Our Story
Hi, Im Nate, I want to share with you how Crown and Cross Cosmetics started and where we are today and where we are headed.
I worked 18 years in the oil and gas industry all over the world. In this industry you have to be clean shaven every single day. After retiring from this industry I am now taking advantage of all the years that I missed growing a beard, it has been a journey. Once I got past the 3-4 month beard growth period, I started to really enjoy the whole beard thing.
From bad beard days to dryness, itching and flaking to an uncontrollable mess. I decided to find a local barber to get my 1st trim and hopefully gain some wisdom. After sharing with her all my beard problems, she introduced me to beard oil to which I frowned upon. Naturally, before purchasing this stuff I did my research. I was shocked at how many companies were out there producing and selling this stuff that I never even knew existed.
I was amazed at the benefits this stuff has for your hair and skin! Since I was a great student in science class and understood most theories I decided to try making my own products. I started learning about various carrier oils and essential oils, how they work, what the benefits are, what combines well and what doesn’t.
Over the next six to seven months and approximately 50 -/+ failed recipes later…..I finally had 4 beard oils that hit all the right notes, were nice and light, non-greasy and smelled awesome. I was totally in love with this stuff. My beard was now 2″ in length, soft, shiny, healthy and smelled amazing. So much so, that my friends and co-workers started growing beards as well. They could see that this stuff was actually working. This is where the problems started. Remember when I said; “It worked for me”? Well, it didn’t work for them nor their wives/girlfriends etc… This was when I realized that just because something works for me does not mean it will work for someone else. I was quick to point out that I would keep giving them free product as long as in return they give me feedback. The response was very positive. Even though I was not 100% happy with my beard oils just yet, my buddies still wanted some and were actually willing to PAY me for it now, who was I to complain? We made a deal. They test my product, give me feedback on every detail (this includes their wives and girlfriends etc…liking the scent) and they get 20-50% discounts on their purchases. This was our version of turning lemons into lemonade.
One thing led to another and we kept hustling until we had perfected this thing to where everybody was happy…Oh, almost forgot, through this whole experience our beard balm was also produced and being tested. Even my 7-year-old daughter was getting into the action, she was promoting and selling our products at her school, one of her customers was the VP. I have a feeling she will one day be great in sales…she is an amazing talker and very convincing. We quickly realized that we had more than just a great hobby here, we felt this may actually be a great little home business; wasn’t too long after that we created Crown and Cross.
Now early into 2017, the magic was happening…company name, logo, labels, hardware, inventory and suppliers. On March 21st 2017 Kingsmen Beard Products launched a public Facebook page!
Approximately 1 year later we quickly realized that just creating beard products was not what we wanted to do. We wanted to do more, we wanted to create the best mens grooming products and re-define the mens cosmetics market. Knowing our company name had to change we decides to rename to Kingsmen Grooming Products. Soon after we laughed our full shaving line that consists of shaving and after shave products. Not stopping there, we began research and development on creating hair grooming and skin products. We are currently located in 17 stores and growing, won a signature award for our brand/logo, are gaining traction in the USA market, working on lauching our Amazon Canada store in 2020 and have an amazing website that we can receive and ship orders world wide.
How are we different than other brands out there? There’s many ways we are different but lets just pick one; We don’t sit in a lab assuming people/the market wants certain products, scents, consistencies etc..we let the market and our customers tell us what they want. When we are in the research and development stage we reach out to our customers and followers via our social media platforms and explain what we are woking on or even ask them what they want us to make. We offer free samples with conditions. The conditions that our customers must give us feedback on include; How the product performs on various skin types, skin colour, hair types, dry & oily skin and so on. We also need to know if the product is consistent, how they react to the scent and even how they enjoy the pigment or colour of the product. This process usually takes about 6-12 months. Once we have all the feedback gathered we then decide on what needs to change or be altered. After the alterations (if there needs to be any) we proceed to hand out samples again and again until every single person who’s tried it is happy with the product. We do not launch any products until they haven been tested on every single skin and hair type. So you see, amognst many other reasons this is how we are different, this is why we can claim that our products are great for all. We don’t take credit in getting everything right and assuming the market wants certain things. We take pride in boosting that our customers are 100% involved in helping us build every single product from scratch to product launch.
We’re a Manitoba based small business that produces top quality mens & women grooming products. We are have been blessed with four beautiful energetic children, amazing friends and family and could not have made this possible without them. It is our privilege to serve you with all your grooming needs and our promise to always stay authentic and consistently produce the best cosmetic products on the market. We want to be the best, that’s our goal! We will always be looking for new ways to improve our company, products and service that is a promise, to be able to do that we will be relying on you, our customers for your valued feedback.
We are Nate & Juls Wollman, We are Crown and Cross Cosmetics.