12 Years (and we almost didn’t make it)
CRUDE turned 12 this week! And I am feeling so many feelings. This birthday feels different, largely because we almost didn't make it here.
I started CRUDE in my kitchen in 2014, when an experiment with oil-cleansing transformed my skin and reshaped my understanding of skincare. As a Master Esthetician, my reactive, acneic skin only got worse as my career in skincare went on. I landed on an oil-cleansing formula that consistently kept my skin healthy and clear, and I started giving bottles to my acneic clients to try. The hype spread quickly. I started giving oil-cleansing facials out of my apartment and biking my oils all over Salt Lake City to what quickly became a growing base of repeat customers.
I enlisted some friends to help me create a brand and website. I remember when they pitched the name ‘CRUDE’—I initially hated it! But then I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The whole process felt a little crude. In school, I’d been taught that oil was bad for the skin, and that removing oil and bacteria was the key to healthy skin. But I was learning about the microbiome and seeing bacteria in a whole new light. The raw, organic, unrefined oils I was using in my formula experiments suddenly made perfect sense. I quickly came to love the provocative play on the word.
CRUDE got started during the pre-algorithm glory days of Instagram. Every post we made was seen by our followers! I yearn for the uncomplicated marketing days of the twenty-teens, before pay-to-play became the name of the game. I participated in local markets, landed a few small retailers, got some big influencer posts, and suddenly we were shipping CRUDE across the globe. We launched the world’s first Certified Microbiome-Friendly body wash and were featured in publications like InStyle, Refinery29, and Forbes. It was such an exhilarating time!
After five profitable years, I made some decisions I believed were strategic: executive partnerships that were not aligned, financial choices that did not match our reality, and eventually a predatory debt cycle that has been incredibly hard to escape. COVID hit, and the retail conversations we’d spent months building collapsed. The pressure kept compounding—rising costs and shifting spending—until I eventually had to lay off most of my team, cut spending dramatically, and stop investing in growth all together.
Running a small business in these times is not easy. I know I’m not alone in struggling through these years, which is why I want to be honest about my story. I think it matters when we tell the truth about where we’ve been, because our stories are how we find each other, and how we keep going. These have been some of the most challenging years of my life…but I’ve never lost hope in CRUDE because of you.
When more than half of our revenue was going toward debt payoff and spending on growth had come to a halt, our sales stayed largely steady because of our loyal base of repeat customers. You kept buying, subscribing, leaving reviews, and telling your friends. I can’t begin to tell you how much your support has meant to me. While many indie beauty brands have had to close their doors in recent years, your support has kept CRUDE standing.
Growth is not linear.
Since 2023, with the help of our customers, my small yet mighty team, my angel investors (all close friends and family), and a kick-ass business coach, we’ve paid off or restructured most of that debt. Things are still tight, but we’re projected to pay off the last of that legacy debt by the end of this year. Last year marked our third profitable year in a row since that painful era. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and I have so many exciting plans for CRUDE once we’re back on our feet. These 12 years have taught me that growth is not a straight line. It’s a winding road with detours, reinventions, and unexpected grace. It’s also never a solo journey. We’re all interdependent. Community is everything, and I’m so grateful to be in community with you.
More founder thoughts coming soon. In the meantime, please enjoy our birthday sale! Our whole site is discounted by 25% so please stock up. Thank you thank you thank you! Here’s to another 12 years of CRUDE.
