In eight short years, personal care brand Salt & Stone has carved out its niche with viral velocity. Founded by former professional snowboarder Nima Jalali in Los Angeles in 2017, today, the company reports triple-digit, year-over-year (YoY) revenue growth, and one product sells every seven seconds.
Salt & Stone positions itself at the intersection of nature, science, and experience: a place where luxurious, nature-inspired scents combine with skincare actives, presented in chic, minimalist packaging in pastel and neutral shades, with mid-range price points. "We see it as a full 360 experience. From the product design—something you’re proud to leave on your counter—to the scent and the way it performs, we want it to feel premium and effective,” Jalali told BeautyMatter.
Transforming everyday products like body wash and deodorant into something with aesthetic appeal has an undeniable allure, making the everyday extraordinary. Salt & Stone is on a steep proverbial slope to success by tapping into that sentiment while drawing in ingredient-conscious consumers and the burgeoning category of premium fragrance shoppers. Harnessing the power of TikTok-led discovery, that holy trinity has accelerated the brand’s path to the top. After all, 43.9% of American beauty shoppers rank ingredients as a crucial factor in their purchasing decisions, the US prestige fragrance market grew by 12% in 2024, and 61% of TikTok users discover new brands on the platform.
As a pro snowboarder throughout his 20s, Jalali immersed himself in the health and wellness space following a knee injury towards the end of his career. Driven by a desire to heal as quickly as possible, he started exploring natural personal care brands in the aisles of Erewhon while picking up organic produce. “I struggled to find products that actually performed but were also a pleasure to use. Deodorants, for example, were either ineffective or chalky and unpleasant. Design-wise, I also felt the category was lacking. I saw an opportunity to create a natural bodycare brand that looked better, worked better, and felt better."
He found a strong grounding in his athletic roots for the challenges of the entrepreneurial journey. "Being a pro snowboarder taught me resilience. There’s so much failure in that sport—you’re constantly falling or trying tricks over and over until you land them.” That mindset translated into building his business. “Not everything works on the first try. You have to keep testing, failing, and pushing forward.”
Previous ventures, like founding the snowboarding apparel company HOWL Supply, equipped Jalali with a general roadmap of mistakes to avoid, while his network of founders and industry friends provided a great resource to bounce ideas off of. Jalali is eager to recreate that strong bond within Salt & Stone, which currently has a team of approximately 40 employees.
“I’ve been really focused on building an all-star team with deep experience.” That team includes Glossier alumna Abby Tellam as CMO, The Estée Lauder Companies alumnus Luis-Ali Villegas as Senior Vice President of Global Sales, and Malin+Goetz alumna Ciello Tuazon as Vice President of Product Development.
The brand’s product lineup is heavy on bodycare and deodorants but also includes a facial cleanser and candles. Top-selling SKUs include Santal & Vetiver Deodorant and Bergamot & Hinoki Body Wash. Salt & Stone has also collaborated with Grammy Award-winning musician Leon Bridges, recreation brand Outdoor Voices, streetwear brand Stussy, and clothing and lifestyle brand and designer collective Brain Dead.
Formulas include moisturizing glycerin and red algae in its body mist, while the body lotion has brightening niacinamide. “We're always obsessing over ingredients and exploring new innovations to ensure our products are as effective as possible.”
Each SKU revolves around one of the brand’s five scents: Santal & Vetiver, Bergamot & Hinoki, Saffron & Cedar, Black Rose & Oud, and Neroli & Basil. Jalali noted that fine-tuning each scent with a perfumer and adjusting said fragrance for each format can take years. “We never release anything unless all our internal testers are absolutely excited about it.
The brand’s hero product is its deodorant, which boasts 48-hour protection and contains seaweed extracts, hyaluronic acid, and probiotics for a microbiome-balancing and anti-inflammatory effect. "Our product team is obsessed with perfecting formulas. We went through eight iterations of the deodorant before we finally felt like we nailed it,” Jalali said.
At the time of the interview, Salt & Stone was the number one-selling deodorant on Amazon. Salt & Stone’s post-purchase surveys show that customers are switching over to the brand’s offerings from both mass and prestige brands. “We're reaching a lot of different types of customers and having them trade over from a lot of different brands, which is a really exciting space to operate within,” Tellam said.
Jalali, who is also the company’s CEO, credited the authentic relationships the brand built with creators as a big part of its online success. “We’ve been very focused on digital and marketing to make sure the brand shows up in a way that feels differentiated and compelling. People often talk about how our deodorant replaced their perfume or how they get compliments on the scent from strangers—that kind of real feedback drives organic virality," he said.
That virality includes its Instagram following growing 97% year over year (YoY), with over 150,000 new followers and a 95% increase in influencer mentions. On Instagram, the brand currently has 324K followers and 30.5K followers on TikTok, where a video by @alexanicolecollins praising the brand’s deodorant was viewed 13.8M times.
Accommodating that boost required an expansion on Salt & Stone’s operations side. “It has definitely been a challenge—we’ve had products sell out during viral moments—but we’re constantly updating our demand planning to stay ahead." In February 2024, Jalali brought on Miranda Martin as Director of Operations, who previously held director positions at Youth to the People and Drunk Elephant.
In August 2024, the brand announced a minority investment from Humble Growth, the investment firm’s first entry in the beauty category, to help expand the brand’s Sephora, Amazon, and DTC channels, as well as launch a new category. At the time of the announcement, Humble Growth co-founder Dr. Andrew Abraham praised the impressive success of the brand and Jalali’s “passion for innovation and his ambition to steer the beauty and wellness industry in a direction that prioritizes body and mind equally.” Jalali calls the partnership “a new and positive chapter.”
Salt & Stone is currently stocked across 1,500 doors globally, including Sephora across the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, the UK, and Southeast Asia, as well as Nordstrom, Erewhon, and Dover Street Parfums Market in Paris. The brand’s sales were 70% DTC and 30% wholesale in 2024, a number which the company is expecting to shift to a 60%/40% split this year.
Jalali plans on turning the huge wave of momentum around the brand into a legacy that endures the ebbs and flows of the market. “We're just getting started. We see the momentum continuing with new categories and scents, and growing our global retail presence. We want Salt & Stone to be a household name in the premium bodycare space.” With an esteemed leadership team and an evergrowing audience, the odds are in their favor.