Zingari Man
Zingari Man is a skincare and grooming brand offering shaving essentials, fragrances, and grooming accessories—specially crafted for men with sensitive skin. Founded by Heather Melton, a scientist-turned-hobbyist who transformed her passion into a thriving small business, the company serves both retail and wholesale customers online.
What started as a personal quest for skincare solutions quickly evolved into a global brand. In 2014, Heather began crafting bath soaps under the name Smitten Soapery to soothe her family’s eczema and her own sensitive skin. With a background in lab sciences and a passion for experimentation, she found soapmaking to be the perfect blend of science and creativity. When her personal collection of soaps became too large for any one family, her husband encouraged her to start selling them at local craft shows.
To her surprise, the men’s product line quickly gained traction—so much so that she rebranded in 2018 as Zingari Man, focusing solely on men’s grooming products. That same year, Heather began working with Julie Folz, a business advisor at the Southwest Indiana SBDC, who helped her develop a marketing plan to support the new direction.
With a garage as her first workspace and an early boost from a niche influencer on Instagram, Heather built a loyal customer base around the brand’s core values: affordable luxury, transparency, and skin-friendly formulations. Today, Zingari Man sells both wholesale and direct-to-consumer, with distribution across the U.S., Canada, Italy, and even New Zealand. The brand is now available in men’s grooming shops and barbershops worldwide.
Heather loves to learn and has taken advantage of several free business development programs, including the SBA Thrive program in 2023, which is a six-month initiative that helped her create a detailed three-year growth plan. In 2024, she completed the Export Indiana Accelerator Program (EIAP) through the Indiana Small Business Development Center, which is a 12-week program offering expert guidance to develop an Export Business Plan. The program also helped her gain insight into international trade laws and marketing strategy. Along with this, she received Indiana State Trade and Export Promotion (IN-STEP) grant funds to cover travel expenses to meet with top retailers and distributors in Italy and Germany. She was also featured in the 2023 Entrepreneurship Yearbook, published by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.
Heather devotes much of her time to research, recognizing the importance of lifelong learning and taking full advantage of free resources—a commitment that continues to pay off. Each program she’s participated in has added valuable insight, and she credits the guidance of SBDC advisors for helping her navigate the complexities of exporting and growing her brand. She’s also deeply grateful for her dedicated employee, Allie, and the ongoing support of her husband and children, who step in to help whenever needed.
Today, she’s focused on scaling responsibly—with plans to secure a U.S.-based distributor, explore more eco-friendly packaging, and obtain funding to streamline her manual production process.
Despite wearing many hats—formulator, shipper, marketer, and business owner—Heather remains passionate about what she does. “I love the formulation side and getting to interact with our customers,” she says. “Our clients trust us because we’re transparent and consistent. That means everything to me.”
Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs? “Take your time to do it right from the beginning. Do your research. Have a plan in place—it’ll save you time, money, and stress. But at some point, you just have to jump in and do it.”
Visit www.zingariman.com/ to purchase online or follow them on Facebook!