Behind every great brand, there is a story. With House of Hilt, a plant-based skin care line, it starts with the founder, Jackie Rogers. Many of us are drawn to our passion at a young age, with a desire to spend hours surrounded by items we love. For Jackie, her favorite place was the drugstore, where she could study hundreds of brands to see how they packaged their products.
As a child, she was fascinated about everything in the drugstore, the hardware store and the salon where her mother and grandmother had their hair set every week. She loved looking at all the various products sold, from lotions and perfumes to tools and shampoos. Jackie loved those moments of exploration.
Growing up in her family’s grocery business, Jackie was surrounded by products, and their appearance and display gained her interest as she explored how an item was prepared to be eye-catching as well as functional package. She noted that her father always said, “Customers eat with their eyes.”
Jackie continued working with her family’s business on the operations side until she was 23, when she decided to transition over to deli meat company Boar’s Head for the next 10 years. She initially worked with retailers across the country, opening stores and training people on products and techniques. Because of her depth of knowledge, she was able to contribute to sales, marketing, content production, research and development and operations for the company.
After Boar’s Head, she segued into food production, where she styled food and products for photography and video. She still does this today styling her products for House of Hilt photo shoots. She considers herself the mama of these products and loves to play, featuring them in various layouts.
There was also a part of her that was interested in wellness. At 20 years old, she had a desire to open her own spa. She partnered with her cousin, who was a hairdresser, and together they combined their interests. Although that dream didn’t materialize, it always stayed in the back of Jackie’s mind.
The next piece of the puzzle came together in 2004–2005, when Jackie helped her husband create amenities such as personalized shampoo, creams and soaps for his hotels, and she fell in love. Stepping into the skin care realm was exciting to her because it was something she loved and was very different from food. Jackie worked directly with chemists to formulate something unique and on brand for the resort.
It was around this time that Jackie found her own skin was going through changes and the products she was normally using were no longer working. She started doing research.
Pieces of her life, experiences, desires and dreams were starting to come together.
Jackie was unaware of what was being put into skin care products and was shocked to learn that vinyl and plastic were being used. She was amazed that the FDA would allow it, and in further research she discovered the FDA doesn’t regulate the skin care industry. Instead, the industry is self-regulated and no agency is overseeing what goes into these products.
She started to imagine her own clean, safe and effective products for women, and in 2017 she began working on formulas. Digging into her experience with hotel amenities, she started working with formulators to create products that benefit the skin, smell lovely and are safe and effective. She loved the development phase of spending time with ideas and working with the right people to turn her concepts into reality, blending and mixing formulations.
In 2018–2019, she took a leave of absence from her job to start to build House of Hilt. HILT is an acronym for honesty, integrity, loyalty and trust. It is the core of everything the company does. House of Hilt uses only the finest plant-based ingredients, free of toxins and filler ingredients, to create a positive change in the skin. Its formulations cause healthy skin to look youthful, glowing and hydrated.
“I absolutely love seeing women and men transform their skin and become more confident,” Jackie says. “It is exactly why I created House of Hilt.”
House of Hilt products are concentrated, clinical and clean, and they are designed to feel wonderful on the skin. The facial cleanser creates a soft foam when mixed with water to lather and rinse away the grime from the day and leave skin feeling fresh.
A customer favorite is the amber primrose facial oil that soaks into the pores of the face and produces a healthy glow. This oil contains 25% stable, lipophilic vitamin C to brighten dark spots, stimulate collagen and elastin production and deeply hydrate. It nourishes fatty acids and has a therapeutic, quick-absorbing blend of restorative oils to balance and firm.
Today her products are in spas, doctor’s offices and wellness locations. They are used by estheticians and by customers who purchase them online.
These exquisite products are handcrafted with love at House of Hilt’s boutique lab in Sarasota. Check out the full line of luxurious face products at www.houseofhilt.com.