I recently made a great discovery on Twitter. I met Cheri, a self proclaimed "Beauty Junkie, Mineral Makeup Maestra, Mompreneur" and founder of Orglamix. She is a living proof that there is still room for innovation in the industry, offering high quality products, great value, developed with passion and customers in mind. (Launched July 2009 and received so far 1649 positive reviews on Etsy.com)

Cheri caught my attention because I noticed that she was inviting her over 5000 Twitter followers to suggest names for her upcoming fragrance on Facebook. I Twitted her that I was curious about her mass collaboration (crowdsourcing) efforts and I supposed she was intrigued by the terminology I used and responded almost immediately…and the rest is history. We had a great chat right before Christmas and talked about her passion for the industry, starting her business on Etsy.com, mixing colors, figuring out social media, working from her attic while being a mom, and plans for the future. It was so inspiring and exciting that I thought it was a great way to start the decade.

Why did you chose to start with Etsy.com? I wanted a place to start fast and easy. I was using Etsy as a test platform. I’ve been there for over 5 months now and it has been great (there were a little over 1500 positive reviews by December 23rd, so she got another 100 over the holiday season). However, I can only stay there as long as I make the products myself. I will launch my own website Q1 2010 as it will facilitate sales and enable me to sell other products that are not handcrafted.

What is our background? I’ve been in the industry since 1990. I had a local spa in the Chicago area, worked as a consultant and launched other brands. I launched a website in 1995 introducing global niche beauty brands in the US. Soon it became a platform for brands to enter the market, but once they got some traction, they would find bigger distribution and leave my site.

How did you start your own brand? My passion has always been mineral pigments. I started with mixing and matching pigments then came up with Orglamix earlier this year out of my attic and selling small batches on Etsy.com (they would sell out within a week). Up until a month ago, when I opened up a few wholesale accounts.

How do you plan to grow the business given the great success so far? I am looking into expanding my distribution while trying to focus in one niche at the time. I currently have 3 suppliers of mineral pigments and just hired an organic chemist to help me. Soon I will have to work with a lab.

What are in your products? We use as little ingredients as possible for best impact.  Our shades are a combination of pigments. Some minerals have iridescence and some shades are more reflective. The bigger the micron, they reflect more light.  We never go over 10 ingredients to stay as natural and pure as possible.

How can you sell your products for so low? I started packing 1 gram (105 applications) of eye shadow in a 5 gr jar, and then based on customer feedback (people wanted to use their brush in the jar, but it didn’t fit) I am moving to 2gr in a 8gr but only increasing the price by $1. Also, now that my quantities are higher, I am buying packaging in bulk and at half price. So the difference in packaging is being given in product. For example, we have doubled what Baressentials sells for a quarter of the price.

How big is your range? When I started Orglamix, I launched 36 shades and today we have close to 125 in the core eye collection. Our top three shades, since launch, are Teak, Obsidian, and Wasabi and combined they generate 25% of our eye shadow business.

Tell me about the fragrance. I worked on a fragrance for Orglamix. All of our orders ship with rose petals. So we sprinkled the fragrance on the petals and that is how we sampled the fragrance. Then I asked on Facebook what ingredients fans thought were in the fragrance plus suggestions for names in exchange for a givaway. I got a lot good ideas on how to name it, but nothing that resonates yet. Fragrance is very personal. I am looking for something that can resonate with everyone. The one thing that connects us all, is color, so the first scent is going to be named after a color. First fragrance launches February 1st.

Why do you think people like Orglamix so much? My photographs capture people. They start reading and for the price they are willing to try. If you look at my backend, people start with one product, usually an eye shadow. The next order is between 3 – 5 products. 

Who is your customer? Women 25 – 40, active and busy moms who want to put something natural in their bodies without having buyers remorse. I want them to think Orglamix is the best buy ever.

How do you promote Orglamix? I monitor conversations and respond. Blog reviews and contests, I already received 75 blog posts. I usually give products for review and ask that they run a promotion for their readers, BOGO (buy one get one free), PIF. 

What is PIF? Pay it forward is a way to give make up to people who can’t afford to pay, but that are willing to pay it with community work. Over 125 people have participated by volunteering at cancer wards, animal shelters, etc.

Have you broken even yet? Yes! After 3 months. But I reinvest all the money back into Orglamix.

What are the trends in make up? The market is shifting, is going very minimal. Slowly back to a mineral sheer tint. Five years from now we are going to be more skincare benefits oriented with a focus on anti-aging.

I think I’ve seen some brands making skincare claims? Yes, however it hasn’t exploded yet. But it will…

Where do you want to be next Christmas? I had so much fun this year!! I want to launch 12 new products and get into some good niche beauty boutiques. In 2-3 years I want to have my own stand-alone stores. I will go wherever they wanna take me!!

Insight by Leah
As demand increases, organic/natural preservatives are becoming more readily available, but still at very high costs. If the costs are still high, I wonder what preservative systems organic/natural mass brands are currently using to preserve products while still making a margin?

Insight by Andrea
I was extremely surprised to find food grade parabens in several California Baby products (complete ingredients lists are available at Drugstore.com but not fully disclosed on their website). Click on the image below to find out the information. Once on the site, click on the ingredient’s tab. Always beware of preservative systems that won’t disclose all ingredients.

Following is the current info on the California Baby’s website regarding preservatives and the use of parabens.  

Why does California Baby use preservatives?

Cosmetics are subject to contamination and growth of bacteria, mold and other microorganisms and children regularly have cuts, scrapes and put all sorts of things in their mouths. So we created a broad-spectrum preservative system to help ensure the integrity of California Baby® products with formulas tailored to the needs of each product. We use higher than average concentrations of antioxidants & essential oils, which help to preserve our products. California Baby feels that preservatives are a very necessary part of a personal care product since they are expected to have a long shelf life—unlike bread or muffins. Our motto is ‘skin care should be preserved, but not food.’ Skin care is not food (although ours smell yummy!).

We utilize a preservative called polyaminopropyl biguanide (by-GWAN-ide)—an extremely gentle, NON-INVASIVE, non-formaldehyde, non-paraben preservative. The molecular size is too large to migrate into the skin, penetrate to the dermis or reach the blood stream. The ingredients that comprise our preservative system are gentle, yet effective. So gentle, that they can be found in ocular (contact lens) solutions that are put directly into the eye!

Note: In March 2009, we began using capryloyl glycine and undecylenoyl glycine, which is an amino acid and not strictly classified as a preservative but as an antioxidant. Many companies that claim to be preservative free utilize this type of system. We feel one should be very careful of companies that claim to be preservative free as it is either stretching the truth or, we feel, undesirable to use an unpreserved product.

Thoughts? Comments? Let us know!

Insight by Leah

Is natural that much better? I think we need to be realistic when making choices. In the end of the day we want only the best, but we need to be safe.