I nurtured this baby for way longer than nine months. I felt it kicking to get out, had morning/afternoon/evening sickness the whole way through, but one early morning, the last week of April, I finally gave birth.
Purple Lab’s Huge Lips Skinny Hips shipped to stores!
It was the greatest feeling I could ever imagine – seeing our babies come to life.
Todd and I were proud parents. And here is the tale… consider this blog the birth certificate.
In a small company, you have no choice but to do everything yourself. EVERYTHING!
The night before we shipped our products – oh, we were finally shipping and it’s the end of this past April (for reference) – and we had 1,000 baby size glosses to use as retailer samples. And we also had these little postcards which we folded in half and set up to the gloss in a cute package.
So what we did – all night along with three interns! – was fold, exacto knife, place in the grooves. All night. Red Bull moments. Hands a bloody mess after. Back and neck killing. Burning pain. And they were all over the living room floor.
Back to where we left off before I got into Fashion’s Night Out (BTW – it’s THIS Thursday at Scoop Street from 7-11p.m., so please stop by!).
We finally did it! The products were ready to ship! (I actually heard Barry Manilow’s “Looks like we made it” buzzing in my head all day!). When you send to stores, there’s a ridiculous manifesto to stick to or you’ll get a million charge-backs.
It takes a few days for it to go from their distribution center to each and every store (they divide up and send as they deem appropriate, based on how they feel each store will respond to different shades, etc.).
Have you heard about Fashion’s Night Out?
OMG! It is going to be the biggest thing to hit NYC since 7″ Fendi platform maryjanes (BTW, totally covet them this season).
Anna Wintour (her holiness) and Mayor B. are sponsoring this event to bring shopping and retail back. Every single store in the city will be hosting a bash from 6-11p.m. The streets will be crawling with girls, teetering on very tall shoes.
Get your credit cards ready!
We’ll be at Scoop Street at 875 Washington (corner of 14th St. in the Meatpacking District)! Check it: if you buy two colors of Huge Lips Skinny Hips, you’ll get No Panty Lines free. Yes, FREE! Here are some deets!
This whole thing – starting a business, becoming a manufacturer, raising money, balancing it with a day job, overseeing back and front end of all operations… it’s war, I tell you. WAR!
At times, it was war with the accountant.
At times, it was war with the bank – or the fact that it was showing no love.
At times, I cannot lie, my husband.
At times, every vendor.
At times, the friends and family who gave the seed money to help kick it off.
And much of the time, it’s war with yourself. At least it is for me.
It (FINALLY!) was time to actually assemble our product and get ready to rumble (i.e. ship to stores).
We were working with a warehouse in Philly and Todd actually went there to supervise the situation. And by supervise, I mean do it himself. He lead an assembly line of white glove wearing (we didn’t want fingerprints!) girls who would perfectly fold the boxes into their shape, place the inserts such that the gloss wouldn’t shake around, close, use a wafer clear sticker to ensure it stays sealed, and so on.
Who says we don’t get down and dirty?
Just want to pause for a minute to tell you about Sharon Hirsch.
She is Purple Lab’s Communications Director and she kicks ass!
She didn’t technically come into the picture on staff until late June, but I have known her – and been wanting to hire her – for over two years.
As we were YouTubing for some new vlogs, I took a call and Sharon jumped in (BTW, she currently works in the living room at my mother-in-law’s bridge table, sandwiched between the back of the sofa and the pole! Oh, the joy of a start-up!).
So… I’ve been giving you the scoop on the launch event (even though product missed the shipping date – sorry… not yet over it!).
It went exactly as I had hoped it would. The girls were great – and so into it, even the pole dancing! They lived their So Low yoga pants! They got their smooches on. They salivated at Louboutin (I think I told you that Felicia Sullivan won a pair of shoes and I have an adorable video of her shopping moment – will share that next time!).
I gave you half of the story of the launch with the bloggesses last time – but the video was too long to keep it going. So here’s the second half that I had to rob you of! In a few days, I’m going to give you the full-on experience… a sizzling video from the day.
You’ll meet all the girls!
Yay!
