EcoPlum Shines a Spotlight on its B Corp Suppliers: Raining Rose Made in the USA, Sustainable Personal Care Products

This is the third profile in our blogpost series about our B Corp suppliers.

If you’ve ever received a branded lip balm or lotion in a swag bag, there’s a good chance it came from Raining Rose—a company you may not know by name, but one that is quietly behind some of the most recognizable custom personal care products in the marketplace.

Raining Rose, Inc. is a full-service manufacturer and supplier of personal care promotional products, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The company is one of the nation’s leading private-label and contract manufacturers. Their expertise is producing retail-quality lip balms, sunscreens, and lotions—all proudly Made in the USA with high-quality and organic ingredients.

Raining Rose is a Certified B Corporation®, meeting high standards of accountability, transparency, and social and environmental performance. With third party audits conducted regularly, their corporate headquarters and production facility is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified, FDA (Federal Drug Administration) registered, and is one of the few companies certified to manufacture USDA (US Department of Agriculture) organic products.

Raining Rose, 30 Years in Business

Founded nearly nearly 30 years ago, in 1996, Raining Rose began as a small lip balm manufacturer operating out of a family kitchen. When owners Chuck Hammond and Art Christoffersen acquired the business in 2003, it was still in the family kitchen! Mr. Hammond serves as President and CEO of the company. Under his leadership, Raining Rose has grown steadily into a business with over 300 employees, two primary divisions, and a 127,000-square-foot production facility.

What Makes Raining Rose Unique?

Values, transparency, sustainability and service drive the company with key attributes below:

All products Made in the USA, reducing tariff risk and transportation costs
Made in the USA packaging that is recyclable, compostable, or reusable
Certified B Corporation®
Rare certification in the US to manufacture USDA Organic products
FDA-registered production facility
Blue Zones® Designated Workplace promoting a healthier environment for employees
Belief in being a company that does good and promotes good
Vertically integrated full-service, in-house production from R&D to delivery
Breadth of turnkey services for small and large brands
Custom formulation, private labeling, promotional branding offered
Recognized as a service driven company

Products that Deliver Made in the USA, Sustainably

You won’t see Raining Rose products on store shelves, but their products may be in your home, office, or car! The company offers custom and contract-manufactured personal care items for over 200 brands.

The Raining Rose product line includes a wide range of responsibly made body care products, all Made in the USA and high-quality. These include:

Lip Balms

Raining Rose is a leader in producing lip balms, using safe, high-quality ingredients: shea butter, beeswax, and coconut oil. It is their signature product offered in countless flavors, natural and organic options, and with fully customizable labels.

Shea Nuts, sourced by the company from Burkina Faso, Africa, are used to make shea butter and help provide employment and income for women in 19 African countries.

Beeswax, sourced directly from beekeepers all over the world, which promotes economic development and beekeeper safety. Beeswax is biodegradable and non-toxic and does not clog pores. The company uses 33,000 pounds of beeswax every month!

Coconut oil, comes from coconut palms in hot, rainy, tropical climates. The company sustainably sources its coconut oil from the Philippines, where their farmers follow standards set by the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), the basis for certification by the Rainforest Alliance.

Lotions and Body Butter

The company’s skincare lotions and body butter use skin-nourishing ingredients such as aloe vera, cocoa butter, jojoba oil, and sunflower oil.

Aloe vera plants are native to Mexico, where the soil is volcanic and rich in calcium and magnesium. The warm dry climate enables aloe to grow all year long.

Cocoa butter is responsibly sourced from Peru and West Africa and it is natural, organic, and fair trade.

Jojoba oil is actually a wax that does not clog pores and contains nourishing vitamins and minerals. It is sourced in the southern US and Mexico.

Sunflower oil is derived from seeds of sunflower plants in North and Central America.

Sunscreens

Raining Rose also produces two lines of sunscreens, Tropical and Mineral sunscreen. Both lines are paraben-free, use limited ingredients, and provide broad-spectrum SFP protection. They say that their mineral sunscreens are the cleanest in the promotional products industry, made with zinc oxide that will not harm coral reefs and with moisturizing sunflower oil.

Zinc oxide is a natural protectant against UVA and UVB rays. The zinc oxide sourced for their mineral sunscreen products is 99.9% pure and manufactured specifically for Raining Rose. It is sourced from areas in the United States and Canada.

Their zinc oxide vendors are FDA-certified and have earned the Gold Star Award for plant safety.On top of this, the company has adopted environmentally conscious practices that have reduced their water usage by 33.3%.

B Corp Certified: Business as a Force for Good

Raining Rose became a Certified B Corporation (B Corp) in 2019, marking a formal recognition of their commitment to using business as a force for good. Certified B Corps are for-profit enterprises that meet high standards of environmental and social performance, transparency, and accountability. Unlike traditional companies that make decisions based on shareholders, B Corps are required to consider the impact of their decisions on shareholders plus other stakeholders including: workers, suppliers, community, customers, and the environment. B Corps prioritize people, planet, and profit in their businesses.

B Corps are evaluated and verified in a rigorous assessment by the nonprofit B Lab on their:

Environmental impact
Worker treatment
Supplier accountability
Customer transparency
Community engagement
Governance and transparency

Raining Rose has captured its core operating values in its ASPIRE program, which stands for Attitude, Safety, Passion, Integrity, Relationships, Evolve. These values drive their decision-making and emphasize a people-centric and growth-driven culture. The company prides itself on delivering customer satisfaction as its primary goal.

Giving Back: 1% for the Planet, 100% for Bee Keeping

Raining Rose donates 1% of its annual profits to Heifer International, an Arkansas nonprofit that seeks to lift communities from poverty and eradicate hunger all over the globe.

Heifer has a mission to end hunger and poverty sustainably with support and investment directed to local farmers and communities in 21 countries around the world. Their community development efforts focus broadly on empowering women, connecting communities, and protecting the environment. At a more micro level, the goals are to improve income, food security, and nutrition among farming families.

Raining Rose directs 100% of its donations through Heifer to support honeybees, supplies, and training for beekeepers. Beeswax is an important and primary ingredient for many of the company’s lip balms and Raining Rose understands the importance of honeybees to producing successful crops. That’s why the company is directing its donations to Central and South American families to help them scale their beekeeping operations and improve their lives.

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EcoPlum Sustainable Swag® Lip Balms and Lotions

EcoPlum® offers a great selection of Raining Rose sustainably produced lip balms, lotions, combo packs and kits. All can be branded with a company logo or message. Here are some of our favorites for a great corporate or employee gift package, or to promote your organization at an event. EcoPlum offers a variety of popular kits with a selection of items, or will work with clients to create a customized package of their choosing.

Travel Pack

This must-have travel pack includes Topical Sunscreen Tottle with Carabiner, Hand Sanitizer Spray, Lip Balm, Lotion, and Broad Spectrum SPF 30 Sun Stick.

USDA Organic Lip Balm

The Raining Rose organic lip balms are one of the perennial favorites with EcoPlum customers for a memorable small promotional item that has a big, long-lasting branding impact.

Golf Kit

This USA-made, eco friendly kit includes a perfect combo of skin protecting products for dry, hot conditions: unscented Broad Spectrum SPF Sun Stick, moisture Soothing Stick, and Iced Pear flavored SPF Lip Balm. Comes in a TSA-approved bag.

Carry-On Kit

Perfect companion pack for a getaway. The see-through bag is TSA-approved, eco-friendly, and holds USA-made Hand Sanitizer, Unscented Lotion, Tropical Sunscreen, and two empty bottles for shampoo, conditioner, etc.

Aromatherapy Room Spray

This trio includes three curated scents to elevate the ambiance of any room: Calm (Lavender), Energy (Citrus), and Wellness (Cinnamon).

As a certified B Corp, Raining Rose believes in being a business that does good and promotes good, with a focus on:

Exceptional service
Expertise in personal care product manufacturing
Integrity and clarity dealing with customers
People and planet
Exploring new ways to provide value to customers

The company may be behind the scenes, but their impact is front and center. With a values-driven mission and product leadership, they are a powerhouse in personal care manufacturing.

And so EcoPlum salutes Raining Rose.

Editors’ Note:

EcoPlum is a B Corporation and distributor of sustainable promotional products, including those manufactured by Raining Rose. Ask us about our ongoing Made in USA promotion!