Rosie Greenhalgh from Bolton started out with an idea from her kitchen table - now her innovations are sold across the world.
A Humble Beginning
What began in the lower half of a small, terraced house in Bolton 20 years ago, has grown into one of the UK's most innovative tanning success stories. Salon owner Rosie Greenhalgh started by hand-mixing spray tan solution in her kitchen and selling it on eBay, driven by a passion for creating products that genuinely solved customer problems.
Now, her Rose & Caramel tanning brand that she created from the kitchen table has developed into eight world-first innovations with products sold across the globe. The range includes her signature product, a fake tan remover, with one sold every two minutes across the world.
The multi-million pound brand has achieved Number One Amazon status in both the UK and USA, and is now stocked in over 500 Boots stores nationwide. This month, Rosie has reached another milestone, in opening a new 15,000 sq ft headquarters, proudly remaining in Bolton where the brand was first started in a 400sq ft end terrace in Halliwell.
From Performing Arts to Beauty Business
Rosie, 42, from Bolton, has always shown a flair for business - opening her own beauty salon in her hometown at the age of 22 after graduating from Salford University with a degree in performing arts. Recalling how it all started, Rosie says: "It was the bottom half of a terraced house with three sunbeds even, it was when everyone was obsessed with tanning but I saw the shift to self-tanning and so we made the cupboard into a spray tan booth."
Unhappy with products on the market though, she started to look at ways to make a smoother cream tan into a spray format. Using contacts in the beauty world, she developed her first tan and the business was named Rose & Caramel - inspired by her name and by one of her junior staff members at the time Carmel Lawson. Carmel remains with the business to this day - as do many of the early salon staff members who have supported the journey that Rosie has been on.
A Team Effort
Rosie says: "The best thing for me is seeing the original team progressing in the way we have. To have the same girls at the beginning still with me means a lot and to see them grow."
"And watching these products, that were literally ideas, coming to life. To see people all over the world tagging us in messages, just this morning someone in Dubai tagged me. To see the ripple effect now of something I created is the best feeling in the world."
Rose & Caramel's Nudity range of spray tans led on to the Purity range featuring world-first tan removing products that have been a huge global success including the viral 60-second tan remover.
Creating a Niche
Rosie says: "What Rose and Caramel has done is create its own niche. Tan removal was so niche, but we've grown a category that was neglected and luckily for us it's neglected everywhere which means there's huge potential."
"2023 was the turning point for us, when we hit our first million, and we've just grown from there. We became number one on Amazon, it exploded on TikTok then we got into Boots and America is the big one for us next."
Moving to the new stylish headquarters has allowed Rosie to bring everything the business does together, with a warehouse, distributions centre and offices, as well as a luxury salon and education academy all under one roof. The idea was to create not just a home for the brand, but a "destination to empower women".
It offers state-of-the-art Japanese Head Spas, luxury pedicure lounges with starlit ceilings, advanced beauty treatments, specialist hair services and naturally given the Rose & Caramel brand, the ultimate spray tanning experience.
A New Chapter
Rosie says: "The salon we've just left was 400sq ft now it's 15,000 sq ft. That shows the size difference. So here we've got distribution, packing areas, the HQ downstairs, and then we've got the offices and full content studio as well."
At the heart of the vision is Rosie's commitment to sharing knowledge and creating opportunities. Alongside a team of industry-leading educators, the Rose & Caramel Academy will provide professional training, private courses and future student education programmes designed to help individuals build confidence, develop skills and achieve their full potential.
Rosie says: "The HQ isn't just a building – it's a reminder of how far determination, resilience and self-belief can take you. This is just the beginning of our next chapter."
It has been a 20 year journey to this next phase of Rosie's journey, and she says it has undoubtedly been hard work, but worth it. She says: "The best thing about it is that everything I set out to do is coming to fruition, I had the vision, it's taken 20 years but sometimes you've got to sit back and realise you're doing what you set out to do. I love business, every day is the best job ever. I genuinely can't imagine doing anything else."
