Naples skin care firm seeks $5M to fuel breakout year in 2025

Asked to choose one word she hopes will define her 2025, Deanna Wallin barely hesitates: preparedness. 

The founder of Naples Soap Co., a $12.3 million publicly traded firm with multiple lines of health and wellness products for the skin and hair, has many reasons to be prepared. Not that she wasn’t prepared before, but 2024 — two major storms, shrinking consumer confidence, inflation, a volatile political season and more — taught her a valuable lesson in being vigilant about planning for the unexpected. “Our new normal is planning for anything,” Wallin says in a late November interview. 

Not all of being prepared carries a negative connotation. Wallin is also preparing for a big step in 2025: bigger brand notoriety outside Florida and boutiques across the Southeast.. While Naples Soap Co. products are also sold on Amazon and its own site, Wallin is aiming high for awareness. “We want to become a national brand,” she says. 

One way Naples Soap aims to do that is through raising more capital: it seeks to raise $5 million, according to the Form C it filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission in August.

The company — its shares are traded on the over-the-counter market under the symbol NASO — sent out an investor prospectus in the summer touting what it plans to do with the funds. “We’re focusing on expanding our wholesale operations and enhancing our national e-commerce presence,” the company says. “Our new product lines are tailored for major retailers, and we’re particularly excited about our soap and shampoo bars, which are standout products among our 600 offerings.” 

Funding will also go toward R&D, as the company says its “developing proprietary 3D plant stem cell products using NASA bioreactor technology.”

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Going up against some of the big players in the $110 billion global skin care industry, of course, is a large challenge. The company addresses that in its FAQs of its investor prospectus, saying the NASA-licensed technology gives it “a unique edge in anti-aging product development. Plus, our focus on natural, effective solutions for sensitive skin sets us apart in a market dominated by harsh chemicals.”

Also, Wallin, the Small Business Development Center at Florida Gulf Coast University Distinguished Entrepreneur for 2024, has overcome long odds before. 

A nurse by trade, Wallin battled eczema and psoriasis, as did her daughter, for years. None of the products on the market worked to solve the issue. So she created her natural skin care line through a lot of trial and error. Her first store opened in 2009, in a 300-square-foot spot in Naples. The company now has 13 locations in Florida from the east coast to the Panhandle, with about half on the west coast.

Sales have grown along with the store network. The company projects $15 million to $16 million in sales in 2024, according to the investor prospectus, up from $12.3 million in 2023. But that revenue growth has come at a cost: Naples Soap had $1.96 million in short-term debt in its most recent fiscal year, its public filings show. It also posted net income losses of -$955,133 and -$864,814 in each of the past two fiscal years, the records show. 

Even with financial and other challenges — hurricane season is five months away — Wallin remains undaunted in her quest to raise Naples Soap’s profile. “We think with the election behind us,” Wallin says, “consumer spending will improve.” 

And if not, or if any other challenge comes the company’s way, Wallin is determined to be more prepared than ever. “It’s not what happens to you,” she says, “it’s what you do with it.”