Meet Violet Raterman of Tiani Body Care

Today we’d like to introduce you to Violet Raterman.

Hi Violet, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Creating a brand that specializes in clean and safe products was a dream of mine from a young age. Growing up, I had many sensitivities to artificial fragrances, colorings, and synthetic ingredients. At the time, this felt like a burden and I was on a constant mission to find clean products that reacted positively with my skin. I ended up learning the purpose of many ingredients in products, keywords to look for, and found a large gap in the market at the time. This planted a seed in my head and I dreamed of creating my own brand one day, with ingredients that I trusted and believed in.

Fast forward 15 years and found myself trying to decide a career path in collage. I knew deep down where my passion lay, so I decided to purse a science degree for fulfilling the dream of formulating my own brand later in life. I obtained a degree in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology from Michigan State University, then proceeded to work in a plant-based research lab for a few years after graduating. While working in the lab, I begin laying the foundation of my business. This included months of market research, sourcing ingredients, exploring packaging options, as well as determining our brand identity and mission.

After establishing and launching Tiani Body Care, I continued to work in the lab for about two years while working both jobs. Once I had several wholesale accounts, a steady stream of online orders, and a solid following, I decided to step away from the lab to purse my business full-time. This happened earlier than I had anticipated, but was the right move to ensure my business had a solid foundation and I could give it the proper attention to grow. After going full-time with my business, I spent the next five growing my business through our online presence, local farmers markets, shows, pop-ups at stores, expanding our wholesale accounts, and opening up our own storefront. Today, we are now in almost 50 stores around the country, have our own storefront in downtown Dexter, and sell online through several different channels. We are still a very small (but mighty) team and work hard each day to handmake, pour, and label all of our own products.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
For the most part, it has been a very organic and steady growth over the past seven years. We have made it through a pandemic, a large increase of online shopping, packaging backorders, price increases, a decrease in shopping at small downtown stores and balancing motherhood with owning a business. While many of these phases were taxing in our business, they forced us to stay creative and come up with alternate solutions or outlets to maintain our sales. We have added on more events are our storefront to increase in-person shopping and are constantly innovating our business to stay relevant with the times. Even when struggles arise, we are transparent with our loyal customer base and they are patient with our small team.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We specialize in household and personal care products made with plant-based, earth-friendly, and clean ingredients. All of our products are formulated with gentle blends, making them sensitive skin and kid friendly. We also focus on sustainable packaging and offer refills are our storefront for several of our products. Our full product line up includes bar soap, hand soap, castile soap, shampoo bars, conditioner bars, solid dish soap, body lotion, lip balm, hand salve, and bath bombs. All of our products are clean, affordable for the whole family, and add beauty to a kitchen or bathroom.

In addition to Tiani items, we also carry a large number of other brands at our storefront. We carry products from many other Michigan business, women-owned, and businesses that have a similar mission for clean products. We carry laundry, oral care, personal care, facial, haircare, eco-friendly products and a large number of household refills.

Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Yes, I took a course in organic skin care formulation a few years ago and still use their site, as well as their blog, as a main resource and for inspiration when creating new blends. I also follow several small business podcasts that discuss varies topics relating to owning a product based business, or running a brick-and-mortar.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tianibodycare.com
• Instagram: @tianibodycare
• Facebook: @tianibodycare