We were lucky to catch up with Jessie Veselka recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jessie , appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Back in 2016 my youngest brother was diagnosed with a rare form of adrenal cancer. When this happened I just started reading and learning so much about what Is being put into our food and ingredients being used in our products we are putting on our skin. To be honest I was after finding a cure for him. During this time of research for me we took my brother on a vacation to Hawaii. We tried to check off some bucket list because nobody knew how much time we had, even though we felt like we had all the time in the world.
While we were in Hawaii I had my first ever Lush experience.

I was interested in them because they were all about being natural and organize etc.
I’ll be honest the smell was a bit much for me but I bought a few items to try.

Shortly after we got back from our trip, my brother started his rounds of chemo.
It was tough seeing him go through it but man was he tough.
I was trying to find something that would give him some relief after his chemo days.

I quickly thought of a nice hot relaxing bath!
So off to the store I went to find something for him to use in the bath. A bath bomb, salts, bubble bath something. To my surprise everything that I found in the stores contained parabens, harsh sulfates, preservatives, red dye 40 etc. even the products that claimed to be 100% natural had ingredients that I was not happy with!

So that’s how it started! I knew I could make an amazing product full of good ingredients for him that would help him relax, keep his skin hydrated and give him som relief.

Come to find out… it definitely wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be, but he and the rest of my family were all good sports about trying all of my batches and recipes until we finally figured it out.

I started with bath bombs because they are the perfect combination of ingredients for your bath.
You get your oils, your epsom salts and the scent of your choosing and I felt like our options in the Spokane area was very lacking.

After making products for friends and family i started doing craft fairs and selling online on the side. Just trying to spread the word to everyone to know what they are putting on their bodies.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started my brand BeYOUTIFUL for people to feel comfortable in their own skin, for them to be themselves and take care of themselves.

We hand make all of our bath and body products by hand in small batches using the highest quality of ingredients we can get our hands on. We want to spread awareness that your skin is the largest organ of your body and whatever you put on it soaks into your blood stream within minutes.
So read labels.

Because we make all of our products one of my favorite things we can offer is custom!
If you are allergic to an oil we use , we can make it with a different oil. If you want something scentless we can do that as well.

We know it’s hard and sometimes not possible to find products for people with sensitive skin and allergies… and that’s why we are here! To help with that.

We have been told so many times that they have had bad experiences with bath bombs and then they try ours and they are amazed at how their skin feels after!

We love helping our customers to find the perfect product for their skin.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

We are a completely self funded company. We have never had a ton of capital and for years I didn’t take a paycheck. 2021 we were growing after Covid and it came down to either hiring a few more people or bringing my husband on board with us and both of us taking a paycheck.

We had survived Covid and we were actually doing very well and so so happy all of our hard work was finally paying off.

Well when 2022 hit and the rise in cost of ingredients, taxes and minimum wage and less money was being circulated now that the government help from Covid was coming to an end people started to cut back on spending. The combination of these things really put our company in jeopardy. We ended up having to take out a few loans which we really didn’t want to do but it was necessary to make payroll, pay taxes and rent.

We were thankful for the holidays that caught us up on a lot but that money quickly has dwindled down as well with another increase in minimum wage and taxes and inflation. So though we thought we were getting out of the woods at the end of 2022 we find ourselves back into another similar situation here in 2023.
It’s hard right now to be a small business, we know people are all feeling the affects of all of this and are being more mindful of where they spend their money and we know selfcare often gets pushed off to the side with things are tight.

We pray that we can get some grants this year and hopefully not have to take out any more loans and that our customer base grows, our wholesale grows and the business can go back to being self funded and comfortable.
These are very scary times.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I believe the most effective strategy is word of mouth. Get people to literally fall in love with your products and they 100% will tell all their friends and family. And then when holidays and birthdays come up they want to gift those products they love so much to others because it made them so happy they know it will make their loved ones happy.

That has been the major marketing for us!
Marketing is expensive and you never know if it works… but word of mouth works every single time.

We are so grateful for our customers who have fallen in love with us and our products and help us spread the BeYOUTIFUL love all around the country and even world!

Contact Info:

• Website: HTTPS://www.beyoutifulbathbombsandmore.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/beyoutifulbathbombs?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beyoutifulbathbombs?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@beyoutifulbathbombs2764
• Yelp: https://s.yelp.com/MDOfnbehrw

Image Credits
Miranda Cheney Photography