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.

Bottom line: I needed money. Fast.  There was the monthly retainer to Whisper PR, marketing costs, a launch event I envisioned for some fab bloggers (that wound up being ridic – we’ll get there eventually), business cards (forget fancy ones I once treated myself to when I needed personal cards), letterhead, travel and entertainment for retailer events and trainings for their staff, payment for the rest of the inventory, warehousing, shipping. Oh, I could go on.

Did I mention that to ship to the UK, you  must have a European address. I had no idea where to get one. A friend told me I should get memberships to industry organizations like the CEW and ICMAD, both of whom offer support and networks to insiders. I did. And with the ICMAD, you could pay $1,500 to gain access to an EU address in Belgium which would allow a certain amount of shipments overseas (if you ship more, you upgrade).

Done. But $1,500 here. $2,000 there. It all adds up. And every time I turned around, there was a surprise invoice coming our way. God, we hadn’t even built the website yet!

Oops, did I mention that in the contract with the main retailer, I committed to visiting each and every store (that meant all 62 in the UK and 14 in the US) to train the staff and do P.A.s (public appearances)? That’s gonna leave a mark on the bank account!

I didn’t feel badly or awkward asking people for money. I had an actual business with potential and two really respected retail chains supporting the brand. I just didn’t know how – or how much and when I got money, how much of the company’s equity do you give away.

A friend’s investment banker husband started talking about “valuations” (i.e. how much the company is worth – based on revenue, I would have said nothing but based on potential, who knows… millions?!?!). When you get a valuation, the investment represents a percent of it. So if there was a $100 valuation and I got $10, someone would own 10% of the company.

I naively thought I could meet with moguls and investment firms and tell them my idea, show them the traction and imagine and I’d get money. That was far from the case.

I needed a business plan. I bought the guide book for dummies. It may as well have been written in Arabic. And while Todd is a savvy business man and entrepreneur – a real estate investor who is completely self made – this was not his cup of tea either.

We stressed. We attempted. We often disagreed. We realized we needed help.

That’s the next post – B-plan city, finding investors, and taking a family loan (thanks Dad and Jason for all of your support!).

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

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.

I heard back from team NK. They asked to meet… in London.

As luck would have it, Todd and I were going on vacay across the pond. We booked the trip the year before to see an artist’s friend opening in a Soho gallery. We hadn’t been on a trip since our honeymoon and desperately needed the getaway, even if our accountant didn’t agree!

I didn’t have a formal presentation to show. With Scoop, it was okay because I knew the girls there well. But for Space, I needed to impress. I called JD (my designer) in a panic. “Can’t schlep it in a Bendel’s shopping bag!” But I was leaving in a three days. No time to design.

I scoured my closet and came across an amazing evening bag that came in a hard, quilted white box, fortuitously just larger than the room for five glosses – and the box – with the addition of purple tissue paper. To the top of the box, I glued my business card which happened to be thick white with purple metallic writing. Note: I had no Purple Lab cards, so it was my personal one. There were so many aspects of the company that we still needed to create and I was realizing that more and more every day.

Though jet lagged on my first day in the UK, I donned a purple Lanvin dress for the big meeting (I could write that off, right?). The buyers, who were quite sweet, seemed into it! “We don’t have anything like this,” they said. It was true. Their merch was very luxe but very safe. Our product was definitely out of the box.

This would be a departure from the store, who seems to carry all things white. It was purple. It stood out. It was humorous. I wanted to bring in a pole for store events to give a nod to the shade Kitty Poledancer (I know that scared the hell out of them).

They told me IF they took us, they’d want an exclusive for six months in the U.S. Uh oh. “I’m already signed on with Scoop,” I muttered under my breath, almost hoping they didn’t hear. But their eyes lit up (if Scoop liked it, it had to be good!). They said they’d get back to me in a few weeks (this after trying on – and raving about the gloss. “It doesn’t stick to your hair. It doesn’t sting! It smells incredible!”).

The waiting… was… torture!

Then I got the email. It took me two days to open it because I was afraid of rejection. But I got in! It was the best feeling ever, like getting into your reach school!

There was much back and forth paperwork over an iron clad agreement with a lot of words like “herein” and legalese I needed my lawyer brother to translate. (Scoop was nothing like this – Space was like a serious real estate transaction. I was surprised they didn’t ask for my ovaries.)

Once signed, I received a 5-inch thick dossier. Their shipping requirements, full of details on how things needed to be shrink wrapped on a palette and labeled a certain way. And getting the product to London, where there would be an 18 month exclusive, was so overwhelming, I actually cried. I needed a European address, compliancy for the EU (that, I learned, is a whole other thing), a 100 page “product information packet,” a forwarder to pick up the goods at customs and bring to their distribution center after making an appointment that fit into a few hour window. WTF!?! The list was endless. If I tripped up on one thing, I’d be charged. God, shipping incorrectly could mean owing them money even after they buy product!

That is when Todd came in! I could no longer manage this alone. “Um, baby, can you quit your job.”

Todd is a real estate investor and had a somewhat flexible schedule. Between him and my brother, it was like one full-time employee (Todd trasnsitioned into CFO and COO slowly but surely). I have to say – I was really honored that my husband believed in me so much that he would support me so much, not just by unloading his life’s savings but by putting in his sweat too.

Of course, this was all new to him. While he is savvy in business, he did not have insider knowledge of the beauty industry. He did know how to ask the right questions, though. He thought about the things I didn’t.

There is a ton more to say about this – my husband transitioning careers, working with him, running out of money, manufacturing issues you can’t imagine, I could go on. And I will. Next week… when I’ll finally get back to PR and some brutal faux pas!

Mwah!
Karen
Purple Lab Creatrix

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.

That said, as much as I wanted to be in those kind of outlets, I also wanted some form of presence in traditional stores. There’s something about seeing a product in person and touching it, smelling it, feeling it.

My first instinct was a small, well edited chain of stores called Scoop, which started in New York City and had locations in Connecticut, Vegas, and Miami. It’s the kind of place known for spotting all things new, fun, and fresh. The top of the food chain from which I could trickle down. I was drawn to a small boutique, where I wouldn’t get lost (i.e. Sephora could have swallowed me hole and spit me out.)

The woman who started it is called Stefani Greenfield (she has since left the trend empire she started and is designing a line of accessories called Curations with HSN – she is my business idol). I have known her forever – from my journalist days.

While Scoop is not a beauty destination, it is coveted for, among other things, its denim selection. I figured, what better thing to want than Huge Lips Skinny Hips when you’re trying to squeeze into size 26 Current/Elliots (BTW: best jeans ever!)?

When I showed the Scoop girls the product, Stefani was sold, deeming it “yummy sexy.” Love that – especially because it’s such a hard store to get into and one I have personally made more than my share of donations at!

They asked for a P.O. – purchase order. I didn’t have one. I didn’t know how to make one. And then I was told it should have the UPC code (the bar with numbers on products).Of course I had those, I said.

The minute I left, I was Googling.

And whaddo you know… there’s barcodes.com.

Bought em and downloaded a P.O. template online, hoping it would suffice. It did. But the barcodes, not so much. Turned out to not have the right number of digits – bought the wrong codes and after we printed the stickers, all 30,000 of them, 5,000 per color – we had to buy new codes and make new stickers… good times!.

On our way. The order wasn’t huge. But it’s the kind of “door” (the term for store) that is prestigious and all about cache. My kind of door. Magazine editors love Scoop and though it’s not widespread, it was a good place to start a brand.

I also had my sets on a chain called Space.NK, like a school girl crush on the popular football player you only hope would look your way just once. They did – but it wasn’t quite the right fit. Will go there later.

I was finally able to finish up the press kit – and that is for next week, my friend.

Till then…

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

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.

3. They send a sample. I give feedback – it’s not thick enough, the color doesn’t “pay off” (industry jargon for “show up/stay on”) enough… etc.

4. They send new sample based on feedback until approved.
For that, there is usually a fee – a few thousand dollars, which will be put towards the eventual order of the full run.

In the beginning, doing this didn’t seem like it would be so expensive.

That was until I heard about minimum orders!

Will go there later.

The next step: Testing. Many kinds of testing.

1. R.I.P.T. test (repeat insult panel test, which is basically putting product on a panel of skin/body part the product is for repeatedly to make sure it does not irritate). That one is a few thousand dollars (forgot the exact amount right now).

2. If you want to make claims – say the product does something by a certain percent – you have to do clinicals, which are essentially scientific studies that prove the claims you’re making. They can be costly. Very costly. Too costly for Purple Lab’s blood at this time.

3. Stability. This tests how stable the formula is – and it involves using heat and simulating time so you can see if and how the formula would hold up over months, years, etc.

4. Compatibility. You have to make sure the formula works with the component it goes in (a component is the beauty biz term for whatever holds the formula – a squeezie tube, a jar, a container, etc.).

To do compatibility, you have to know what you’re putting the gloss in.

Yikes! I had no idea.

I knew that I wanted it to convey luxury and feel special in your hand. I didn’t know that there was a world of millions of components to choose from – and how I’d navigate it. Did you know that there are consultants whose sole job is to find components for beauty products for people? I didn’t. But I sure did meet a few. While it is great to have someone out there doing your dirty work, I didn’t have the budget to put one on retainer. I needed to fly solo.

More frantic calls.

What I found out is that components tend to come from China – they’re typically sent by boat, which takes 12 weeks by the time all is said and done. 12 weeks! There are two kinds of componentry: stock, which is what manufacturers have existing molds for and tons or brands use; custom, which requires building a mold which gets costly. Granted, you can amortize the cost of a mold over time and it’s not bad if you’re producing hundreds of thousands of pieces, but in a case like mine – new, small business on a tight financial diet – custom was out of the question.

Very sad. Because you know I wanted to do something custom and crazy! Hopefully we can do so in the future…

I was given the name of one of the largest manufacturers in the business through one of the component consultants I met who was nice enough to share her source. They sent me a handful of components to look at. I didn’t really like most of them – they all looked kind of cheap. (This part is free, FYI.)

The company sent me another set of components, these more upscale. What I learned I like is called “double wall,” components, which is when there is an inner cavity floating in the main component. It has such a clean, modern feel. The one that spoke to me the most was very similar to others I’ve seen out there in the luxury market – Lip Fusion comes to mind. It felt heavy, sturdy in the hand, like you’re actually getting something significant.

Meanwhile, the lab had sent me the sample and it only took three back and forths to nail it. By the time it was done, I was in love and obsessed with the formula. I had a few in little jars that I wore religiously, as did my mom and two friends who swiped them from my bag!

I sent the lab the sample component to do their battery of tests, which typically run for about three months.

If you’re doing the math here, this means we’re at 6 months before the product is even remotely ready to go. But there are always a million other delays, all of which I experienced! Get to those later.

After three months, we passed all tests and I was ready to order the components.

Enter “minimums,” which are minimum orders. It costs the factories tons of dough to run their machinery so they won’t even turn them on unless you’re buying at least 5,000 of each color. Minimums are usually 5,000 per color. I wanted six colors. So I suddenly found myself ordering 30,000 pieces – and writing a check for over $20,000

Where is that trust fund when you need it?

The scary thing is, I’m not in China to oversee the process, to make sure it’s all groovy. So I’m paying for these things and can’t see them to approve as they come off the factory line, though these companies have reps there and they assure me they have serious quality control.

In China, they also decorate the component.

OMG!

I didn’t even think of that part yet. I had to have a design on them, the brand.

Hold everything!

I needed a logo, a color scheme (it had to be purple, my favorite color, but which pantone shade exactly, I didn’t know), and… um… a trademark on the name, something I didn’t do until my eagle-eye lawyer of a brother, Jason, asked me about it.

J went to law school (Emory in case you’re wondering) with a guy named Danny who is now an IP attorney (IP = intellectual property) in D.C. Just the guy we needed. He works for a prestigious white hankie law firm (i.e. Disney is their client). They’re a fortune per hour. But J assures me he’s the best and it’s worth every dime – God forbid we make something and get sued or have to recall it later.

$500/hour and too many hours to count later, we got a green light to use the name “Huge Lips Skinny Hips.” Phew! But the original brand name I wanted to use was unavailable. I had my eyes on the moniker, SKINNY, and my thought was to give “the skinny,” some kind of insider tip for something relevant on each product.

Couldn’t get the name – someone owned it.

Back to the drawing board.

Name 2 I tried? Taken.

Name 3? Taken.

Name 4? Taken.

I hated my lawyer! I felt like every time he called with news about why I couldn’t use a certain name, he was trying to hurt me.

It took me two months to conjure the right – and available – name, not to mention about 10k in legal fees. Ouch! I combed through French, Italian, and Sanskrit dictionaries (always love a foreign word). I read the thesaurus as if it were the bible. I was making up words, all of which were taken, taken, taken. TAKEN!

Frustrated beyond belief, I contemplated a leap off my roofdeck.

The thing about challenges like this – they push you to a point that is even better than where you started.

And that point was coming…

I was talking to a very creative artist friend about the brand name issue. He was asking me crazy questions like the name of my invisible friend when I was child, the street I live on, mom’s maiden name (ironically, it’s Moss, as in Kate!). It came up that I used to sleep with a stuffed hippo when I was a kid – and he said, kind of flippantly, “what if you did something out there and kooky like ‘Hippo Lab.’ It doesn’t mean anything but it gets people talking.’”

Hippo Lab?

Wasn’t feeling it.

He started drawing logos of very cute hippos though.

“Um. I don’t know,” I said. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings – he was spending hours helping. “What if we colored the hippo purple.”

PURPLE!

I love purple. I love everything about the color – the energy it has. It’s sexy. It’s chic. It’s glam. It’s fun. Exactly how I see this brand.

“Purple Lab,” I yelled. “Purple Lab!”

When I was in college, I was pre-med and en route to med school. When I decided to come to New York, the joke in my family was that I changed my “lab coat” for my “fab coat” (I may have mentioned this already). Purple Lab made total sense.

I prayed to the trademark gods that it be free!

And it was!

***

Now all I needed was a logo and design.

My friend JD owns the most amazing creative design shop called Calliope Studios. He’s done branding work and website design for Nars, John Varvatos, Kirna Zabete (my personal fashion Mecca – a.k.a. the drug den), amongst others. He also owns Yoya and Yoya Mart, the best baby stores you will ever see and the only place I buy baby gifts for friends. He is so inspiring.

His eye is slick, cool, sexy, and sharp. He totally gets my vibe and I knew he would be the best person to hire for our branding, website, collateral, everything…

But the man does not come cheap.

I went to his office with cupcakes and 6 years of friendship to back up my plight – please help me and don’t really charge me anything because I don’t have much money and I’m trying to make it big and when I do, you will be repaid!

That got me a little bit of love…

He gave me some time on the weekends and we went to town.

I showed him the things and sites that inspire me – Colette in Paris, Dita von Teese, Kate Moss, the artist Anselm Reyle (his purple foil piece sleighs me… FYI, it’s 600k!), the purple Nina Ricci dress Reese Witherspoon wore to the Oscars post-divorce. We poured through font books to see what stood out. A few days later, he came back with this:

Love the font! Love the Logo! Love JD for making it!

OUR LOGO!

And…

OUR LIPGLOSS!

I was so in love, I actually printed the image, shrunk it and laminated it so I could carry it in my wallet!

The design went to the manufacturer so we could see a comp.
New trouble began.

The manufacturer went completely AWOL!

I mean, the business was still around but my contact stopped returning calls and emails. WTF!?!?!?!

That roofdeck leap was looking pretty good again!

My lab, meanwhile, kept asking me about the timing on things. Note: they wouldn’t really make any money until I placed a full order and I couldn’t place a full order until I had components coming. See the dilemma?

They referred me to another manufacturer, a very established and well known company based in New Jersey, home of many a lab and beauty manufacturers (not to mention the glamorous state in which I grew up). This company… I’ll call them X (no names right now – you’ll see why later… it didn’t turn out to be the best experience)… was able to manufacture the exact same component that I wanted.

Before I placed the order, they sent a comp with our “deco design” (that is the graphic on the component). It took a few weeks for it to arrive (remember, it was coming from China). In that time, I focused on packaging with JD.

Meanwhile, back to packaging. My main goal was to have a box that stood out, something that would pop in a sea of products. JD sketched an hourglass shaped number and came up with the idea of the gradient purple (like that Reese Witherspoon dress I was obsessed with). LOVE! But is it possible?

He fiddled and played and actually came up with a way to make it work.

Just needed to find a printer who could bring it to life on a large scale. Easier said than done. JD saw the panic on my face (I was like… ugh, back to frantic calls!). He promised he’d find someone to come to the rescue. “It just has to be affordable,” I warned. I have a habit of making things more expensive than they have to be! That’s another story – ask my accountant. Better yet, don’t!

JD wound up scoring me a guy who could whip up our box – a bit more than we were hoping for. Boxes in the beauty world tend to be around $0.10 to about $0.50 – we were a few dollars. The impression it makes was worth it to me – I would rather make less money and put something out there that gives women a fabulous emotional experience. I decided to go for it. Had to keep true to my “cut through the clutter” mantra.

Come back soon for the rest of the tale… there’s A LOT more! I’m talking creating colors, PR, marketing, getting retailers to sell it… and a little thing called money and the fact that we needed to raise some!

Chat soon!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

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!

One problem: I had NO clue what to do first!

First step: Frantic phone calls and emails. I reached out to everyone I could think of in the beauty industry – PR girls, my former editors, writers, marketing peeps, consultants, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends, Facebook shout outs. My head was spinning as they said things like “you need to go into R&D” (R&D? Road and driver? Oh, research and development). How the hell do I “go into” R&D? In my kitchen?)

Apparently, I needed a lab.

Not the kind with four legs.

Chemists, white coats, test tubes, the whole thing. The more I dug, the more the same few names popped up. I started Googling, researching, dialing, and suffering from severe anxiety. It was beyond overwhelming.

A fateful lunch meeting with someone from Steve & Barry’s (R.I.P.!) – I was pitching him for a totally different project (marketing oriented) – lead to the ultimate hook up – an innovative lab that has developed some of my favorite things – stuff for Bliss and Freeze 24/7.

I got on the phone with the head mad scientist and the minute I started talking about my idea, he started spewing out names of ingredients to make it work.

“I don’t want the plumper to sting,” I told him. I cannot stand the feeling of burning lips. I have some friends who like it because it makes them feel like it’s working but it makes me want to tear my mouth off.

He mentioned something about vasodilator technology and micro circulatory stimulation to promote blood flow to the lips.

???????????

My thoughts exactly.

In layman’s terms, this meant the active ingredients (or “actives,” according to lab speak) would not irritate.

My other requests: silky, moisturizing, and not too sticky, heavy, or tacky. Nothing is worse than the wind blowing your hair into your lipgloss and having it stick there like Crazy Glue.

The longer we spoke, the more I felt like he “got” my idea.

For appetite suppressant, I wanted to use Hoodia. It’s all-natural, from a cactus-like plant indigenous to S. Africa and Namibia (a.k.a. birthplace of Shiloh!) and it has been used for centuries for its appetite suppressing qualities.

In my excitement, I emailed my brother, a lawyer, to tell him what was happening and five minutes later, he sent me an “all caps” email yelling – GET AN NDA, YOU IDIOT! NDA = nondisclosure agreement. He attached one.

The lab signed while we were on the phone. Phew!

Sidebar: I think you should know my theory on both appetite suppressants and this gloss.

I don’t really believe any appetite suppressant works unless you really want it to. I mean, how many times have you been completely full and found yourself double fisting dessert (don’t tell me I’m alone in that!). And every time I tell myself, “no carbs, no sugar, no white flour,” I inexplicably wind up with a bagel in hand.

So to me, this gloss – with Hoodia – was about creating an intention-setting, something to keep us girls mindful about our eating so that we don’t have to leave a party with ring-around-the-waist or beat ourselves up for eating things that don’t make us feel good. It’s NOT about starving. It’s NOT about being skinny. It’s about being who you are and having a fun, sexy, glamorous lipgloss that makes you feel good and aware.

Tune in next time and I’ll take you through the step-by-step of how the product goes from idea to reality…

Until then…

Mwah!
Karen
Purple Lab Creatrix

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.

Hunger or not, I have never been the one to pass up a good beggar’s purse and after 20 minutes of making sure that every server knew to circle by me before the rest of the crowd, I looked at my husband and said, “I have to go.” I had ring around the waist – the red line that forms around your belly after you eat so much that your waistband suddenly feel one size too small.

He was kind of annoyed. We were barely there for a half an hour.

“If my lipgloss could plump my lips and not my hips, we wouldn’t have this problem,” I sniffed.

OMG! My Eureka moment!

Lipgloss with plumper AND appetite suppressant!

That would be my dream product, I told him. “I’d call it Huge Lips Skinny Hips,” I said, all excited about my vision.

I grabbed my cell phone to call a friend in the beauty biz to tell her about the product – I wanted her to make it so I could buy it.

Todd, my husband, grabbed my phone, mid-dial.

“You make it,” he said, totally assuredly. “You start a company and sell it! Your whole career has been leading up to this! You need a brand!”

Moi?

I had no idea how to make a product or a thing about manufacturing. But why couldn’t I figure it out, I thought.

Before I go on, let’s back up for a minute.

My background…

The Cliff’s Notes version: I was a journalist for over ten years. I got my start at WWD (first job out of college where I was handing out mail, fetching coffee, filing, and faxing – this before email was an integrated part of our everyday culture, which kind of dates me, I must say). I worked there for 3-plus years before going freelance, when I started writing for all the women’s magazines – Marie Claire, Elle, Bazaar, InStyle, Glamour, etc. – and the New York Times Sunday Styles section as well as the New York Post.

It was amazing fun – I covered everything frivolous and fabulous, from celebrity soirees on private yachts in St. Barths to going undercover as a phone sex operator to the Sundance Film festival parties to cover stories on the stars (I spent a day with Molly Sims who had to see what kind of things she could talk people into doing for her – like drop their pants and build a pyramid on the beach and put her on top) to all the trends/beauty/fashion/ pieces I could get my mitts on.

It was definitely a crazy ride (one time on the back of a scooter while Liev Schreiber was driving – I swear!).

Liev Schreiber, tearing up the streets in St. Barths. I swear, that's me on the back! That little blurb of a leg and white hat!

Then I got an assignment from Marie Claire that wound up being the catalyst for a major career shift. The mission: become famous in two weeks. My friend and now best selling author Melissa de la Cruz (shout out to Mel!) did the story with me and for two weeks, we schemed our way on to gossip columns (WWD actually called me K.Ro after Harry Winston loaned me $2 million of rocks, I kid you not!), faked our way into free clothes (borrowed glamour – nothing like it especially when the label is Dior!), and pretended we were girls from Planet “It” (the major lesson I learned: make your name match your brand of celebrity stardom… Karen von Robin is a lot more believable to the media as an heiress than Karen Robinovitz, which sounds more like I’m a rabbi’s daughter when in fact, I’m a car dealer’s daughter).

Mel and me! We came to our first FAMOUS book party by way of fleet of 20 Vespas driven by Ford models! That's an entrance! We called ourselves the Asian and Jewish "Ab Fab!"

We got a call from our agent the minute the piece hit newsstands. “Write a book proposal now! How to become FAMOUS in two weeks or less.” When you get a call like that, you can only say one thing: YES!

Call it timing, luck, whatever but we had a book deal two weeks later! That wasn’t the part that changed my life, though it was beyond exciting and amazing to write with a friend. It was the aftermath…

Three months before launch – BTW, those horrible sunglasses on the cover were airbrushed on us! – we received our long-awaited “marketing plan.” I put it in quotes because the only initiative was “put book on Hampton jitney.” Marketing plan? That’s not even a full sentence! When I asked where the rest of the plan was, our publisher told is there was no “rest of the plan.” That was it! That was all they would do!

I became a marketing machine. I didn’t really know what I was doing but I called every PR contact I had to see what kind of strategic partnerships I could create. When it was all said and done, I was signing books by kissing them with MAC lipstick (they offered makeovers at all of our readings and events), promoting Rock & Republic jeans which had hangtags about our book, working with AOL (shout out to AOL! Woo hoo!), sitting pretty in the back of a Bentley (we did interviews in the vehicle – how hot is that?), and, um, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie hosted our LA soiree!

Hello! The Bentley! The perfect entrance to a book signing soiree! Plus, I got to wear an Escada gown that was once worn by Halle Berry!

That was when my life changed…

I am a marketing person!

I started consulting for brands – showing them how to become famous in two weeks or less – and doing all kinds of programs: events, influencer seeding (i.e. giving products to the rich and fabulous to get it in the “right” hands); guerilla marketing (did something awesome for Glam.com where we had hot guys in branded BMWs circling fashion week and handing out Glam branded gumballs and then gave the front row girls “Glam Pods,” ipods curated with haute runway music by the industry’s most coveted sound stylist, Coleman); social media programs (Love you, Twitter! BTW, follow me on Twitter! Shameless plug, I know!), and more.

I didn’t stop writing though – Melissa and I co-authored Fashionista Files! Adventures in four-inch heels and faux pas (Michael Kors and Diane von Furstenberg gave us props for our cover!) and I wrote a book for the PR and event planning behemoth Harrison & Shriftman: “Fete Accompli! The Ultimate Guide to Creative Entertaining.”

I did some TV along the way – things like the Fabulous Life on VH-1 and MTV’s Made. I even shot a pilot about my life for BRAVO, but it wasn’t picked up. Still, I have a great DVD for the future grandchildren… if DVDs are still in existence, that is.

I get a little – I don’t know – uncomfortable talking about things I’ve done, but for more deets and to see the hint of the pilot, please check out on my site.

So that brings us back to my hubby, telling me to make the product. (Love that man! He is so supportive!)

And that is what Purple Blab will be about…

The making of our beauty brand, which would never have been possible without the words of encouragement from Todd, my husband. He’s so cute! See below!

My hubby!

Think of it like a guide to getting a product made and building a brand. I’ll dish all the dirty secrets I learn from labs and manufacturers and what we go through to line up distribution, financing, PR, events, etc. Every trial. Every tribulation. Every success. Every fear. Every everything!

It will all be here, along with other glittery details I may have to share along the way… like my poledancing classes, Minx manicure parties (Blog chanteuse Dana Oliver blogged about it recently on Stylelist.com, where, by the way, I am also penning a blog called Beauty Blab!), celebrity sightings (I spot many in my neighborhood – West Village of NYC), and fashion moments (I tend to be a very good shopper!).

Next time… the first steps of getting a product made! World Domination, Phase I!  (Evil laugh here!)

So read, share, tell me what you want to know or hear about, too!

I am an open book!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix