smoothly. Natural Red was created by CEO Karen Guilmette after her ex-husband decided he wanted a divorce. With five kids who were 10 years old and younger, going back to her career as a teacher for deaf and hard of hearing students in Detroit Public Schools was out of the question. Karen had recently been experiencing mommy guilt from slathering her children in artificially scented lotions, sprays, and balms—this guilt led to the creation of homemade creams and sprays for her children. Between the urgent need to financially support her family and the impossibility of leaving her children at home while she went to a 9-5, Karen decided to turn her home remedies for dry skin and tangled hair into a company—thus, Natural Red was born.
The road to where we are today was a long and hard journey. Countless hours were put into researching, planning, making, testing, and tweaking each recipe until it was perfect. Karen would arrive to the morning bus stop with her gaggle of children, hand out lip balms to the neighborhood moms, and ask for feedback on her newest recipe at the afternoon pick-up. Friends and family members lent Karen half a dozen Kitchen Aid mixers so she could produce the initial body butters, seven containers at a time. For the first year of events she attended, Karen had her inventory wrapped in tissue paper from HomeGoods and transported in decades-old suitcases!
Now, Karen can whip up a new product recipe in her sleep! Her family and friends are still the testers for each new product, but instead of Natural Red taking over her kitchen, she has a dedicated workspace in the basement with two industrial-sized mixer that yield sixty-five butters per batch! Karen now has specific tablecloths, suitcases, and totes she takes when she sells at events—no more worn suitcases and tissue paper. In seven short years, Natural Red has gone from a bus stop lip balm shop to being carried by stores across the country!
One of the secrets to Natural Red’s success is teamwork! Karen’s kids, Liberty (17), Hudson (16), Glory (13), Anderson (12), and Victory (10) are all incredibly involved in the family business. Everyone helps in the process of product production; the filling, wiping, scraping, capping, cleaning, and labeling of each product takes a village. Victory and Anderson’s main jobs are to help with production. Glory often helps with the processing, printing, and packaging of each order. Hudson is our new graphic artist and is currently developing labels for new products, and Liberty takes packages to the post office, works events, and writes this blog. This company not only provides an income for my family, but a way for all of us to grow closer together.
We at Natural Red are so excited for you to learn more about us, our products, and sales! Join us next week for an in-depth backstory, interesting facts, and coupon code for our lice prevention spray!
Stay fantastic,
The Natural Red Team