Add another brand to the list of ‘blooming’ businesses in Wilton: WildBloom Skincare.
The company, co-founded by Wilton resident Alison Smith, has carved out a distinct niche in the growing ‘clean beauty’ market with a line of all-natural, high-performance skincare products.
The company’s origins derive from Green Girl, a skincare line Smith launched several years ago before merging with a Colorado-based company in 2021. While remaining headquartered in Wilton, the business adopted the WildBloom name, with a logo reminiscent of Green Girl and an expanded product line sold primarily in spas and online.
WildBloom promises pure, safe and effective products — with an emphasis on sustainable packaging. The company eliminates secondary packaging and plastics wherever possible — something Smith sees few skincare brands doing.
“You still can go into Target or Sephora or any of those places, and there’s maybe one out of a hundred options that are in any kind of sustainable packaging,” Smith said.
“Glass is expensive and it breaks, but it doesn’t leach into skincare the way [other packaging] can,” Smith added. “That’s why we’ve really committed to it.”
Smith says WildBloom products have a loyal following, with a 65% repeat purchase rate — a rare feat in the competitive beauty market and, she believes, a testament to product performance.
Part of the reason might also be that the company goes more than skin deep — it has made community engagement a key part of its business model.
Corporate and Culture
For Smith, the business and the community are inseparable.
“What’s really important to me is that the success we have goes right back into building something here,” she said, alluding to the company’s efforts to support local nonprofits like Trackside Teen Center and to enrich the cultural landscape in Wilton.
For example, WildBloom recently sponsored the Fairfield County Dance Festival (FCDF), after Smith says she convinced FCDF officials to add Wilton to its summer tour schedule. The free, outdoor event held at Schenck’s Island featured a lineup of local performers and guest dance companies, along with food trucks for the audience to enjoy — and drew over 500 people, Smith said.
“It was really a special event — a cultural gift to our community,” she said.
It wasn’t her company’s first foray into Wilton’s cultural scene. With an eye toward cultural events her company could support, Smith established the nonprofit Culture Crawl, whose series of events have aimed to bring new customers to the Wilton Playshop, local shops and restaurants. With WildBloom as the featured sponsor, the most recent Culture Crawl was a three-night event last fall culminating in a performance of Rent at the Wilton Playshop.
“The idea is [to] share our cross-cultural activities and bring out-of-town residents to come and partake from our businesses and restaurants,” Smith said at the time of the first Culture Crawl event in 2022.
Smith’s dedication to the Wilton community extends beyond her own business and charitable interests. She serves on Wilton’s Economic Development Commission, where she has almost singlehandedly led the EDC’s social media activity since 2021 in an effort to promote and support Wilton businesses. She also leads the Ms. President US program in Wilton, which aims to develop leadership skills and civic engagement in girls in grades four through eight.
But Business Is Still Business
Of course, the community impact Smith seeks can only be maximized if WildBloom is a thriving business. That means not losing sight of its product strategy. As WildBloom’s website states:
“At WildBloom Skincare, we are dedicated to creating products that allow people to make healthier, safer and more informed choices. We believe that your skincare routine should be simple, achieving lasting results and formulated with minimal ingredients.”
But for Smith, the community focus is inextricably linked.
“We’ve really made the company about developing really effective skincare, but using money that’s being made to deploy back into the community, into the communities that we serve,” Smith said.