We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jillian Gundy. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jillian below.

Jillian, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Tiki Hit Life was born out of the need to provide healthy alternatives for the skincare of our family, free from harsh chemicals and without all the fillers now commonly found even in the “natural/organic” space. We wanted to be able to trust and pronounce the ingredients in our everyday use products. Too many companies these days are changing their product ingredients to save money instead of nurturing the skin with the ingredients it needs.

At Tiki Hut Life, we believe in a chemical-free lifestyle focused on using only sustainably sourced ingredients free from parabens, phthalates, harsh detergents, or chemicals harmful to our skin and our environment. For us, being cruelty-free means that we do no testing on animals, just our family and friends! We are seasonal and private label capable with new products launching early next year. Since our launch in 2022, we are now wholesaling within a few major platforms that offer product discovery, sourcing, and purchasing into major retailers.

Our business means a lot to us, as it helps us personally live a clean lifestyle. Our joy and excitement from our children make everything worth doing. We believe in the happiness a clean and healthy lifestyle brings and wish for everyone to enjoy. This is the core spirit of Tiki Hut Life, happiness from within ourselves knowing we are caring for the health and wellness of ourselves and our families.

Jillian, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Growing up in New York City, it had so many traditional wonders to offer while also teaching to be aware. With so many opportunities available, I was able to work in marketing in a few industries while completing my Master’s Degree. After beginning a family, my roots spoke to me about the unknown in the processed foods we feed our families but also the harmful chemicals in the personal care products we use every day.

After learning about ingredients in food and skincare, I decided it was time for a change and to listen to my inner voice to help protect my family. I adopted the simple free-from mentality about the foods and skincare our family used. This became the defining purpose as our journey began. At the heart of what we do is our commitment to producing clean, natural products. This allows us to produce personal care products that are beneficial to the whole family.

We do everything ourselves, with absolutely no outsourcing to a third party, because it’s important to us to trust that the products we’re selling are truly free-from everything we sought to avoid. This also helps decrease the impact of these unwanted chemicals on our environment. After all, our family depends on this commitment.

Tiki Hut Life now has a defining purpose on this journey for our families. Every day we strive to produce the cleanest, free-from skin care products available with no compromises on quality. Simple and rewarding, and we invite everyone to join us.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Having children changes everything about you. We began this journey as a way to find safe alternatives to skincare and home products that were free of harm to our children and pets. Soaps today are made with too many chemicals so they have the longest shelf life and are cheap to make. They strip us of nutrients, disrupt our hormones, and are not beneficial to us in any way. We went back to the “old-school” way of crafting cold process soap. That grew into formulating our own lotions, scrubs, and more.

As our local community started reaching out for orders, we developed into a company and grew. We now offer salves, detox baths, and even laundry powder. Next year we have plans for sunscreens, bug sprays, dishwashing powder, and a new essential oil line.

A major difference this year was becoming wholesale-ready and growing a few accounts to start with. As we grow, we can buy quality ingredients in bulk, bringing even more value to our customers. This is a major focus because it speaks from the core of our mission: to provide safe, free-from, and effective products to families that make it affordable to prioritize skincare regimes in a healthy lifestyle.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

Our business has started with a Shopify website for direct-to-consumer sales. We love the personal relationships we have built with our customers through our website and local markets. In addition, we are now also on Pod Foods, RangeMe, and Specialty Food Partners. We also have a few wholesale accounts.

Developing our wholesale business has the greatest opportunity for bringing Tiki Hut Life products to the broader consumer base and offers us the volume needed to be able to purchase our ingredients so that they are affordable to everyone.

The greatest challenge with many platforms is the cost hurdle to get your product messaging to the right decision-makers so the broader consumer base can find our products. There is a financial hurdle with fees but also with time. Each platform has a unique process for engagement which requires a significant amount of time and with a young growing family, time is precious and limited.

This is the reason why opportunities like Canvas Rebel offers are so critical for new and developing small businesses, like Tiki Hut Life. We are thankful to Canvas Rebel for amplifying the voice and message of small businesses.

Contact Info:

• Website: MyTikiHutLife.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/mytikihutlife
• Facebook: Facebook.com/MyTikiHutLife
• Linkedin: Linkedin.com/in/jillian-gundy