How Three Brothers Turned a $6,000 Bet Into a Private Label Skincare Business With Nardo's Natural

DJ, Danny and Kyle Mastronardo grew up in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, before moving to Florida in the mid 2000s. In 2008, with $6,000 raised by Kyle selling his car, the brothers started mixing their own skincare products in a Gatorade jug and packaging the results into recycled mason jars. They sold their first batches out of a stand at the St. Petersburg Farmers Market, pitching the line on the idea that people should be able to recognize every ingredient on the label. The company, Nardo's Natural, was formally registered in 2009.

Growth came slowly at first. About seven months after launch, the brothers landed their first wholesale account with the spa at the Don CeSar hotel. By 2012, when they appeared on Shark Tank's third season and struck a deal with Barbara Corcoran, Nardo's Natural had grown to roughly 10 wholesale accounts and about $30,000 in annual sales.

The brothers' youngest sibling, Keith, known to the family as KJ, joined the business later on, but he died suddenly in 2013. Danny has said the remaining brothers have made a point of continuing to build the company in his memory.

A turning point came in 2015, when Nardo's Natural began producing private label skincare for other entrepreneurs, a shift DJ initially resisted because the brothers were protective of their own brand. Today the company still sells roughly 75 products under its own name, but it functions primarily as a manufacturer for other skincare businesses, taking custom orders with a minimum run of 100 units so new brands can launch without committing to a large production order. One of its private label clients started with a $600 order for just 50 bottles sold through TikTok and has since built a multimillion dollar business of their own.

Run today by a core team of about seven people plus outside contractors, Nardo's Natural now supplies products carried in several hundred retail locations around the country. Danny has credited part of that staying power to a simple standard the brothers set early on and never abandoned: do not cut corners on ingredients or production, because quality materials and quality work are what create a quality product in the end.