Katie Sheafer, BSN, RN
She couldn't find the moisturizer she wanted. So she made it.
She Couldn't Find It. So She Made It.
Frozen People didn't begin with a business plan, a product launch, or an ambition to enter the skincare industry.
It started with Katie getting fed up.
Living in Alaska with three kids meant dry skin wasn't an occasional inconvenience. Long winters, brutally cold temperatures, dry indoor air, frequent handwashing, outdoor adventures, and the everyday chaos of raising a family put moisturizers to the test.
And Katie had tried plenty of them.
Her family worked their way from inexpensive lotions off the shelf to premium moisturizers carrying increasingly premium price tags. The promises changed. The packaging got nicer. The prices climbed.
The results didn't seem to change nearly as much.
Products promising deep or lasting moisture often left skin feeling dry again within hours. Some were heavy or greasy. Others came with long ingredient lists while still listing water as the primary ingredient.
That was what really bothered her.
Katie wasn't just frustrated that the products weren't working the way she wanted. She was frustrated by the broken promises. If a moisturizer was going to cost $50, $60, or even $80, she wanted to understand what she was actually paying for and why the results weren't matching the claims.
She kept coming back to the same questions. Why was water so often the first ingredient in products marketed as rich, intensive moisturizers? Why did products at dramatically different price points seem to leave her family reaching for the bottle again a few hours later? And why did something as straightforward as keeping skin moisturized need to feel so complicated?
Eventually, frustration turned into curiosity.
Instead of continuing to search for the product she wanted, Katie decided to see if she could make it herself.
There was no grand plan to start a skincare company.
She simply wanted something better for her family.
That decision became Frozen People.
Curiosity Turned Into a Formula
Katie started experimenting.
She researched ingredients, tried different combinations, adjusted ratios, changed textures, tested again, and learned from the batches that didn't turn out the way she wanted.
Some worked better than others. Some went straight back to the drawing board.
But slowly, the formula began becoming exactly what she had been looking for: rich enough to provide serious moisture, concentrated without unnecessary water or fillers, and comfortable enough that her family actually wanted to use it every day.
As Katie got closer to the formula she wanted, her husband, Kenny, joined the process, helping test, research, question, tweak, and refine what she had created.
The testing group wasn't particularly sophisticated.
It was their family.
They used it through Alaska winters, after showers, after washing their hands, before heading outside, and whenever dry skin showed up. They paid attention to what worked and what didn't.
The product that would eventually become Frozen People Body Butter wasn't originally created for customers.
Katie created it for her family.
Eventually, it became too good to keep to themselves.
13 Years of Caring for People
Long before Frozen People, Katie built a career around caring for others.
Katie earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and has spent 13 years working as a Registered Nurse, with professional experience that includes perioperative nursing, specialty care, and Infusion Therapy.
She also served as a nurse in the U.S. Army Reserve, adding military service to a career already built around responsibility, adaptability, attention to detail, and caring for people when those details matter.
Nursing didn't make Katie a cosmetic chemist, and Frozen People doesn't pretend that it did.
But more than a decade in healthcare helped shape the way she approaches problems.
Pay attention. Ask questions. Understand what she's working with. Don't assume something is the best approach simply because that's how it's always been done. And when something isn't working, figure out why.
Those instincts eventually followed her home.
And then into the kitchen, surrounded by butters, oils, powders, containers, and another experimental batch of what would eventually become Frozen People.
Curious by Nature
Katie has never been particularly good at accepting "that's just how it is" as an answer.
She likes figuring things out.
That curiosity is a big part of Frozen People's DNA.
Katie kept asking questions until she had something that answered them.
That same curiosity continues to influence how Frozen People approaches product development today.
Ingredients aren't added simply because they're trendy. Products aren't created just because there's room for another item on the shelf. And Katie isn't particularly interested in making something simply because everyone else makes one.
There should be a reason. Otherwise, what's the point?
Built for the Life She Actually Lives
Frozen People wasn't developed for a skincare shelf.
It was developed in the middle of a life that doesn't sit still.
Katie has been rock climbing for more than a decade, has competed in bodybuilding, and loves snowboarding, strength training, hiking, exploring, and generally finding reasons to be outside.
Living in Alaska only expanded the playground.
It's a place where temperatures can fall far below zero in winter, where summer days seem to go on forever, and where getting outside can mean exposing skin to cold, wind, dry air, sun, water, chalk, gloves, gear, and whatever else the day happens to involve.
That's the environment Frozen People came from.
Not a marketing team's idea of a harsh climate.
Katie's actual life.
And while Alaska provided an unusually demanding place to develop and test what she created, the philosophy behind Frozen People was never supposed to stop at the Alaska border.
Skin doesn't suddenly need less care because someone lives somewhere warmer.
Workouts happen everywhere. Showers happen everywhere. Hands get washed everywhere. People climb, work, travel, raise kids, spend time outside, and deal with dry skin everywhere.
Family Built. Alaska Tested.
Frozen People is a family business in the most literal sense.
Katie created the original formula in her home because she wanted something better for herself, Kenny, and their children.
The family became the first testers.
Their home became the first production space.
Alaska became the proving ground.
And somewhere along the way, what started as Katie trying to solve an everyday problem turned into something much bigger than she originally expected.
That beginning still shapes the standard behind Frozen People today.
Katie isn't interested in selling something she wouldn't confidently keep in her own bathroom. She isn't interested in creating products she wouldn't use herself. And she certainly isn't interested in making something she wouldn't feel comfortable using around her children.
Make something good enough for her own family first.
Everything else came afterward.
Founder & Original Formulator
Today, Katie is the Founder and Original Formulator of Frozen People.
She remains closely involved in the company and the products that carry its name, from formulation and product development to production and the countless decisions that come with building a family business from the ground up.
Kenny joined Katie during refinement of the original formula and brings his background in nutrition science, research, human performance, and evidence based education to the company.
The two don't always approach a problem the same way.
That's a good thing.
Kenny has a tendency to respond with: “Okay, but why would that work?”
Somewhere between those two questions, a surprising amount gets accomplished.
What began as Katie experimenting with ingredients because she was tired of expensive moisturizers failing to live up to their promises has grown into a company built around many of the same principles that drove those first batches.
What Still Drives the Work
More Than Frozen People
Of course, Katie's life doesn't revolve entirely around body butter.
She's a wife, a mom of three, a nurse, an athlete, a former Army Reserve nurse, a climber, a snowboarder, an outdoorswoman, and someone who can move pretty seamlessly between a hospital, a climbing wall, a squat rack, an Alaska trail, and the general controlled chaos of raising three kids.
She has competed on a bodybuilding stage and spent more than a decade climbing.
She has cared for patients for 13 years and previously served as a nurse in the U.S. Army Reserve.
She's raising a family in Alaska while helping build a company that started because she looked at products making bigger promises and charging bigger prices and eventually thought:
Turns out, she could.
Born in the Arctic.
Built for Everyday Life.
Frozen People started with one person questioning why increasingly expensive moisturizers still weren't delivering what they promised.
Eventually, Katie stopped looking for the answer on a store shelf and started making it herself.
Today, that same curiosity continues to shape what Frozen People makes, what it leaves out, and where the company goes next.
No unnecessary bullshit.