PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. — We're introducing you to some DMV entrepreneurs and small businesses with some of the area's best shopping, just in time for the holiday season. If you're looking for skin and body care, look no further than BrookieGirl Bath and Body in Prince George's County. The family-owned business specializes in being so fresh and so clean, while staying all natural.
You could say retired Navy veteran Shaun Hand has a nose for her business. When you walk inside BrookieGirl at the National Harbor, you'll find everything when it comes to fragrances. There's shea butter, lotion, bath bombs, body washes, essential oils and candles. And it's all natural.
Every product in this family fragrance business has ingredients specifically to moisturize and hydrate the skin.
Hand said the business started out in her home.
"The stuff that my mom was making, they always had natural ingredients. So I was like 'I'll make you something, I'll make you some lotion,'" Hand said.
The family started making goods together at the kitchen table for her daughter Brooklyn's Girl Scout troop.
"It was a time for me and her to work together. When everyone started buying it, we thought we could really do something. The whole family got involved. It's always been family," Hand said.
Their items got so popular, they started selling out of a tent at the harbor. What started with a 10 by 10 tent, has grown into a storefront named after Hand's daughter. She said it wasn't easy for the military family to make the move to a brick-and-mortar business.
"I told my husband with three small kids, 'What if I fail,' You know what he told me? 'What if you fly?'"
Now the family has a thriving business that caters not only to the body, but to the spirit of its customers, with its all-natural fragrances, lotions and scrubs. It actually turned into a life learning lesson for them all.
"I told my kids one day I said when I'm gone and it's my time, what I want on my tombstone is a shooting star. I want you to know I gave it everything I had," Hand said. "When you're thinking about a business, thinking about your venture, you gotta step out on faith."
For more info on BrookieGirl, click here.