Shopify Masters How One TikTok Creator Built a Brand That Sells Out on Repeat
Nov 27, 2025
Catherine Lockhart, the founder of Shelter Skin and a former management consultant turned clean-beauty entrepreneur, shares her journey from TikTok creator to brand builder. She emphasizes a slow, sustainable growth strategy and discusses the challenges of handling in-house production. Catherine reveals how her DIY approach, including repurposing equipment, has become integral to her success. With a focus on radical transparency, she critiques the clean beauty industry and highlights the importance of trust with customers, while also detailing her ambitions for retail expansion.
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From Accidental TikTok To Full-Time Creator
- Catherine Lockhart accidentally became an influencer after a friend taught her TikTok and an early video got ~20,000 views.
- That side hustle outpaced her corporate income and led her to go all in after being laid off.
Handmade Beginnings To In-House Manufacturing
- Shelter started as a kitchen DIY and scaled to a warehouse with Catherine and her fiance doing production.
- They shipped everything themselves and kept growth aligned to their capacity to avoid collapse.
Never Oversell Inventory
- Avoid overselling: only list inventory you physically have and don't promise more than you can produce.
- Use out-of-stock as a capacity control to prevent unfillable orders and burnout.