If you’ve never been to a major designer sample sale, it’s something out of the Discovery Channel wild kingdom shows – a stampede of starving lions chasing its prey. And the lines of hungry girls typically wrap the corner.

I sent the Purple Lab girls on a mission last week – crash DVF’s sample sale for some street team marketing. Here they are en route (thanks to Todd, who drove them).

Ashley was the fearless leader, a true alpha lioness. Here is her story!

On Tuesday I headed the Purple Lab Street team and we crashed the Diane Von Furstenburg Sample sale. Guerilla Marketing and Purple Lab go hand in hand. We are a start up brand and have no marketing budget (Karen loves to imagine the amazing things we could do with an actual budget)!

So, we are forced to get creative, which is truly a blessing in disguise! These untraditional methods are going to be what sets us apart!

We arrive at scene on 28th and 5th Ave. to find a line snaking around the block. Where other people are groaning at the situation, we are ecstatic! This is our target audience… fashionable women who are in the know!

Plan of attack: break into groups so we can cover more ground. We talk to people, get emails, give out Huge Lips Skinny Hips samples in No Panty Lines and VIP cards for shopping on our site. The girls are tres responsive! (You would be too if these three sweet, cute girls appraoched you!)

The key is to sound incredibly informed! I could talk about Karen and Purple Lab all day but the question is, “how can I say everything I need to in 3 sentences?” If you’re poignant, witty and relatable they are like putty!

A few hours and 60 glosses later, we’re ready to head home… Then we spot her… Alex McCord from the Real Housewives of New York. I can hear Karen in the back of my head saying, “GET HER THE GLOSS!”

I am cursing myself for running out of product and then I remember I stashed one HLSH in the bottom of my purse! My mom always instilled in me to be prepared… having raw almonds in your purse at all time and never leave home with out a toothbrush to name a few.

I had a feeling there would be someone special. I sprint over to her and say, “I have something for you!”

“Oh yeah?” She says in a sweet welcoming manner.

As I catch my breath, I say, “I am from Purple Lab NYC a fashion inspired beauty brand started by Karen Robinovitz…” All the while, I am digging around in my hand-me-down Prada, fishing for the gloss.

Through a sea of cameras, phones and my own HLSH’s, emerges the gorgeous purple box with metallic fuschia writing. “This is for you” I exclaim triumphantly. She replies with a high-pitched muffled “oh”! I continue to tell her about HLSH and how it was the inspiration for the brand.

The light turns Red and all the cars on 5th avenue stop. I say thank you and she is off crossing 5th avenue with a Purple Lab VIP card in one hand and a HLSH box, which she is intently reading the copy while she crosses the street.

Mission accomplished!

Mwah!

Ashley
Purple Lab Multi-Tasking Maven

Every season, fashion designers have a look book, a book that’s curated to perfection, showcasing the collection. It’s not something beauty brands would typically do. Being that I’m such a fashion girl at heart, I was a little jealous! I wanted one!

Today we launch our look book (the cover image is above)!

So I asked some of our favorite bloggers and F.O.P.L. (friends of Purple Lab) to strike a pose. We turned my apartment into a photo studio.

The kitchen was the Dolce Gusto coffee and muffin “craft station” as they say on movie sets.

The living room is was saved for hair and makeup. Turns out that Britt, our multi-tasking maven (a.k.a. intern) who also wound up in one of the pics, is genius with hair! To give you a sense of the mayhem – 11 models, 3 makeup artists, Sharon and a team of 4 interns, 2 Dolce Gusto girls manning the cappuccino, 1 photographer, and me.

Our makeup artists rocked! Thank you to Stacie Ford, Ani Hovhannisyan, and Donna Beretsky-Neidecker, who are so talented and smoke out an eye like nobody’s business! And then there’s Ana Schecter, photographer (or as I like to call her, photographess). She is sooooo talented, it hurts! Love, love, love you Ana, Stacie, Ani and Donna!

We carefully plotted which look would be right for each model. Extreme and edgy red liner (Huge Lips Skinny Hips in Red Sole doubled as shadow for the day) for Karen Blanchard of Where did U Get That – she has such a downtown vibe that we knew she could pull it off (not everyone in the world can, but we also gave her a natural look).

Meanwhile, Todd was on the roof deck, morphing it into a photo ready studio. We hung a white blanket on the fence between our deck and our neighbor’s (for a stark white background), removed the table, chairs and grill and set the stage.

This is Ana at work, shooting a pregger and beautiful Mildred of Beauty Logic Blog.

And here she is with the lovely Audrey of Homerun Ballerina, whose birthday is today by the way! HAPPY B’DAY PRETTY GIRL! J’ADORE! Audrey has such a natural glow about her so it was fun to get enhance it with the highlighter of Luxury Squared.

Now, Virginia Nam of Lovely 20s and The Examiner. She looks like such a perfect little porcelain doll so we had to go with it for this very Asian-inspired look, using Huge Lips Skinny Hips in Lychee Martini on the eyes (it really works well as a shadow but you do have to let it dry!)

P.S. We’re working on shadows, BTW! Coming somewhat soon-ish!

Christine from My Style Pill pulled off a really out-there, runway-ready eye – words won’t do it justice. The rest of the face was super natural so that the eyes were the main attraction. See below and drool!

It took a while to perfect the heavy rock star eyes for Anne of The Jet Set Girls. I love the contrast of the dark, dark eye on her fair skin. And that red hair! She was so fierce, I couldn’t stop kvelling all over her!

Noelle and Joelle of The Owls Are Not What They Seem, gave us the glamour – each with two looks.

But check out the eye on Noelle. When the eye was open, it just looked like a thin cat eye but when closed, it was ON!

And Joelle – no words!

F.O.P.L. included Amanda, the cutest blond! She entered our model search contest and we fell so in love with her that we asked her to be in our look book (she came with her mom, Andrea, who started a Twitter account called @vote4amanda when her daughter was racking up votes!)

Hello Bridget Bardot eyes (Ani, amazing job!).

Barbara Dial, our resident pole dancing teacher (from S-Factor, the inspiration behind Huge Lips Skinny Hips in Kitty Poledancer, soft nude-pink), is the consummate California girl. So we edged her up with a side bun and red-red lips.

There was one more look we were dying to do at the end of the day – something kind of hippie chic with a long side braid and we turned Britt into a model! How gorgeous is she here?

More Behind the scenes pics are on Facebook.

And there’s a great video as well, created by Kendra Elise (there she is below).

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

Guess what we did yesterday? All the girls in the office and I went to the Sex & the City 2 world premiere. Sort of. Crashed is more like it. It was time for some serious guerilla marketing action at Radio City Music Hall.

Our girls dressed in their cute Purple Lab tees, skinny jeans, and one key accessory: retro style cigarette trays, wrapped in purple velvet and harnassed to their bodies. A moving beauty counter of products!

A close up of the trays:

See, I was there two years ago and it was a SCENE! There were hundreds, maybe thousands of girls outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of SJP and lines of ticket holders that spanned four city blocks. (I actually had passes in my hand and got all dressed up like a total cliche, took one look at the crowd and the line I’d have to stand in, gave my tickets to two tourists, and went to dinner with a friend).

I thought, if we can’t afford to be there as an official sponsor, we could sure street-team-it. It’s the best audience I could imagine – pop culture loving, style obsessed girls who love all things fab and glam!

To give you a sense of how long the line was:

We offered makeup touch-ups and SATC makeovers to gaggles of girls and gave out ring pops (what better snack for the movies?) and Foot Petals (a must-have for hours of heel-wearing).

Don’t worry – we brought hand sanitizer and a billion applicators to keep it totally sanitary. New Yorkers tend to be germaphobic.

One of the “afters” with Huge Lips Skinny Hips in Red Sole and newly lined eyes!

She had this adorable tattoo!

We found some new fans…

While stationed outside of the Duane Reade on 51st Street, the women who worked there started to knock on the window to find out about our products. I was showing them by holding them up against the window!

Then one came out to try out some gloss and get my card (she wanted to show it to the buyer – you know how Duane Reade has that new chic beauty division with luxe brands? We’ll see what happens.)

It was a success of “Big” standards.

Video coming soon!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

We recently did a cute segment for Better TV in the Purple Lab apartment (a.k.a. my home/office/warehouse). They shot here once before and I have to say, it’s always fun to have a film crew come over!

The producer, Marianne, is heaven to work with and – I love this about her! – she writes vampire young adult novels (check her out). This was one of her last shoots for the network before she left to write full time (we’ll miss you, Marianne).

The premise of the shoot: Mother’s Day. We had three moms, each a different age group, and I gave them make overs (I have been taking makeup artist lessons).

One quick thing – I wore these super cute harem shorts (right to the knee). Bad idea. Now that I see the pix, well, it looks like I’m wearing Pampers. (Not showing you!)

Anyway, mom in her 30s, was Deena, a friend of a friend. The problem with moms in their 30s? They need quick beauty tips because they’re busy with small kids.

The solution: double duty products save time (and $$$); neutral colors are a must because you don’t have to spend too much time applying, blending out each shade, especially with kids running all over the place.

This was the look I gave her.

All I needed: Four products.

1. Silk Sheets foundation to even her skin tone

2. Cheek Implants cream blush in the shade Backstage Pass. The trick is to use it as a full on eye shadow, the whole lid from the lash line to the crease. It brightens the whole face.

3. Lashionista Modelista, just the mascara. One coat on the top lashes.

4. Huge Lips Skinny Hips in Goji Berry Smoothie (the soft berry shade is out at the end of the month)

Five minutes. Done!

Now on to mom in her 40s (my friend Sally, who I hadn’t seen in far too long). In your 40s, you have a little more time. Your kids are likely in school. You have your days back! So you can play with your makeup.

Don’t be afraid to bring on the glamour with a serious smokey eye – it’s not just for 20somethings. It’s fun to flirt with new looks as you hit your forties, especially when you work with products that have sophisticated formulas but a playfulness to make you feel young and fun.

For Sally, it was all about subtle shine on the lips and rosy cheeks. Here’s her before and after:

Here’s what I used:

1. Cheek Implants in Six Inch Heels. You will feel like a super model while enhancing cheekbones with a pale shade of pink.

2. Lashionista Modelista in After Dark: Just smudge liner with a small angled brush to create a soft yet smokey cat eye. The diamond dust is subtle, giving the eye just the right amount of shine.

3. Luvah in Mama’s Boy. Made to bring out your inner vixen, it’s infused with aphrodisiacs and natural libido stimulants to remind you to feel sensual and beautiful.

For Mom in 60s, we actually played Joan Hirsch, none other than Sharon’s mother! She’s a doll and looks 20 years younger than her age. The issue moms have in their sixties? They want to look younger without going under the knife (well, some don’t mind the knife, not naming names).

The solution? Use beauty products that have anti-aging benefits so you are treating skin all day and definitely do NOT be afraid of color. A pop of color will brighten your whole face and give you a youthful appeal. Lastly, love that highlighter.

Highlighter should be your best friend, especially as you age. It’s the best way to add soft shimmer and draw attention to your best features. Chic tip: A dab in the corner of the eyes by the nose will draw the light away from crow’s feet.

Meet Sharon’s maker – before and after:

Here’s what I used:

1. Silk Sheets foundation equipped with anti aging benefits, thanks to silk, algae, seaweed, juniper, almond seed extract, and more!

2. Luvah in Rich Jerk: Use a bright lip color so lips pop. The double plumping ingredient, “Complex OO,” provides long-term lip enhancing benefits while Vitamin B3 provides immediate plumping, erasing fine lines.

3. Luxury Squared, which is equipped with both an under eye color corrective concealer AND highligher. Both offer skin care ingredients like silk, Vitamin E, carrot oil, antioxidants, algae. And the highlighter’s got my favorite additive – diamond dust!

Happy early Mother’s Day!

Will share the clip when it’s live.

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

I recently wrote about the Women in Need charity event. But what I didn’t share is the high drama look I gave my eyes, thanks to Lashionista Modelista (clearly, an addictive product for me!).

It’s super easy and here’s how to do it yourself:

When you do something like this, something that draws all the attention to your eyes, keep the rest of your look soft and neutral.

Let one thing stand out on your face at a time – sort of like an outfit with one star accessory.

I did this look with Huge Lips Skinny Hips in No Panty Lines (a.k.a. clear) so that there was a little moist shine but no color to distract from the eyes.

It was a hit!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

First of all, I am horrified at long it’s been since I have blogged. Let’s just say that I’ve been in the midst of serious insanity.

We’re finally bringing back Love Your Thighs and Lychee Martini, two chic shades of Huge Lips Skinny Hips. Love Your Thighs is exotic coral and Lychee Martini, super sheer peach. And… Limo to Lobby (perfect pink) and Goji Berry Smoothie are on their way, too.

I’ll be debuting them on HSN. along with Pearlesque Show, our new silicone-free primer with a touch of crushed pearls and honey, in April. Click here to see when!

Oh! We’re also doing Lashionista Modelista in a new color – midnight blue! A really rich navy called Modern Classic. The blue is so sophisticated and it really makes the whites of your eyes pop.

This is what it looks like on my skin.

There are going to be three – yes three! – new products for July. The details are still hush-hush but I can tell you that one is an exfoliator (the best skin treatment before your makeup and it has amethysts!) and the other two are for the eyes (a primer and cream shadow but both with a twist – you’ll see).

There have been a billion passes as names – all of the ones I originally wanted are trademarked but it’s amazing how hitting a road block forces you to a better place.

Lab samples have been flying around the office. Been on a dozen new desk sides, thanks to Sharon, our killer PR princepesa. Figuring out things to do before HSN to promote our shows (look out for a contest on Closet Couture!). Planning a big look book photo shoot at the apartment office.

We’re shooting 20 different looks on ten friends and bloggers with photographer Ana Schechter. She is a genius with the camera. We’ll video behind the scenes action for fun!

I look so harried at the moment. I am so crazed that, get this, I had a ticket to go to Florida for Passover to see my family and Todd and I completely forgot about the flight. Literally just blanked. We thought we were going on Thursday but our ticket was for Wednesday and it took two days of nonstop airport stalking and double lay overs to get there!

But I’m coming back to life… and will have loads to share!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

The spring runway – and even many fall runways – were stalked by glamazons sporting a fresh-faced, natural, no-makeup-makeup look. Have you noticed? So we put Ashley, one of our multi-tasking mavens, to the test and create the look herself.

Meet Ash:

She is an all-natural kind of girl to begin with (not to mention the most amazing singer ever – full on jazz vocals a la Norah Jones).

Armed with Silk Sheets luxe foundation infused with silk, Luxury Squared under-eye concealer and highlighter, collagen-packed Cheek Implants in Backstage Pass (ripe, delicious peach with golden undertones), Lashionista Modelista and Huge Lips Skinny Hips in Worship Kate, she turned herself into an exact replica of what Stella McCartney’s models looked like on the catwalk. (Love Stella, BTW.)

Here’s how to get that youthful, clean, natural look.

More how-tos to come! And do let us know what you want to see us create!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

You don’t understand. I NEVER stay up late. I don’t go out. I don’t drink. I don’t do coffee. I like to be in bed NO later than 11p.m. When I heard I’d have a 2a.m. slot on HSN, I immediately panicked. How would I make it?

Lots of sugar-free Red Bull (I know it’s poison, but I had no choice). Lots!

First of all, for the slot, I got decked in purple Proenza Schouler sequins and skinny Current/Elliot jeans. Six inch heels go without saying. Hair, kind of Farrah’d out for the night.

Bobbi Ray Carter, a sprightly petite brunette with loads of good energy, hosted. And I have to thank her right now. It was the first time she did a 2a.m. spot in 27 years. Bobbi – to what do I owe this honor? Mwah!

I got to the green room at midnight and watched Diane Gillman’s show, which was right before. The woman is madness on HSN! 28,000 pairs of jeans sold in two hours! I worship at her altar!

Her models were also wearing Purple Lab makeup!

I’m a fan of the cross promotion! Bobbi was donning her white skinnies – and looking skinny!

Oh! Gigi Levangie called in to give a testimonial! She’s the best-selling author of Queen Takes King, Maneater, and the Starter Wife, which was a Lifetime movie with Debra Messing. And she said Huge Lips Skinny Hips is the only gloss she uses! Love you, Gigi!

When a caller is on the line, there’s a screen on set that says “Phone Call from Gigi, Los Angeles, CA” to alert you. The first time we had a call in, I got so excited and blurted it out.

Oops! That’s what the hosts are supposed to do.

I was totally loopy after the show – oddly high on energy and exhausted at once. I had a 10a.m. flight back home the next day. And when I got there, I literally slept for sixteen straight hours!

Before I sign off, I thought I’d share two pictures and moments.

This is Jen Bates, one of the producers I worked with and fellow Jersey girl. She was on hand at speed dating as well, capturing it on film (will have footage soon).

En route to the set as the makeup is touched up and the ear piece is shoved in!

I’ll be back on HSN in April, so stay tuned for more information, new shades of Huge Lips Skinny Hips and Lashionista Modelista in midnight blue (it’s so dark, it’s like black but the blue brings out the whites of the eyes – it’s called Modern Classic because, like a trench, it’s a staple we should all have in our repertoire).

Be on the look out for the new primer, Pearlesque Show. Details to be revealed soon.

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

I got to Florida yesterday morning and went right to a go-see. Still needed to find one more model, someone in her 50s and the one I found – LOVE! Sweet, beautiful, poised, sassy with a fun sparkle to her energy. It is all coming together.

HSN, here I come! And ALL of the new products are now on their site at special debut introductory prices. My heart is pounding so hard, you’d think I had a base in my chest cavity.

Did I mention that Christine, the blogger behind the fabulous Temptalia.com is coming to report on the inside track of the network and what goes on backstage? I’m giving her an inside exclusive look at HSN in action, from set building to meeting the hosts to rehearsal to show time.

I haven’t met her yet and I can’t wait! She’ll be blogging and tweeting from the green room, so please follow her (and check out the mention she got on HSN’s Purple Lab page, image above!).

Then I went to what is called a “Pre-Pro” meeting which stands for pre-production. We go over the order of mentions of each product – not every show is the same and not every show offers all six products.

There is just three minutes for Luxury Squared in the first show – so hard to get everything out in such a short period of time. The biggies will be Silk Sheets, Huge Lips Skinny Hips and Lashionista Modelista.

Then legal weighed in. You have to be so careful of what you say on air. You just don’t want to make any claims. Though we’re makeup, we have to adhere to skincare regulations because of the kind of ingredients we use and it is going on your skin.

I no like legal (not that they weren’t nice… they were lovely… but you can’t say the word “aroma therapy”!).

I saw the set in person for the first time!

I almost cried. That was the first time it felt totally real to me.

Knoll Tulip table in the house, which is my absolute favorite iconic 20th century piece.

There’s chain link curtains, purple lighting, a mini runway. And Amy Morris, the host forthe first show, is a DREAM! We connect so well and she will make me so comfortable. But just as I jumped up and down over my Knoll, it was taken away. Apparently, it was too low and more newsroom than appropriate for what we’re doing. I wanted to take it home – but no go!

The live models will be in their own area, doing their own makeup. The reason is that the products are so easy to use and think about it, who has a makeup artist at home? I want to show that every woman can be her own makeup artist! These women are strong, fabulous, sassy, and smart and range from 20something to 50something. Love them!

We did a rehearsal, as well, and I’ll go there later because I have to bolt to meet Temptalia now!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

They’re amazing women and I’m lucky to have them. This is us on the runway of the set. Not the best quality pic – it’s done with my phone becuase I haven’t hooked up my new camera to my computer yet.

Thought I’d give you a quick sneak peak at the “warehouse,” which is a fancy way of saying where we are storing Purple Lab remnants. As we gear up for the HSN launch, the office apartment is overflowing with all things purple.

This is a view of the living room from the bedroom, where thare are typically many, many boxes (a.k.a. Sharon’s storage area) filled with lab samples, componentry we’re considering, tissue paper, letterhead, and currently, left over signage from the speed dating event.

We are all sitting in the office, on pins and needles, eagering awaiting the arrival of the final products (here’s a look at the boxes on the bedroom rug). Friday, we’re sending out almost 30 “parties in a box” – our products, web cames for Skype,  purple boas (what’s a party sans feathers?), a bottle of Figenza vodka (and a menu of cocktails), and a whole lot of candy – to our blogger “twiends” (more info to come) and some high school and family friends.

They’re having people over for a shopping and screening party for the HSN show on the 18th at 8p.m. ET.

So the current state of the living room also involves bags upon bags of gummy things, a box full of web cams, a few cases of vodka… You can imagine how hard it is to turn off at the end of the day and relax when everything you’re doing and need to do is staring you in the face.

Now, the title of this post – Brooklyn.

When I first met Todd, he was a 718-area-code-man and living across the bridge. When he moved into the city, he kept the apartment as his office/storage (he also rents it out). Right now, it’s tenant-less unless you count 10,000 empty boxes of Huge Lips Skinny Hips, the 30,000 empty gloss components that arrived broken and put a massive monkey wrench in our plans (and bank account) last year, packing materials (bubble wrap and tape and boxes, oh my!), and whatever doesn’t fit into our current abode.

You can’t walk for more than two steps without banging into something! It’s almost comical. Ah, the beauty of an indie brand.

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix 

We changed our boxes from the original curvaceous shape. While I am a big fan of it, we wanted something sturdier for shipping, especially being that we’re going to be on HSN.