BY LEE ANN SANDWEISS
When Tracy Land was downsized out of her IT job in 2009, she didn’t see it as the end of the world. Instead, she saw it as an opportunity to do something she’d often thought about: start her own skincare company.
Land began by developing recipes for natural skincare products, mixing the lotions in her kitchen. When she felt she had the formula just right, she cashed in her 401(k) and launched Frangipani Body Products in August 2009.
“I have had sensitive skin my whole life and developed rosacea as an adult,” says Land, 36, a self-described beauty product addict. Over the years, she made a few lotions and shared them with friends who encouraged her to sell them.
Land named her company Frangipani, a flower that is dear to many Hoosier hearts. It is referred to in “Hail to Old IU”—the university’s alma mater song—and is also the name of a popular meeting room in the Indiana Memorial Union. A native Bloomingtonian who graduated with a business degree from IU, Land was aware of those associations but chose the flower for another reason. “The frangipani is said to restore peace and inner harmony. I wanted peaceful skin.”
Land still makes everything at her Indianapolis home from recipes she formulated herself. Her father Larry, a former automotive engineer, helps her bottle and package the products. “His production experience has been invaluable to me being able to scale production from making just one bottle to making a hundred at a time,” she says. “When demand reaches a level that I can’t make it all myself, I plan to outsource production to a local manufacturer here in Indiana.”
Frangipani Body Products currently make 13 all-natural, plant-based products for all skin types, from acne-prone to mature skin. The company’s bestselling product, Frangipani’s Shea Butter Softening Lotion, won Natural Solutions magazine’s Beauty with a Conscience award for best facial moisturizer in 2011.
Land and her mother, Cindy, regularly hold demonstrations at stores and trade shows. Frangipani products are sold at a number of stores in the Indianapolis area and in Bloomington at Bloomingfoods. The products also are available through the company’s website.
