If you’ve ever walked into our shop, you don’t have to look for where Simple Body is made—it’s right there, taking up almost half the store. No curtain. No back room. No mysterious “lab” hidden behind a door. Just us, our burners, our pots, our mixers, and the whole operation happening in full view of anyone wandering in for a toner or a chat. It’s honest. It’s transparent. And it’s a huge part of who we are.
People often assume that once a brand grows, the next “logical” step is to hand everything over to a contract manufacturer. And yes, that may make sense someday. But right now? We’re exactly where we want to be, formulating and filling bottles in a space small enough that everyone learns a pretty quick dance of “after you… no, after you.” Let me tell you why that still feels right.
The upsides of making everything ourselves
There’s real freedom in small-batch production. We can make a tiny run if we need it. We can make a bigger run if the weekend is going to be busy. If something is low, we add it to tomorrow’s schedule. No waiting for a factory slot, no juggling a six-week lead time, no calculating whether we can afford to sit on 5,000 containers for the next six months. We choose our pace—something every small brand dreams about. Since we make products regularly, customers get them when the ingredients are at their strongest—not months after they were produced.
Customers also love seeing the process. They ask questions. They watch us pour. They get to see that these aren’t mass-produced products—they’re made right here. There’s a sort of “cool factor” you can’t fake. And for us, the best part is the control: every step, every gram, every sanitation check is ours. You can’t beat that level of oversight.
But we won’t sugarcoat the challenges
A tiny production area has its quirks. And by quirks, I mean: loud mixers, limited counter space, strict sanitization routines, and the daily choreography of keeping everything sterile while people browse just a few feet away.
We don’t get bulk ingredient discounts because we’re not buying 500 pounds of anything at a time. We have to be careful with energy usage because, well, the electrical panel has opinions. Labeling, dating, and packaging all happen in tight quarters. Large wholesale orders push our limits. And with only one head of production and two burners, we can only go so fast.
These are the honest, unfiltered realities of choosing to keep things in-house—especially in a small, very visible space.
What people don’t always realize about contract manufacturing
It sounds glamorous: “Just send it out for production!” But behind the scenes, it’s rarely that simple.
When you move production offsite, you’re suddenly working inside someone else’s system. Their timelines. Their ingredient suppliers. Their pricing. Their schedule. You have to fight for a slot on their calendar, and if they’re behind, guess who else is behind?
Shipping pallets of finished product back to Simple Body would be expensive. You can’t stand over the batch and check every phase of the process. You have to trust their sanitization practices, their staff, and their attention to detail. And there’s always the quiet fear that your proprietary formulas could slip into the wrong hands.
Most customers never see that side of it—but it’s very real for brand owners.
So why stay small—at least for now?
Because doing it ourselves lets us stay close to the heart of what we make. It keeps our formulas fresh, our process transparent, our production flexible, and our connection to customers strong. We can pivot. We can educate. We can answer questions in real time. We can stand behind every product because we’ve been part of every phase of it.
Someday we may move into a bigger space or partner with a manufacturer for certain products. But today? We choose this tiny, bustling, visible production area because it lets us serve our customers the way we believe is best.
It’s not perfect. It’s not roomy. But it’s honest, it works, and it’s us.
xoxo,
Jewels