I have been working on something for the past few months. While I’m not ready to fully announce it publicly, I did want to give my loyal blog readers the inside scoop ahead of time!
Our Lip Serum is one of my favorite products to use. I can reapply it all day long, it doesn’t stick to my hair, and it makes my lips feel so soft and smooth! One thing I always wished it had though, was a bit of color. So I decided to put on my lab coat and start formulating a Tinted Lip Serum!
When I started this venture I knew I wanted to create colors using pigments that were natural and would stick, but not drastically change the Lip Serum formula. One of the challenges for getting a natural color to stick is using natural petroleum. It’s what most major cosmetic companies use and a lot of natural companies use too. Using a natural petroleum was the easy solution but because I formulate all my own products, I do a lot of research on what each ingredient is and what it does to your body. I even went so far as to call the vendor who distributes this ingredient to ask them a ton of questions to make sure I had my fact right! After researching natural petroleum and the effects it has to your skin, it seemed to me that it was not the right one to use. Had I not spent the time to look this up and call the vendor and dig around then I might have used this ingredient! That is why it is so important to me that we formulate all of our own products and don’t outsource or rely on others to create our products.
Natural petroleum is still harmful to your skin, especially when you lick your lips and ingest it. So I knew I had to do what was right and find a better alternative that was natural but not harmful. I spent countless hours looking for the best alternative that would work when combined with the Lip Serum but every formula I tried was a dud (I’m at 50 different test formulas now!). They would come out clumpy, the color wouldn’t stay, or the smell was awful.
Creating this new product was taking a lot longer than I expected and it came down to a final moment of truth: Do I go with the easy solution and use natural petroleum to get the product out when I said I would OR do I stand for how it will affect our customers and our brand and do what’s right by keep searching for a natural alternative?
I was at a crossroads. I had already told people about this product and to expect it in the spring and already had started promotional work for it. By March, I wasn’t any closer to finding a natural alternative to use. I had invested so much time and energy on this product that I had to ask myself, do I call it quits now and tell people I abandoned this project or do I keep pushing?
Up until last month, I was preparing myself for failure.
One major lesson that has been reinforced throughout this whole process is that good work takes time and energy and I hope that you all will understand why I have delayed in going through with this new product and releasing it. We have always been a mission driven company and we have to decide every day if we are going to LIVE the mission or just HAVE the mission. To me, this was our first true challenge on doing what is right (living the mission) vs. doing what is easy (having a mission). In the end, our commitment to our customers and believe in our mission guided our decision.
Right now I have decided to keep pushing and to do what is right. I have found a natural, safe, alternative to use for my Tinted Lip Serum that seems to be working well (for more information on these safe alternatives, keep an eye out for upcoming blog posts where we talk about them). I have a few more rounds of testing to complete and I am hoping to have a final version of our Tinted Lip Serum ready to go by this summer (or sooner!) and our goal is to have at least 4 colors to choose from! I cannot wait to share it with you all when it is ready! Thanks for being patient with me and supporting me. I promise the wait will be worth it!
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