Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Murphy.
Hi Ashley , so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Wild Craft Skincare started organically with just two items created purely for myself when we were actually planning to move out of the country. But the brand took off so fast that we stayed right here.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, life was rough with a classic story of early abandonment, so I learned early on how to figure things out and rely on myself. That background gave me a natural, burning fierce power—I’ve always been a force of nature, speaking my mind, stepping up first, and executing at my absolute best.
I married young and left Oregon at 18, starting college right away by piecing my education together through military bases. I wasn’t really able to get into a traditional university setting until I was about 21 and we moved to Arizona. There, I went to school for ecology and evolutionary biology—tracking through a heavy chemistry path—and worked alongside the education department at the zoo. My original goal was a career working with animals.
When life threw a sudden pivot—involving a divorce and the death of a sibling—I needed a career path that could support me quickly. Because of my strong background in chemistry and sciences, medical aesthetics was a natural and fast transition.
It wasn’t a standard, relaxing spa esthetician program. The school I attended was intense, required an application and prior college background just to get in, and was deeply clinical. We dealt heavily with skin conditions, clinical studies, laser therapies, and rigorous four-, six-, and eight-week case studies where we had to assess skin issues and build real treatment plans. Crucially, the entire program was focused on botanical- and nature-based formulations without harsh chemicals.
I was tired of bookkeeping and restaurant management, and I had always wanted to be an entrepreneur. Years ago, I tried out dropship clothing and furniture lines. Those didn’t stick, but they gave me the building blocks—teaching me how to launch a website, figure out SEO, and understand the mechanics of running a business.
Looking back, all of it converged: my background in the sciences, my clinical aesthetics training, and decades of grinding through management, bookkeeping, and past business ventures. I just wanted a career change into something I genuinely loved, and when Wild Craft took off, I went for it.
We have had incredible interest—more than I could have ever imagined, especially in our first 18 months in business. The need for a line like this became clear. We are in multiple retail spots, our brand has made it into multiple magazines, and we’ve had reachouts from multiple celebrity marketing interests. My current goal is building a solid base, so we are excited to see what the right opportunity next will come along. This next year, we are planning on hitting the road and promoting Wild Craft through the US by attending markets and events, and of course building our online presence.
Beyond our formulas, our brand ethos is completely unique. With our “Keep Her Wild” philosophy, we are reframing the belief that women are flawed and need to be fixed. Our standpoint is that women are perfect and need to be proud of the collection of experiences and environments left over on their skin. We are here to smooth the wear and tear, but not change the woman. We need to rewrite aging in America, and I’ll be the first to start. We have something really unique: a brand that actually works, botanical-based, balanced, non-toxic, and formulations that literally are built to withstand the harshest environments and bring your skin and confidence back.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Has it been a smooth road? Absolutely not. The struggles change every single day. Being an entrepreneur means you wear every hat: marketer, salesperson, writer, photographer, ad builder, and SEO analyst. The work never really ends, and I had to learn how to do all of it myself through pure research and figure-it-out determination.
Beyond the workload, one of the most interesting parts of success is the reaction of the people around you and the quietness that comes with it. Nobody really tells you about that part ahead of time, but when you talk to other entrepreneurs, you realize it’s a universal experience. As the old saying goes, a client will often become your friend quicker than a friend will become a client. I’ve learned that it is so important to intentionally reach out and build your own entrepreneurial network to surround yourself with support as old spaces fade.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Wild Craft Skincare?
Wild Craft Skincare is a clinical botanical brand, but at its core, it is a movement for women’s empowerment. Our products are completely unique because we formulate them to be strong enough to actually heal what the elements and pollution have done. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, I know firsthand that the weather here is relentless on skin. I realized there was not a single brand out there that could heal my skin or hold up to these climates, so I built one. I built it for me at first. As interest grew, I continued to expand the line, using my knowledge as a trained medical aesthetician to craft a one-of-a-kind brand. By only using the cleanest botanicals and balanced chemical formulas, Wild Craft is where science meets nature—and we mean that as a hard fact, not as a gimmicky slogan.
What sets you apart from others?
What sets us apart is that our products are performative—meaning they actually do what they say. Over a few months’ time, you will see real, undeniable changes. We completely reject the lies other brands sell, cloaked in chemical nonsense like endocrine disruptors and cancer-causing ingredients, or trendy overnight fixes that only sit on the skin. We do not do surface level. Inside or out. Period.
Furthermore, we refuse to conform to toxic beauty standards. I will not treat this like a fluffy brand, and you will never see polished, heavily edited photos presenting fake looks that nobody can actually achieve. Wild Craft is for real life. It is for the women who have no interest in Hollywood trends. Our women are out in the wild—on the trail, by a bonfire, roping horses, or spending their day touching soil in their garden. This brand is made for the elements and the strong women who move through them. We do not ask our customers to become a different version of themselves; we provide the exact formulas they need to heal the skin they already live in.
What are you most proud of brand-wise?
Brand-wise, I am most proud of our empowering foundation. This company was forged directly from my own background of building everything from scratch. Having navigated major life pivots, decades of grinding through business, and rising up on my own terms, I poured that exact unbreakable resilience into every facet of Wild Craft. Do things your way on your terms—just because it’s not done that way usually, go do it anyway, break the rules, change the text, and make waves. I am proud that we are breaking the societal status quo to make our own narrative, using unpolished, real images of women in natural elements instead of models, living out our Keep Her Wild ethos every single day. I am proud that our brand actively bridges the gap between hard clinical efficacy and true inner healing, serving as a platform to remind women of their own innate strength.
What do you want our readers to know about your brand, offerings, services, etc.?
I want your readers to know that engaging with our offerings is about more than just a skincare routine—it is a daily ritual of remembrance. We live in a world where everything is loud and chaotic, which often conditions women to silence their own voices. Every time a woman picks up our product and sees our ‘Keep Her Wild’ wolf logo, I want it to be an inner sign to wake up, to be strong, and to lead. When you use Wild Craft Skincare, you aren’t just taking care of your skin; you are actively choosing to reclaim your soft intuition, rebuild your self-trust, and remember that as women, no matter what we face, we cannot break.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
To me, true success has absolutely nothing to do with profit margins, retail placements, or even being featured in a magazine. Success is when you have done the deep, necessary work of inner healing.
True success is reaching a point where your mental, physical, emotional, and life goals are all in complete alignment. When you hit that level of alignment, you no longer just react to the chaos of the world. Instead, you change the energy of the room to your own narrative simply by presenting your inner healing and a strong, unshakable presence.
When you have done that deep work, you are creating from a safe, grounded, and whole space rather than a reactive one. Everything else—the business, the milestones, the accolades—is just a byproduct. True success is looking at the life you have built and realizing you have cultivated unshakable peace and power.
Pricing:
- Cooling Cucumber Eye Gel- $32
- Vitamin C Moisturizer- $35
- Baking Soda & Castor Oil Scrub-$34
- 3 Item Bundle-$68
- Full Line- $100 (5 Items)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wildcraftskincare.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildcraftskincare/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583435870958
- Other: https://substack.com/@wildcraftskincare
