Beauty Companies Are Getting Back To Business After The Destruction of Hurricanes Helene and Milton

Small beauty companies impacted by Helene and Milton are returning to business as usual and beginning to consider strategies to protect their operations in future natural disasters as they continue to contend with the lingering effects of the hurricanes. 

The two deadly storms have claimed more than 250 lives across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. The total cost of the destruction is still being tallied, but experts predict it could soar as high as $50 billion for each storm, making Helene and Milton among the costliest storms in United States history along with hurricanes Andrew, Katrina and Sandy. In the most heavily impacted cities like Asheville, N.C., power outages, a lack of running water and limited cell service remain issues. 

Augusta, Ga.-based skincare and body care brand Cashmere Moon’s operations were affected for about two weeks following Helene, which struck on Sept. 27. It’s business is generally back to normal now, and once its business resumed, founder Tisha Ayers estimates it processed about $1,400 in delayed orders to retail customers and wholesale partners. 

“Every part of my business was affected from the storm,” she says. “From the onset, we had no power or electricity. That meant that I could no longer make our product, print shipping labels or even notify our customers of their delayed shipments.”

Stocked at over 70 retailers in the U.S., Cashmere Moon manages its own manufacturing and shipping, and it operates a store in the Augusta suburb of Evans, where it sells its products as well as products from third-party brands. Unrelated to the storm, Cashmere Moon plans to close the location next month and revert to an online-only model.

After Helene hit, Ayers sent an email blast out to the brand’s retail partners notifying them that it had been negatively impacted by the storm and they should expect shipping delays. She also posted on the brand’s social media feed and displayed a banner on its website about delayed order processing.

“Thankfully, there was no damage to our store, so when power and internet were fully restored, we were able to start sending orders out,” says Ayers. “There was quite the backlog, so I worked diligently to get all orders out. Once that was done, I sent out another email to notify both retail customers and wholesale partners that we were back at our normal processing times.”

Field Botanicals, a clean beauty retailer with a location in Augusta, was closed for about four days due to Helene. It reopened on October 1 with truncated hours because of a city-wide curfew and resumed regular hours on October 8. While Field Botanicals had minimal structural damage aside from ceiling leaks and water damage to wooden double-front doors, which date back to 1900 and are being replaced, having its store closed during its highest trafficked days—Thursday, Friday and Saturday—was a blow to its sales as it heads into the busy holiday season. It’s postponed two in-store events and is unsure when they’ll be rescheduled. 

“During the first week after the hurricane, many customers came in almost in shock,” says Tinsley. “People were flocking downtown to find food, and we were able to offer donated bottled water and some of our own bug spray as the hurricane brought swarms of these monster mosquitoes.” She adds, “It feels trivial to focus on sales after such a devastating disaster. So many in our community are now dealing with unexpected expenses and losses just as things were starting to look up economically. With the busiest quarter of the year ahead, I’m uncertain what that will mean for our business. Honestly, I just don’t know.”

“Many in our community are now dealing with unexpected expenses and losses just as things were starting to look up economically.”

Located about 50 miles east of Tampa, Winter Haven, Fla.-based skincare brand Herbal Skin Solutions experienced an uptick in sales prior to Milton making landfall in the state on Oct. 10 as it warned customers and wholesale partners of the impending storm. Kaelin Jutras, founder of Herbal Skin Solutions, says her 12-person team sprung into action in the lead up to the storm, reaching out to customers through email newsletters and social media and placing sandbags around the brand’s headquarters. 

“Customer support gave anyone on a subscription plan a chance to have their orders shipped early since we planned for shipping to be on pause during the storm,” says  Jutras. “The day prior to the storm, we shifted roles as much as we possibly could to those who were not going to be affected by the storm. For example, the social media management and customer support roles temporarily moved to a team member on the West Coast. It really helps to have a strong team who are all competent in each other’s tasks so everyone can hop in to help.”

Available in professional spas across the country, Herbal Skin Solutions paused shipping for about three days as a result of Milton’s pounding of Florida, but received assistance from its contract manufacturer, Dermasystems Cosmetics. Jutras says the manufacturer drop-shipped sizable orders to a few of the brand’s accounts. 

As of Thursday, two of Herbal Skin Solutions’ employees were dealing with persistent power, internet and running water troubles, but the company on the whole was conducting business largely as it normally does. Moving forward, Jutras is focused on training the brand’s team members to be as comfortable in each other’s roles in the event of another natural disaster. The brand anticipates setting up fulfillment capacity on the West Coast, whether through its own center or via drop-shipping through its lab partners, to assist it in avoiding storm-related shipping delays in the future. 

Tinsley’s biggest takeaways from Field Botanicals’ experience with Helene is the value of forging strong relationships with neighboring businesses and having cash reserves to withstand the costs of damage and closure. To aid beauty professionals without them, the Professional Beauty Association, an organization of hairstylists, makeup artists, manufacturers, distributors, freelancers, employees, salons, spas, suppliers, beauty schools and students, doled out $200,000 in emergency funds in the wake of Helene and Milton and pled for donations to enable it to sustain disaster relief. 

Conscious Beauty Collective, a retail pop-up and marketing concept featuring over 50 beauty and wellness brands, set up a GoFundMe campaign for the brands Sun Drunk and ADORAtherapy that’s raised more than $5,400 toward its $20,000 goal. St. Petersburg-based Sun Drunk lost almost all its inventory due to Milton, and Asheville-based ADORAtherapy was forced to close its Asheville store due to Helene-related flooding. It has a store in Miami, too.