PURPLE BLAB

Sharon, Purple Lab rock star Communications Queen, managed to do something I cannot imagine anyone else in PR accomplishing.

She secured a placement (translation: a piece) in the new Cosmopolitan Magazine!

Now… the reason it was an amazing feat.

Here’s the story. Sharon pitched the beauty editor at the magazine in the fall, when we thought we’d have the product in question… Luvah, the sexiest 3D lip color (both a stain and a gloss in one compact) infused with Dong Quai (an ancient Chinese herb known as a libido stimulant), Ylang-Ylang (used as the floral remedy for sensuality), Vitamin E (a nourishing antioxidant), vanilla mint scent (the better to kiss you with, my dear), and a double plumper I call “Complex OO.”

They loved it.

Problem: Production delays.

When we first started working on Luvah, it was slated to launch by November (and you have to hit up the long lead magazines three, four, even five months in advance). At the time of Sharon’s outreach, there was no sample, but we were close.

Then Purple Lab biz dev got in the way.

Todd and I were in the midst of finalizing a deal with our now partners and this product took a back seat. In fact, everything took a back seat. And you know what, everything in my life is STILL taking a back seat to all things purple. But that’s another story.

We picked our product development back up soon after Cosmo called to request a sample. The issue – we had no sample. The lab was still finalizing at this point. And no amount of my begging and pleading and saying “It’s for Cosmooooo!” would do. You can’t rush a scientist.

We received – and approved – the base of the formula. The “base formula” is the actual product but without actives. The way it works with our lab is that you approve that and then they work with actives, which can change the formula but they now have a standard to meet.

Anyway, we sent Cosmo the sample. They loved the look and feel but it’s hard to write a piece when the product isn’t final. Impossible, actually.

The story was off. But Sharon persisted.

Days before the editors were about to close the issue, we got the sample – wtih actives. Just in time. What I love about Shar – she never gives up, not even for a second. She’s a little bulldog in a cute, petite package with flawless olive skin.

Then they wanted to shoot it. Another glitch: we only had the product in an ugly pot, not the actual packaging. Though we did have a sample of the packaging, so we photoshopped it

It wound up looking like a cartoon. We thought, for sure, the item would be cut. But it wasn’t.  “Don’t worry,” Sharon assured me, “it’ll happen.”

The piece hit newsstands yesterday! It didn’t have a photo, but still… we were in there under “His Picks” and Luvah was called “lust-worthy lips.”

Damn straight!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

Tags: Beauty, lip color, Lip gloss, lip stain, Luvah, Purple Lab

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 6:54 am and is filed under Luvah, Purple Lab Behind the Scenes, Purple Lab PR, Purple Lab Products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.