As an 11-year old child, Lani Lazzari grew tired of constantly going to the dermatologist to treat her eczema, which caused severe breakouts on her skin.So when her mom was passed up for a promotion at her pharmaceutical sales job and her family decided to make Christmas presents, she came up with a homemade treatment using simple household ingredients such as sugar and various natural and essential oils to give as presents.Eight years later, at just 19 years old, her innovation has turned into a multimillion dollar business that has received not only glowing reviews and national prominence, but would culminate in her biggest break on ABC TV’s Shark Tank, spurring a Pittsburgh-raised billionaire to buy a stake in Simple Sugars.“I decided I wanted to be an entrepreneur because I thought it was a way where I could be responsible for my own success,” said Simple Sugars President and CEO Lani Lazzari in an interview at the company headquarters in Sharpsburg, Pa.Lazzari had tried commercial skin care products before, however, many of them harshly irritated her skin or caused rashes. As a result, she did some research and came up with a formula for an all-natural skin care product that was safe on sensitive skin paired with attractive scents.She made the first batch of scrubs in her Fox Chapel kitchen, inventing vanilla and almond scents to give out to her family and friends as Christmas presents. Her mom supported her through buying the ingredients and ordering the material.“She [Lani] came to me and said here’s a list of ingredients can you get them for me? And she showed me the jar and asked me to order it all for her,” said Lazzari’s mother, Gina, in a phone interview.When Valentine’s Day approached two months later, Lazzari tried her hand at expanding her skills.“She [Lani] said she thought she could make chocolate and rose,” Gina Lazzari said. “My husband was working at a company and we literally sent out an email the day before Valentine’s Day saying it if you forgot, it is not too late, we can have this delivered to you tomorrow.”Lani received two dozen orders, and the compliments kept on coming.“Before too long my sister that has psoriasis and sensitive skin like Lani called me up and was like whatever that stuff Lani made is taking away my psoriasis,” Gina said.It was at this point that Lani needed to decide whether she wanted to continue her scrub making as a hobby or make it a business.“As I continued doing it, I realized how much I liked it, and I started getting more and more serious,” she said. “I got the website, started promoting it locally and then when I got into high school it had kind of grown slowly up until that point. I realized that this was what I wanted to do with my life and what I was serious about. That was when I really went after it as a business as opposed to a hobby.”“I said to my husband if this was soccer we would encourage her and drive her to games. If this is her thing, I want to get behind it,” Gina said. “That’s how it started, and the rest is history.”As the sugar scrubs’ popularity grew from simply a holiday present to a sought out product, Gina focused full-time on supporting her daughter and the budding business. She is currently the vice president of Simple Sugars, handling operational work such as supply chain, sales and marketing, the website, and much more.“Lani is basically the face of the company and she does face time for press and media. She also does product development and HR. I facilitate the dirty stuff that has to happen to make everything work,” Gina explained. “It is not my thing. It has been her thing since the beginning, I’m there to support her and give advice. I work for her clearly!”The Simple Sugars’ line consists entirely of scrubs.“Our whole philosophy is simple; we do not want to sell you a 20 million-step process,” Lani explained. “If you use the scrub, it exfoliates and moisturizes in one easy step, replacing your lotion, especially with the facial scrubs. That’s why we stick with scrubs.”There are five facial scrubs that come in five ounce containers for $16.95. The green tea facial scrub is the best seller. Simple sugars sells 16-20 different body scrubs depending on the season. They come in five and eight ounce jars selling at $11.95 and $16.95, respectively. In addition, they have a foot scrub that sells in a 4.75 ounce jar for $12.95.“My favorite is probably the almond body scrub although my favorite changes all the time because I never really have to decide,” Lani joked. “Now pumpkin is my favorite.”Simple Sugars has recently extended their brand to reach a male audience with an abbreviated line called Smooth for Men. It consists of three facial scrubs (five ounce jars, $16.95), four body scrubs (eight ounce jars, $16.95) and a foot scrub (eight ounce jars, $16.95).  The men’s line started about two years ago but wasn’t fully launched until September 2012.