May 8, 2017

Meet Heather Swanepoel of Rinse Bath & Body in Monroe

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Swanepoel.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Heather. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
It all started in 2002 when a girl (that would be me – Heather) couldn’t knit. I was working on the Supercross circuit (yes, dirt bikes) & traveling across the country pretty much every week. I was in desperate need of a creative outlet… a hobby.

I taught myself to knit, but couldn’t knit anything other than squares & rectangles. I for one do love to accessorize, but a girl only needs so many scarves. Enter soap making. I took a class with my ever so crafty mom (she can do just about anything that has anything to do with crafting). We stood side by side melting, mixing & stirring our 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.

When you make soap, you make pounds at a time. So, 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.

This is when my husband and I looked at each other & thought we might just have something here. Since we founded Rinse Bath & Body Co. in 2003, our operation has quickly developed into a popular brand of products being featured in many stores & spas across the country (over 600) and our own (work)Shop in Monroe where you get to shop while we work. You may even be able to spy Rinse in Disney World for their Food & Wine as well as their Flower & Garden Festivals.

Rinse is still very much a family business (now located in Monroe, Georgia). All of our products are still produced in small batches (to ensure the quality and freshness). You may wonder how we get it all done… with the help of moms, of course.

I hope you enjoy our products as much as we enjoy making them for you!

Oh, & thank goodness, I couldn’t knit!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Rinse has been the tortoise not the hare and has been blessed with a good and steady growth. Our road has been pretty smooth. Our biggest obstacles have been a healthy work/life balance that tons of travel make even more difficult and space. It seems that once we’ve settled into a new space we have about 18 months before we have to look for more. Definitely a good problem to have!

So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Rinse Bath & Body story. Tell us more about the business.
I am most proud of our team. We have hand-picked the most amazing group of people to work alongside of us. I would put our team up against anyone to get any project done on time & on point. We are a drama-free, gossip-free, uplifting and fun group and as the owner, maintaining that culture is my biggest and most important job.

Our products are still handmade in small batches to ensure quality using the best ingredients we can get our hands on. They are all 93 – 100% natural, and you eat almost every ingredient we use in them. We want our products to be daily use rather than special occasion so we make sure our packaging is cute enough so you would give it as a gift, but practical enough so you don’t feel bad about opening it up and using it. Our price-points are daily use friendly too and most importantly, our products work so there’s no reason you wouldn’t want to use them every day.

Our most popular products are our deOdor Sticks (natural deodorant – that really works), Roll-On Essential Oils (aromatherapy ready-to-go), Peppofoot Stick (lip a lip balm but for your feet), Shower Bombs (for an aromatherapy steamy shower) and of course our Pucker Sticks (natural lip balm that’s long lasting and nourishing).

The vastness of our offerings set us apart from a lot of other companies. We are constantly innovating and developing new products to offer. We’ve got you covered from lips to toes.

We also pride ourselves in customer service. We are fully aware that it is a person’s choice of who, where and what they spend their money on and without our customers we don’t have a business. We always want to be accessible to anyone who comes into our store or calls us – even if we are in the middle of a huge order. Our customers, both big and small, come first.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
We are very blessed. Like I said, we are the tortoise, we don’t force anything, our growth has been entirely organic. We (as people and as a company) are positive, hardworking, genuine, open to new possibilities and have fun and really enjoy what we do, who we do it with and the products we make. All of this emanates from us and attracts the same and makes those who are attracted want to explore opportunities with us.

I happened to be chatting with a girl while I was on vacation at Disney World and long story short she passed information about me, my products and company along to Disney… we’ve now been working with Walt Disney World for 9 years and began working with Disneyland spring of 2016.

The right people always arrive on our doorstep at the right time. We have an amazing network of “Rinse Head Hunters” which consists of friends who know what we do and what it takes to be a Rinse’e and luckily those folks align themselves with the same type of people we love to have on our team.

As I said, space is always a challenge. We had outgrown our store/shop location and desperately needed a space that would allow for a loading dock. We were able to purchase a warehouse 1 block away from our shop that wasn’t even for sale and one year prior the owners had absolutely no interest in selling.

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