Behind The Balm
Hi! I’m Ginny. Welcome to Tea Time with Ginny — a blog written by yours truly. From the origin of QUILT and the history behind lanolin, to open forums and Q&A’s, Tea Time with Ginny will be your go to place to deep dive into all things QUILT.
You’ve heard of us, you’ve followed us, you might have joined us for the launch party, and you may have even gone so far as purchasing our debut product, The Balm. But what really is QUILT? Who is QUILT? Why was QUILT stitched together in a time when the beauty industry seems to be so saturated?
Let’s go back.
It all started ten years ago, long before I was even a thought, in a little town called Lawrence, Kansas. A town known for waving the wheat, basketball, and a phrase you may or may not have heard before — Rock Chalk Jayhawk. But to my bosses and the co-founders of QUILT, Sophie & Anna, Lawrence is much more. It’s where they first met as freshmen at The University of Kansas. Since the beginning of their now decade long friendship, Sophie & Anna knew they wanted to start a company together. They’d walk up and down the Campanile Hill to the shiny new school of business that opened their junior year and sit through hours of lectures about supply chain management, accounting, finance, marketing, statistics and business law. At the time, they didn’t have a clue that ten years later, they’d actually be using their degrees to wear the many hats of a start-up founder that are Chief Supply Chain Officer, Chief Accounting Officer, Chief Finance Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, and Chief Logistics Officer — and, admittedly, consulting AI for all things business law.
Between then and now, the two of them have bounced at least a dozen ideas off of each other, but nothing ever truly stuck. It wasn’t until Sophie, at seven months pregnant, cut her foot jumping into a swimming hole in the South of France, that she was introduced to our hero ingredient, lanolin. Her cousin pulled out 100% pure lanolin from her bathroom cabinet and told her “this cut will disappear by morning!” While the cut wasn’t completely healed overnight, it was within mere days. Thus, the love affair with lanolin sparked instantly. It became Sophie’s ride-or-die ingredient for seemingly everything. She had to let Anna know about the lanolin lore, and Anna too, quickly became obsessed. She used it daily — on her lips, cheekbones, cuticles and ... even her feet! Scrapes and cuts? Lanolin. Cracked nipples from nursing? Lanolin. Baby has a diaper rash? Lanolin. Dry and chapped lips? You guessed it — lanolin!
So, what does this have to do with QUILT? Well, let’s fast-forward to the fall of 2024. Sophie strayed away from her tried and true, fell victim to good marketing and peer pressure and tried a very trendy product on the market (we’ll never name names). Within hours, her lips had some choice words to say! They were screaming for water. The formula virtually sucked the hydration straight out of her lips and they were giving her the big ol’ middle finger. That night, Sophie slathered a layer of 100% pure lanolin on her lips without a shadow of a doubt it would repair the damage that had been done. Sure enough, the next morning they were as good as new. Sophie did what any entrepreneurial minded individual with an entrepreneurial minded best friend would do. She FaceTimed Anna and said “I know what we’re doing.” That day, QUILT was born. After nearly a year of navigating entrepreneurship while Anna has a 9-5 job, Sophie being a full-time mom, and both of them maintaining a handful of side gigs, they were finally able to say “we did it” in July of 2025 at the QUILT launch party.
QUILT was created to fill the gap — truly clean, nourishing formulas that really work and look really good doing it. Sophie & Anna knew they wanted a product with a Whole Foods ingredient list (ours has just seven! ) with a Sephora attitude, so that’s what they made. They built a formula that’s worthy of a cult following, packaged it in a brand design in partnership with Kelley McQuillen and created lip-care’s newest It Girl.
QUILT is flirty and charismatic, witty yet sophisticated, fun yet luxurious; she is thoughtful and full of heritage. She’s glamorous enough to admire, yet grounded enough to feel like your best friend. She’s the best of both worlds and wants you to be a part of hers.
Xoxo,
Ginny