Sugar Is Good For Your Skin

Apr 20, 2025

What is your name, where are you from?

Roberta Perry, originally from Merrick, NY. I live in Plainview, NY for the last 31 years.

What do you like most about Plainview?

I love living both near the water and near NYC. I am a bike rider and an inline skater, so I love being on the bike paths, whether from my home to work, or by the ocean. I also love live theater and great concerts, so having NYC a train ride away is a treat.

What’s your backstory?

My own skin was super rough and chapped, so when I started bleeding after scratching my elbow, I knew it was time for something better for my skin.

Exfoliating scrubs were the answer, but I could not find anything I really loved. So, I took all things I liked and cut out the things I didn’t, and created my own sugar scrub.

My late sister, Michelle, suggested we sell at craft fairs, so I bought some empty jars and extra ingredients and we did! That started ScrubzBody.

What are your income streams?

We sell retail in our shop in Farmingdale, NY and online.

We sell wholesale on Faire. We sell white label in packaged jars and bottles, and gallon buckets for our clients to jar on their own.

We host Make Your Own Scrubz Parties for kids and adults at our store, but also have a Make Your Own to Go Box.

Twice a year we go to large holiday fairs. Having various ways to make money really helps balance the business during slower retail times.

How have you grown the business?

I have been in business since 2006, so I am grateful and proud to have built a really loyal base of repeat customers. By moving to a vibrant town, we were able to develop our party and event business, which is community minded.

And welcome new walk-in customers. We donate to good causes, putting our product directly into people's hands by way of a raffle or goodie bags.

I use direct relationships with writers, as well as the query services to gain exposure for our business.

I send out weekly emails and also have 2 big sales a year which our customers are so excited about that they advertise it for us.

Customer service is probably our best action and the reason we have grown into the type of business that we are.

What is your favorite product?

If I am stuck on a desert island and can only have one product, it is the Scrubz+Plus. I took our regular, amazing sugar scrub, and gave it a plus for drier, or older skin, with the addition of our Balmz cream whipped in.

I am in my 60’s so I love even more moisturizing, which the Plus has. It is my nightly facial scrub and then after rinsing, I massage the oils and butters right in.

If you could go back, would you do anything differently?

I would have hired someone with more business experience than I or my sister had. I had some, but we were both more creative.

When Michelle passed, and my dear friend Wendy came in, she helped organize things better and really took over as the production VP. This gave me the freedom to be more creative, be the face and the marketing side while she took care of the other stuff.

What are your goals?

We have luckily grown by word of mouth by customers sharing us with family and friends. I will work toward keeping that in place by continually offering stellar customer service and quality products.

I love making people feel good about themselves so more of that is on my goal list. I also set up a course and would like to teach other potential skincare business owners how to do the first steps.