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The Healf Source
How Hollie King Built A Business Using Suncream And Medicinal Mushrooms
From a Facebook ad to £23M in revenue in 2025, Sweet Bee Organics is carving its own space in the wellbing world.
Written by: Currie Engel Weber
Written on: July 29, 2026
When Hollie King posted her first ad for her homemade, non-toxic suncream on Facebook — a little video she made on a Canva-like platform after teaching herself how to make one on YouTube — she put £20 per day on an American Express credit card, crossed her fingers, and hit "post." It was early 2018, and King had researched ingredients and how to concoct non-toxic suncream at home for her two kids after struggling to find one she wanted to put on their skin.
It was also a financially stressful period, and so, with some encouragement from friends, King decided to try selling her clean suncream to make a little cash on the side.
"The first day, I made £600," the founder tells me when we meet in late June, eight years after that fateful decision. About a month later, she had made £30,000 on her suncream, and realised she was on to something. Now, her company, Sweet Bee Organics, has a team of about 100 people, manufacturing sites in the UK and US, and made £23M in revenue last year. King's products, which include everything from suncream to magnesium butter, organic deodorant, soap, and botanical and mushroom concoctions, are stocked in 79 locations across the United Kingdom and one in Europe.
"I'm just a very tenacious person. When I set my mind to this," says King. "I just knew that this was my way out of my current situation and also my way into creating my own destiny."
Big life shifts
It's not uncommon for women to undergo a total transformation when they become a mother for the first time. After all, you're suddenly responsible for a little life — feeding, cleaning, and caring for a vulnerable child who relies almost entirely upon you. It makes sense that women start to question what they're putting in and on their bodies and their children's bodies during this time, curtailing the use of certain products while curating others.
"Motherhood changes all of us immensely," says King. "The start that you give your child is so important."
In reality, King's shift started before her first son was born. Having already been interested in health and wellbeing since her days living in New York, that first pregnancy found her investing even more in her health and wellness for the sake of her unborn child.
Around 2019, King started exploring more ways to support her health and wellness, and discovered medicinal mushrooms through Dr. Kate James, an NHS doctor-turned-integrative health practitioner, and decided to harness their power in her own products.
For King, these big life changes and challenges provided plenty of inspiration for Sweet Bee Organics. And developing new products brings her immense joy. "It's what I care about most," she says. "It's what wakes me up in the middle of the night, and it's my main driver."
When her son had trouble sleeping, she focussed her attention on creating a magnesium butter that could replace the magnesium sprays which bothered him and made his legs tingle uncomfortably. "All of a sudden, just sales were coming in, loads of sales for Sweet Sleep, and it really got big when women in the menopause world caught hold of it," says King.
Founder's stack
If you're wondering what it takes to fuel a founder, King's own stacks are packed with a plethora of wellbeing darlings. It makes sense when you think about founders being steeped in this world 24/7.
Every morning, after a mandatory five to 10 minutes of a barefoot gratitude practice in the sunshine with her kids, King mixes a scoop of Ancient Nutrition fibre, Sweet Bee's Radiant Tremella Infusion drink, 14 pumps of the Gina Health shilajit, BodyBio PC, metabolic selenium and zinc from Metabolics, and Sodii electrolytes in a mixer. "I just want it to be easy, and that's one drink, boom, done. And then throughout the day, I drink our Inner Wisdom Balance and Sacred Roots.
She then adds some vitamin C from Sweet Bee Organics' Elderberry Elixir, a joint supplement, brain supplement, krill oil, and collagen. "It's a good stack. I think it's working for me," says King. "I switch it up a lot based on what I read, but those things are just tried and true stuff."
"I literally use all of our products," King says. And she's not kidding. She religiously uses her own carefully curated line, including a regular rotation of the Sacred Skin facial oil, Sacred Skin Black Soap Cleanser, and Glow facial moisturiser, sealed with more oil. At night, she swears by the Sweet Sleep Magnesium Butter. In fact, everyone in her life uses it, from her kids to friends and house guests. "I keep jars here for people when they come," King says. "It is a complete game-changer for most people."
Advice to other founders
The number one thing King recommends founders keep in mind when launching their own businesses? Just do it. "I think people get stick in their heads a lot," she says.
She's also adamant that female founders ignore the commonly touted phrase that you need to "think like a man." In fact, she advises the exact opposite. "You need to think like you," she says. "Female intuition is incredibly powerful. And I've built this company on my intuition. When something doesn't feel right to me, and I force it, it doesn't work... ever."
That is especially important for hiring, which is an area King focuses lots of energy on. After all, if you don't surround yourself with a strong team, you won't have the right foundations to succeed. For her part, King has found the perfect partners to fill in business gaps that don't fall into her skillset, and that has made all the difference. "And when they're not right, it's okay to move on from them instead of keeping people that aren't the right fit."
This article is for informational purposes only, even if and regardless of whether it features the advice of physicians and medical practitioners. This article is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment and should never be relied upon for specific medical advice. The views expressed in this article are the views of the expert and do not necessarily represent the views of Healf
Currie Engel Weber is the Editorial Lead at Healf. She is an award-winning journalist and editor, and former News & Features editor at Women's Health Magazine in New York. She has written for outlets like The New York Times, Wired, Business Insider, Women's Health. Currie loves writing about the intersection of women's health and culture.
