Less Scary with Friends
I launched a brand new business this week!
WOW. What a week.
A few days ago my wife, my friend Bailey, and myself launched a brand new skincare company! It’s called Sun Tallow.
The story
When Gabs and I first moved to Hawaii, we quickly realized that we were going to need to step up our skincare/ UV protection game since we were in the sun far more than we had been when we were living in Colorado. We both have parents who’ve had to remove early stage melanoma from their faces, so we are big believers in wearing an SPF every day.
The problem we found in looking for a great daily driver is that most of them contained chemicals we couldn’t pronounce, weren’t naturally derived, and often left a significant white cast on our faces. Not to mention, many daily moisturizers with SPF are prohibitively expensive.
Initially, Gabs ordered bulk ingredients like zinc, beeswax, and jojoba oil and created a few experimental batches for us to wear, but once we landed on a formula we liked, we quickly realized there might be demand for a product like ours.
One of the best features of our final recipe was that it used beef tallow as a base. This may sound strange if you’ve never heard of it being used as a skincare ingredient, but it has actually been used for thousands of years to heal and protect skin.
Even Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt was known for using tallow as a skin balm.
Recently, people have been rediscovering tallow for skincare, and it is currently disrupting the skincare industry like crazy as a result.
So not only does this stuff fend off harmful radiation, but it is actually quite efficient at healing acne scars, evening out skin tones, and nourishing dry skin as well. Just ask chat GPT about it and you’ll get an earful.
The best part of our launch this past Wednesday was the insane support and love we received from our community. We probably fast forwarded through three months of social media growth, customer referrals, and overall orders just due to the sheer volume of people coming out of the woodwork to help us get the word out. I almost cried several times that day, just seeing dear friends go so out of their way to help promote our infant brand.
It’s an amazing thing to see how people activate to support you once you are embarking on the journey you’re supposed to be on, living a great story. That support has brought so much encouragement to all of us at such a critical time.
So first off, THANK you to all of you who have showed up in such outrageous ways. You’ve taught me quite a bit about what showing up for your friends can look like. And secondly, I hope this little moment in my life can be a nudge in the right direction for anyone reading this.
People love supporting people who are taking risks, embarking on journeys into the unknown. For me, much of the fear I’ve experienced in taking this leap, is directly related to the fear that I will be alone in it.
But the opposite is true.
The feeling of being alone is almost always an illusion.
So stay tuned for updates on our brand new company! We think we have a pretty dang good product.
If you’re interested in getting your hands on some, just make sure to use the code FRIENDOFST to get 30% off.
Just go to www.suntallow.co and use it when you check out.
I love you all. Call your friends and tell them you love them.
xoxoxo, Jon
Here’s some sweet photos from a lil shoot we did with our Hawaii friends for the launch (:
