PURPLE BLAB

In case you’re wondering, I was a good 60k in the hole. And believe me, every dime of it hurt – it was a life’s savings and it was dwindling with a list of expenses still ahead.

Could I have spent less on press materials? Yes.

Could we have tried to negotiate better terms with our vendors – i.e. don’t pay half up front but maybe 1/4? Maybe. But I didn’t and I didn’t quite know how to do so and as a new company, we have such little leverage.

In hindsight, everything is 20/20.

I was saying earlier that my other goal – after Scoop – was to be in Space.NK. In the UK – the prestige chain originated in London – it is “the” place to go for beauty. Sophisticated, Calvin Klein-esque, gleaming, modern, the store is a jewel box of faceted brands – and only about 60 well-edited ones.

The store was making a play for the US and opened two NYC stores and two outside of the city. Then there was their store-within-a-store deal with Bloomie’s. A friend of mine knew the founder, a very inspiring woman whose initials are (go figure) NK, and introduced us in an email.

Purple Lab was on its way – but homeless.

You can’t get any kind of media coverage on a product if there is no place to buy it. And that meant, work on the press kit but don’t print and go out there with it yet.. wait until I had a place to send people to buy.

Here’s the thing about retailing in today’s world.

The brick and mortar retail model has changed dramatically with the increase of the internet and the decrease of the economy. More people are buying online and on HSN and QVC, which used to be kind of low brow but has become cool, full of fabulousness.

Last I left you, I found the lab. That was the first hurdle (believe, there were plenty more to come…).Here’s how the process works:

1. You tell a chemist/lab about your “product profile,” what you want your claims to be, how you want to market the product, what it should feel like, what you don’t want it to be like (i.e. no parabens!), etc. The more details the better.

2. They send back a “paper formula,” which is a list of ingredients and actives that they feel would fit the bill. We discuss ingredients, blah blah blah.

I left the fashion party on a kind of high – I was going to get a product made! Maybe I could be like that woman who thought of those little flower things you stick in the holes of Crocs and make a gazillion dollars!

QVC/HSN visions swirled through my brain, along with a dozen other things I wanted to create and what the brand would be about. My mission: double duty beauty. Everything would have to have multiple benefits. Products for the multi-tasking mavens!

I had dreams of creams, potions, and lotions from head to toe. And it would all start with Huge Lips Skinny Hips!

It was a typical fashion store opening. A stunning blond teetering on the latest wacky Marc Jacobs wacky heels to my left, a sighting of the new Balenciaga bag at 12:00, and behind me – my favorite part of any event – the space from which the waiters emerge with hors d’oeuvres. And this particular soiree was stocked with the best beggar’s purses and salmon croquettes.