Lily Farm Fresh Skin Care will pull back the curtain on the beauty product production process at a farm center inviting visitors to observe its USDA-certified organic skincare laboratory and explore the land upon where its skincare ingredients grow.
Located on 80 acres in Keenesburg, Colo., the center slated to open in the summer features 8,000 square feet of buildings housing the laboratory and spaces for other purveyors of natural products to display their manufacturing systems. On the farm around them, Lily Farm Fresh Skin Care will grow some 25 varieties of herbs, including chamomile, lavender and calendula, that are put in its formulas and people will be able to pick.
“We really want to engage with our customers and promote agriculture. We hope to be a major agri-tourist destination in Colorado,” says Lily Morgan, who founded Lily Farm Fresh Skin Care in 1986. “People are very interested in getting their hands in the dirt. It’s going to be an experience, and I think a lot of people from Denver will be really happy to come by on a Saturday.”
The farm center has taken three years and roughly $1.2 million to come to fruition. Morgan bought the property in 2015 and, for one-and-a-half years after that, dealt with securing zoning approval. Lily Farm Fresh Skin Care is now permitted to erect 80,000 square feet of structures.
Morgan originally set her sights on the Keenesburg farm to escape encroaching population density at a 15-acre Lily Farm Fresh Skin Care property in Henderson about 20 miles away that she acquired in the 1990s. Morgan’s total landholdings amount to 265 acres.
“When we bought the place, we were out in the country. Now, it’s in the middle of suburbia. People might think that’s cool, but I don’t. Who wants to go to a farm in suburbia? I know I don’t,” says Morgan. “In Colorado, growth is on fire.”
To evaluate whether to establish a farm center in Keenesburg, Morgan created a pro and con list of reasons. There were 159 reasons in favor of the center and none against it.
“Out of my 159 reasons to do it, maybe four or five were money. I have a big debt to pay off, and I would like to maybe make a little wage, but, honestly, I don’t need to make a lot of money,” says Morgan. “This is all about creating community and being with friends. We can have parties and blues festivals. I can do whatever the hell I want with it. It’s about freedom.”
Morgan believes weddings could be a significant money maker at the farm center. Meanwhile, she continues to run a brand with 25 products, including bestsellers Tuckered Farmer Bath Soap, Rejuvenating Enzyme Mask and Kissable Lips. Priced mainly from $4.89 to $35, Lily Fresh Farm Skin Care’s merchandise is available in 125 retail doors at the likes of Natural Grocers and Whole Foods Market. The brand is making inroads into gift shops as well with a trio of products emphasizing its Colorado connection.
Next year, Morgan forecasts Lily Farm Fresh Skin Care could generate $1 million in sales. She’s not looking to turn the brand into a huge business. “Most companies want to grow, grow, grow, be in every store in America and be at $10 million. That’s not really the goal,” says 59-year-old Morgan. “Certainly, you have to have enough money to pay off your bills, but I want to have fun. I have got God knows how many years left, and I want to have a good time.”
A pioneer of organic beauty products and a 7th generation American farmer, Morgan never wanted to follow in her forbearers footsteps onto the farm. Stubborn adult acne brought her back to farming. She searched for organic ingredients to concoct solutions for her breakouts and couldn’t find any. She began to cultivate her own and developed Balancing Oil Free Conditioning Serum with them. Natural Grocers stocked the product in its two first stores. The chain currently has around 140 units.
“Because we weren’t using synthetic chemicals, it took a decade or two to [learn how to] preserve the products. We went through 10,000 trials to get them to be preserved for a year,” says Morgan. “Early on at Wild Oats, the woman there who brought the products in called me one day and said, ‘Lily, all your creams went bad.’ I was freaking out, but she wasn’t upset in the least. She said, ‘Now I know that these products really don’t have synthetic chemicals.’”
Today, consumer and formulator knowledge about synthetic chemical-free skincare is much greater than it was when Morgan started Lily Farm Fresh Skin Care. She estimates the brand’s email list contains 5,000 people, and many of them are intrigued by the chance to view skincare getting made. In addition, Morgan notes staff at retailers carrying Lily Farm Fresh Skin Care are curious about farm and lab tours. Natural Grocers employees have already checked out brand’s existing facilities.
“I don’t want to be a part of the way American business is moving toward to do with the call centers and auto responders. It just seems like a bore to me. I want to have the customers out and show them what we are doing. It’s the opposite of what everyone else in America is doing,” says Morgan. “It’s high touch, not high tech.”
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