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Shannon McLinden founded FarmHouse Fresh cosmetics in 2005 with a sea-salt scrub to remedy dry feet that she made at home on her McKinney, Texas farm. The scrub wound up on Oprah’s “O List” and quickly gained popularity. After 20 years in business, the brand has scaled to $50 million in 2023 retail sales across its storefronts and wholesale channels, which include spas, hotels, and salons. And its product lineup has grown to over 200 natural and certified organic skincare goods-many of which contain ingredients grown at McLinden’s farm.
The farm, which doubles as FarmHouse Fresh’s headquarters, is also home to more than 45 horses, donkeys, ponies, goats, and sheep-all of which have been rescued from slaughter. The FarmHouse Fresh Animal Sanctuary is part of FarmHouse Fresh’s philanthropic mission to donate 10 percent of its profits to rescuing animals. Last year, in 2023, that amounted to nearly $1 million, $800,000 of which McLinden says came from product purchases. Part of those contributions go to keeping the Sanctuary running and stocked with essentials hay and grain, and towards covering medical expenses and transportation. The rest helps fund rescue organizations' efforts, which include missions like rehoming an elephant from a dilapidated zoo in Puerto Rico to an animal sanctuary in Georgia.
Having her business’s philanthropy operation so close to home also makes it easier for McLinden to leverage its marketing impact by showing customers the impact of the dollars they spend on her brand. Five years ago FarmHouse Fresh started its Track Your Batch program, which places a trackable batch code on every product. Customers can enter the code into the store’s website and see pictures, a video, and a description of the animal who benefited.
How does that work? The accounting department sends batch codes to the Sanctuary and web teams as items are purchased and date-stamped. Then copywriters and McLinden load folders of videos, photos, and descriptions to match those dates for the web team to produce when a batch code is “tracked,” or searched. Customers will see what happened the actual week their item was made. “It's so important that people see that what they're doing matters,” McLinden says, “What you can accomplish with just a small group and our small team is so grand and it makes such a difference.”
McLinden also hosts weekly broadcasts on Facebook live, where skincare customers can see animals in the barn. “It’s just the most rewarding and fulfilling full circle to be able to make people feel good about waking up in the morning, and then carry that forward and help animals feel better,” she says. A “good morning” broadcast from herself or one of the barn’s 65 volunteers on Facebook is part of the brand’s weekly routine, but otherwise every day is different. One week it’s loading two horses, Hank and Buzz, into trailers to Arizona, another it’s delivering baby goats on Christmas day.
And FarmHouse Fresh customers eat it up. McLinden says comments on Facebook are constantly filled with “virtual hugs, kisses, and ear-scratches” over Facebook, and once a “thank you” note came from Courtney Cox in the mail.
FarmHouse Fresh is also finding ways to maximize its impact through partnerships, most recently with the Smurfs. The two brands, united over a love of plants and animals, just launched the FHF Smurfy Ever After Animal Rescue Project in September 2023. Nine animal rescue and rehabilitation organizations will receive 100 percent of the profits from every FHF x Smurf merchandise sold, and $1 for every FHF x Smurf edition skincare item bought. The duo has accomplished over three-quarters of its $100,000 fundraising goal in just four months. “We were able to do our first collab with a partner that just gets it. It’s about the animals and nothing else,” McLinden says. “The pickup has been phenomenal. Our customers just love it.”
A refreshed look at leadership from the desk of CEO and chief content officer Stephanie Mehta
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22.01.2024
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Shannon McLinden founded FarmHouse Fresh cosmetics in 2005 with a sea-salt scrub to remedy dry feet that she made at home on her McKinney, Texas farm. The scrub wound up on Oprah’s “O List” and quickly gained popularity. After 20 years in business, the brand has scaled to $50 million in 2023 retail sales across its storefronts and wholesale channels, which include spas, hotels, and salons. And its product lineup has grown to over 200 natural and certified organic skincare goods-many of which contain ingredients grown........
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