Creator of Huge Lips, Skinny Hips Lip Gloss (at Scoop, Ron Robinson and b-glowing), Karen Robinovitz takes us through the trials and tribulations of creating a beauty brand from scratch.

Before I go on, note: Everything I'm blogging right now happened a while ago (at this time, the product is actually in stores, but I want to give you all the background to catch you up on how I got to today).

At this point, I was able to finish my press kit.

PR 101: Editors, writers, journalists, media types, bloggers... they get hundreds of press kits and product samples every week. When you're in their position, everyone wants you to feature their product, so they bombard you with product.

I still have 37 hand creams, 46 conditioners, 7 eye creams, 18 toners, 3 foot creams and an entire shelf of SPF and self tanner left over from the good ole days of my swag-a-licious life as a reporter.

The problem when you get so much loot? You become jaded. The more you see, the more discerning you become and the harder it is for brands to stand out. Ninety percent of the products I received went to interns, my housekeeper, friends or the cab driver on the way home from an event.

Brands need to cut through the clutter. They must stand out. A strong visual impact was vital. No product of mine was going to be relegated to the trash bin, i.e., no plain white folders! JD showed me a rendering of a custom $5 folder, about 6"x10", in a gradient purple with fuchsia metallic hot stamping (the official color – Crown 750 foil). I melted. I would need 1,000. Yes, that is $5K on folders.

Todd raised his eyebrow in suspicion. "You're spending how much???"

"Baby, we need it. We're new. We need to pop," I explained, somehow convincing him. To fill the folder, we used high-end card stock -- one side was printed with info, the other with a repeated logo graphic and lip prints a la Murakami/Louis Vuitton (dare I compare myself?).

For the cover page, I went with a Marilyn Minter-inspired close-up of a mouth with the Huge Lips, Skinny Hips logo inside. Minter is my fave photographer (Tom Ford collects her work, which is very sexy and raw). It was followed by the press release about Purple Lab, my bio, the product sheet about the key ingredients, a page for each color and its inspiration and a contact page. When all was said and done, it was a $15 press kit. Yikes!

Oh, and then I thought: What are we sending this out in? Definitely not a brown paper bag with a label on it. Branded, baby. It had to be branded. The original bags I wanted were out of the question -- just too expensive. So we had a simple glossy white bag with our signature Crown 750 hot stamped logo and kiss mark. Adorable and not terribly expensive. But it all adds up!

Need I say again that I needed 1,000 of everything -- bags and press kits. Remember that savings I was dipping into? It was almost gone. That brings me to the business plan and money -- my least favorite topic and one I will get into next week.

Mwah!
Karen
Purple Lab Creatrix