The Evolution of Primally Pure: A Reflection From Our Founder Bethany

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been nearly a decade of Primally Pure!

With our 10-year birthday around the corner, it seemed like a fitting time to reflect in gratitude on where the last ten years have led us, and where the next ten might take us. 

From the most humble of beginnings (seriously, I never planned to have a business this big!) to where we are as a brand today, I’m truly blown away. It’s been a wild yet incredibly rewarding journey with… 

• An amazing team of nearly 100 employees
• Almost 2 million of customers served
• An HQ complete with warehouses, offices and a spa
• A regenerative farm in progress
• Even more expansion and growth in the works 

It’s not lost on me that every one of you who reads our content, purchases our products, interacts with our brand, and shows your support is why we’re here. 

So, in celebration of a new decade and goals, adventures, challenges, and changes, I wanted to share a bit about where we started, how it’s going, and what it all means to me. 

The Vision for Primally Pure: Then vs. Now

In all honesty, I didn’t start out with much of a vision. (Maybe that’s not the answer most would expect, but it’s true.) I was just passionate and excited. I was experiencing positive results with my homemade personal care products and wanted to share what I was doing with others. 

Natural products were somewhat of an anomaly when Primally Pure officially started in 2015. There really wasn’t a lot of education about what was in our personal care products or why anyone should care. 

I started selling products to family and friends and through my husband’s family business, Primal Pastures. I really thought the scope of my business would end with the farm’s customer base. 

I never really expected that natural products would become desirable to the mainstream or that the impact of ethical animal-based products would ever catch on. But now that I’ve seen what’s possible, I have a much bigger vision. 

There’s so much more growth on the horizon – we’re just getting started. As more people learn about non-toxic living and ancestral practices, I believe more and more people will want to start using clean products and incorporate proven ancestral wisdom into their lifestyle. 

These are just lifestyle shifts that make sense – and they make you feel and look better, too! If you’ve transitioned to a non-toxic lifestyle, you probably agree: once you start putting together the pieces, it’s hard to go back to your old ways. 

These simple lifestyle shifts have been our foundation from the beginning. 

From Hobby to Successful Business

Primally Pure started and lived out of our house for the first year, each room serving a different purpose. 

• I made products in the kitchen
• Labeled products in the living room
• Prepped shipments in a tiny spare bedroom
• Answered customer service questions + reached out to influencers from the kitchen table 

 

 As sales grew, I realized that my passion project could be more substantial than anything I dreamed of. And then when I was pregnant and approaching my due date with my first daughter, I realized I had a choice to make:

→ I could temporarily shut things down and take a break 

→ Or I could take a leap of faith  

I chose the latter! I moved the business out of my home into a warehouse and office space. I also hired someone on full-time.  

 

This was the best decision I could have made – it showed me what was possible – even in my absence. It sounds obvious, but for many entrepreneurs, we hold onto things really tightly. I know I did. 

Seeing the business continue to grow in such a short amount of time and realizing that I didn’t have to physically do everything in the business to succeed was a big moment for me. Once I learned to delegate and trust people, things really started to take off. 

How We’ve Grown as a Holistic Skincare Company

Did I mention the last ten years have been crazy? Our community has grown so much, which still amazes and humbles me. We have… 

• Over 370k followers on Instagram
• 400k+ visitors in the last year on our educational Pure Life blog platform 
• A team of nearly 100 employees

But beyond numbers and stats, I'm personally really proud of the caliber of our educational content, which has always been a priority for us. 

Education is a pillar of our brand, and we’ve worked really hard over the years to keep it free, approachable, and value-packed. I've personally made it a big priority to stay involved in choosing and creating our educational content, too. It’s something that’s important to me, and I love staying updated on the latest trends and studies. 

We’ve had countless interviews with experts from the holistic wellness industry, and we’re always looking for the next hot topic that we can give our community reliable and transparent information on – even if it’s not a popular opinion. :)

Hopefully, it goes without saying that I wouldn’t be here without my team. This may sound cliche for an owner/founder to say, but they are truly the best! Building out a team of talented and hardworking people was really hard in the beginning. But we’ve put a lot of intentionality into it over the last 5-6 years – choosing the right people for the job in every facet of the company. 

With a bigger, dedicated team, we’ve been able to direct our efforts to implement even more measures for quality control and manufacturing practices. 

We’ve extensively… 

• Inventoried our entire supply chain for the highest-quality ingredients
• Swapped many of our ingredients to more sustainable or regenerative options
• Implemented third-party testing
• Made strides in reducing waste
• Updated and improved our formulas

Most importantly, we’ve never settled for anything less than the highest-quality non-toxic ingredients we can get our hands on.  

What I’ve Learned About Work-Life Balance and Relationships 

People often ask about how I juggle work-life balance as a mom. I’ll admit, it’s definitely been a challenge at times. Since starting Primally Pure, I’ve had three babies: my oldest daughter is 8, my middle daughter is 5, and our son is 2. 

Navigating a growing business while learning how to raise young kids is truthfully really challenging at times. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything – I know they each came into our world at the perfect time. 

Parenting and working, in my experience, require consistent intentionality and assessment. In each new season of life, my husband and I have to look at what works and doesn’t work (in both parenting and the business) and make changes accordingly. 

→ In some seasons of life, I’ve needed to slow down and embrace time with family and my kids. → In other seasons, I’ve had to lean into my business responsibilities a bit more.

I haven’t done it perfectly, but with intention and a lot of prayer, we’re always able to settle into a balance that works for our family in each new season of life. I’ve also been so thankful to have a close circle of like-minded entrepreneur mom friends (who we mention quite often at Primally Pure – shout out to Branch Basics and Taylor Dukes Wellness!). 

We’re all passionate about our faith, our families, and what we do. It’s really refreshing to have a support system and know you’re not alone. We’re meant to live in community.  

How Our Non-Toxic Personal Products are Evolving

In the last ten years, there’s been a huge increase in consumer demand for clean skincare and “green” products. While this is a great thing, the downside is that many disingenuous companies are trying to capitalize on well-intended consumers with sneaky marketing. Unfortunately, I don’t think greenwashing is going anywhere anytime soon. 

But it’s not going to stop us. 

We refuse to get lost in the sea of “clean” products. We will continue to find new ways to show the transparency and safety of our products and set ourselves apart from other brands claiming to be clean.

Speaking of green, our new brand update is one of my favorite things lately!

Our Latest Rebrand + Maintaining Integrity/Quality

This gorgeous rebrand was long overdue. I can’t wait to see how this new packaging and updated look propels us even further into the hands of people in (and outside) of the wellness community.

But we didn’t just flippantly create a new design and slap it on our bottles. If you’ve ever been involved in the process of creating a new brand (or a rebrand), you know how complicated it is. 

Our entire team spent what felt like an eternity choosing the right creative agency for the job, honing in on the right designs, and then deciding how to implement them on each individual vessel within the entire product line. (I’m so proud of us!)

We were able to retain all the integrity of our packaging and sustainability aspects we’ve worked really hard for over the years, including: 

• Beautiful containers
• Compostable packaging/shipping materials
• Fully recyclable bottles through PACT
• Primarily painted glass vessels with minimal post-consumer-recycled plastic

Our rebrand is really an outward symbol of the inward values we want to continue to hone in on and embrace as a company. We believe in the power of ancestral wisdom to guide us, but also the power of modern-day technology to boost health (biohacking, anyone?). Who says we can’t combine a bit of old + new? :) 

At our core, our values remain: providing truly clean ingredients and not compromising full-body health in an effort to look good. 

It’s all connected, and we believe now more than ever: You can’t separate skin health from overall health. I’m excited to see how we continue to lean into this concept even more in the next ten years. 

Looking Ahead: The Next 10 Years

As a brand, we want to bring ancestral wisdom (and practices) to the forefront of the conversations about skin and full-body health. A big part of this conversation is the use of responsibly raised animal fats. I know it isn’t popular in some circles, but it’s something we’re really leaning into, in confidence. I think time will show that it’s one of the most valuable approaches you can take for skin health. 

I love that our approach to skincare is not some complicated, far-out notion – it’s really more about returning to our roots. So we’re going to keep pushing ourselves to source as many regeneratively grown ingredients as possible. We’re going to grow even more of our own ingredients on our regenerative farm plot over the years. 

We will keep expanding our reach with non-toxic products and education in the most transparent and honest ways we can. Our goal is to encourage more connection with nature and the intelligence it holds. 

I hope you’ll continue this path with us. Please know that I’m honored to have you along with us for the ride. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who has made this dream possible.

With big moments ahead and a heart full of gratitude, 

Bethany

 

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