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

Did you see A Single Man, the Tom Ford film?

If not, RUN! Do not walk to the theater! It must been viewed on the silver screen. A breathtakingly stunning emotional story of a gay man in the 60s whose partner dies in a car crash, every moment is art directed to graphic perfection. And Julianne Moore’s makeup. No words! Beyond!

I sat down with Lashionista Modelista, Purple Lab’s peptide-packed liquid liner and tubing mascara duo, to recreate the look. Keep in mind – I really can’t pull it off the way Julianne can and the rest of me is not styled in a 60s vibe, but the eye makeup speaks for itself.

Here’s how to do it.

Tom, give me Moore!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

Monday, I jetted to Tampa, which Amber of beautybloggingjunkie.com calls “Glampa” (wish I could take credit for that moniker) for a two day of nonstop HSN prep, which began with a cattle casting call for our before and after shoots.  (Amber and me, in front of the building with all the studios – it’s a massive operation there with more buildings than the Upper East Side).

100 women showed up for our “go-see.” I can’t lie. I felt a little bit like Tyra on America’s Next Top Model.

The goal: Find one woman in her 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s, each with different skin tones and complexions. I wanted them to projected real beauty and aspiration at once.

This was the line out the door! It felt kind of uncomfortable to be in the position of choosing a model because that meant rejecting someone (don’t even ask how we’ll decide who will win the recent online HSN model search - I’m tortured).

There were two sets of girls to pick – one for before and after shots, which we were doing the next day, and one for the live show. One by one, the models approached the table, where they showed us (by us, I mean Amber, who was there to support; Lori, who works with Purple Lab and used to work at HSN so she knows what she’s doing; Bisi, the model manager at HSN; and Lisa, who oversees before and afters (known as B&As) for the network) their cards and chatted.

The rules of the model search – if someone has worked with a beauty brand in the past six months, you can’t have them. In case you’re wondering.  The other thing I had to think about – how someone would look in a before and after shot. There needs to be a difference.

For showing mascara, it’s good to find a blond because they have light lashes – you’ll really be able to tell when our Lashionista Modelista dolls up her look. The blond I found – LOVE! She looked so much like my friend Sarah that it was almost scarey, so I had to choose her!

It took over two hours, but we found our Purple Lab women for both the photo shoot the next day and the live show (live show, we’re planning on having a bare faced model there to do her own makeup as the show goes on – I want everyone to see how easy it is to use; you don’t HAVE to be a makeup artist).

The bare-faced girl in question reminded me of Isabella Rossellini – short, short hair, strong, strong face. She is a breast cancer survivor, which made me love her even more. And another of the models, Vonda, who is in her 50s, is a three time survivor.

They both projected such a sense of strength and beauty, I couldn’t resist them.

But more on the shoot and next steps later.

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

I have said this before but in case you missed it, I’ll say it again.

It took Todd and me two years to get Huge Lips Skinny Hips from our brain to shelves. With new partners behind us, a fantastic and experienced development team, it took five months – FIVE! – to create FIVE new products!

I can’t say it was easy and this time around, I wasn’t in the middle of manufacturing madness, which is a place I clearly do not belong. The ease of working with a team who knows exactly what they’re doing and has been doing this for more than thirty years is such a welcome change, I almost feel anxious because I’m not anxious.

Actually, I take that back. I am anxious, just about different things.

Here’s how the process works – and it’s incredible to see the difference between doing it the way Todd and I had done it (when we had NO clue what we were doing and were figuring it out as we went along) and the way it should be done (the learning scale is off the charts).

The new Purple production brigade is in constant contact with labs, so they have an intimate knowledge of new technology, ingredients, science forward elivery systems. I get the skinny, which often inspires new ideas or helps me take the ideas I have to a whole new level.

Brainstorming goes down.

I had a very clear idea of what I wanted the next bunch of products to be and they are on my exact same page, which helps.

There are two main women I work with, one who handles componentry and one who handles formulation. And they handle EVERYTHING. I just get to be creative and avoid what I know I’m bad at.

With product lab partner, we talk about new ingredients, things the lab may already be experimenting with that could add to an idea Purple Lab has. We talk beneifts, features, textures. The lab turns over samples, which are then tested on all of us in the office, friends, friends of friends. I’m not even remotely satisfied until everyone loves it – not just me.

This is what the (glam) lab samples look like.

There are hundreds around the office

I give feedback – “not smooth enough… needs more coverage… add more silk to the formula…”

Meanwhile, I brainstorm names and the “s.o.i.” (statement of identity, for example, Silk Sheets, Purple Lab’s foundation has an s.o.i. of “luxe foundation infused with silk, juniper and almond seeds).

After contemplating Ridicu-lash, Lashing Out, and Lash Addict, Lashionista came to me at 4a.m. I woke up Todd in the middle of the night, saying “Lashionista! Lashionista!” Once you have a name, you’re lucky if it’s not already trademarked. And if it is, I could die of frustration, yet I always wind up on the other side with something I like more. (Luvah was almost “Serial Dater,” “Bow Chicka Bow Bow,” and “Don’t Stop”!)

Back to sampling product. I’m almost obnoxiously discerning (i.e. “the mascara is not the tubiest – I send it back like bad salmon at a restaurant). Sometimes, I’m sure the lab wants to kill me. I often reject something 20 times until it’s the best, best, best product I’ve EVER. I can’t share passion with something I don’t live for.

The girls and I create colors, mixing and matching shades from products the lab sends, adding pearlized, shimmery powders to add just enough sparkle (too much = bad).

The white cowhide rug below the table is officially stained with berry, plum, and red gloss

Simultaneously, the componentry partner sends various packaging options (dozens live in the closet). I often give examples, sketches, ideas of what I like and she finds matches. We talk about pros and cons of each, where logo and cute copy go, how it fits with the rest of the brand’s identity (everything tends to be square, clean lines, double walled, matte silver or shiny purple with metallic hot pink branding).

Our Art Director mocks up the look/feel until it’s right.

When the formula is approved, I write the copy for the box, including directions for use, the love notes that come within, the web copy.

Next: sample time – we need them for media, web site photography, and press material.

Go there – and the stage of finished product – next time!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

Rome wasn’t build in a day.

But the earth took a week (wtih one day of rest).

Jack Donaghy predicted a 9 year ascent to VP when he was relegated to the mail room (30 Rock reference – new obsession).

I spent 26 years in the dating scene until I got hitched (this is if I go back to age 8, the date of my first “real” boyfriend, Jonathan, who said he liked my hair in pig tails and than broke up with me after I reported him to the principal for pulling my pants down on the monkey bars).

And it was two years from time of idea for Huge Lips Skinny Hips to hit shelves.

My point: all good things take TIME!

And if Todd and I were still the sole directors of Purple Lab, I’m sure the next five products we’re now doing would take about five years.  With our new partners behind us, it took us a mere five months. Five!

If you haven’t been on the site of late, we’re launching five – yes FIVE! – makeup products in February for our HSN debut.

First, the products, all of my key essentials for the makeup bag. Then, the production and how they’re made.

Cheek Implants is all about supermodel cheek bones. Think cream blush with collagen, nylon, elastin and hyaluronic acid. Beauty treatment in makeup that seeps into your pores to take effect. What I never liked about powder blush is that it wears off after a few hours. Ever notice that? This is long lasting and dee-vine!

Complete with felt tip pen for precise application

There’s tubing, growth enhancing, conditioning mascara (Lashionista) and  liquid liner (Modelista) with DIAMOND DUST (a duo, so you treat the lashes from the follicle to the tip and at 360-degrees). Love tubing for its smudge-proofness – no end-of-day raccoon eyes.

Mascara + Curved Brush = Runway Ready Lashes ---> Lashionista

Next: Luvah (said like Will Ferrell). It’s the ultimate dating tool, an aphrodesiac-infused double-plumper (called “Complex OO”), scented with vanilla-mint for fresh kissing breath.

Each shade is named after the archetypes of guys I dated to find “the one” true Luvah in my life, my husband/Purple Lab partner, Todd. They come with the story of my experience – and I’m sure you had them too. (Rich Jerk! Mama’s Boy!)

On to Luxury Squared, a concealer/highlighter in one chic square compact. Both are equipped fine silk particles, which lock moisture in the skin, and Vitamin E, an antioxidant that brightens and protects against free radicals in the atmosphere.

The concealer is a color corrector for under the eyes and it has  beta glucan to treat inflimmation and algea which firms and detoxes. Are you getting this? Mega treatment! Like a mini facial with one swipe.

The highlighter, the most under rated product out there, is laced with silica to smooth the skin and firming agents as well. Use a dab at the corner of the eyes at the bridge of the nose to take years off and a smear under the outer brow to open your eyes. Red carpet trick: use at the bow of the lips for an extra delicious pout.

Lastly, Silk Sheets, the most luxurious foundation that has ever graced myface. It glides on the skin as smoothly as the sumptuous feeling of sleeping in regal – yes! – silk sheets. The idea behind it came from the fact that I have a long, laborous process of post-shower-face-treatment. Toner. Three serums. Cream. Elastin spray.

Frustrated, I once dumped them all in my foundation to cut down my steps. Of course, it killed the consistency (and $$$$) but it hit me, I need this foundation to ALL of these things. Who has the time for such a long face wash procedure?

Built with real silk to lock in moisture, Hyaluronic Acid to plump and rejuvenate, aloe to soothe… the list goes on. Algae, rice protein and seaweed firm, green tea and Vitamin C act as antioxidants, and juniper berries cleanse.

LUV the packaging, I must say! Double walled lucite with matte silver. Tres chic!

After a few trials with the lab, they got it so right that I said “Do you hear this? It’s the sound of me throwing away a brand new $60 foundation because I won’t use anythign else.”

As a former beauty writer, I am SO discerning. I refuse to make anything unless it’s better than what I already love – and I love good things!

The process of R&D and manufacturing – well… this is getting long. So I’ll save it for next time!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix