New Beginnings

How many of you want to have the chance at a new beginning?  Go ahead raise your hands just like we did in 1st grade.  Now I'm sure one of you is waving your hand annoyingly at the computer scree screaming at it, going "Me, me.  Pick me!" just like you did in school.  I was that kid.  Sadly, life rarely gives us the opportunity for a do-over or as they say in golf a Mulligan.  I like that word.  Mulligan.  Any time something isn't going my way and I want to just start over I should have the right to evoke a "Mulligan" and redo whatever it is I just screwed up.  When someone invents an app that does that please remember that I thought of it first!

I'm 27, very soon to be 28.  I'm also inspecting my face in the mirror for wrinkles as I type this statement.  My life is far from perfect.  Some people would find the life I live absolutely miserable.  We our in debt up to our eyeballs, I have a 2-year-old who is under the impression that she is the dictator in this household and no matter what there is always something about myself or something in my life I want to change.  Well, my mama always told me "If you want something done you have to do it yourself".  She couldn't of been more correct.  If I sit around waiting to find that perfect job which will allow me to be a stay-at-home mother.........I'm going to be waiting a long time.  The reality is one of two things will of happened by time said dream job comes around.  1- Aubrey will be old enough to realize that Mom isn't fun to be around and merely being in the same household as me will bring her a great deal of embarrassment. 2- My dreams will of changed. 

Naturally, I hope option 2 is the one I am faced with.  Realistically I know there will come a day when my daughter will cringe at the thought of being seen in public with me.  This period will last quite a while and then one day she will realize old mom isn't so bad.  Once she realizes her mom isn't the devil and isn't out to completely ruin her social life she and I will have a wonderful relationship like the one I share with my mother.  I can tell her anything.  I may not always tell her what she wants to here, but I know that no matter what she will not judge me and she will always love me. 

I digress.  This blog is supposed to be about soap right?  Where's the soap?  Apparently it is in the soap box that I am now shamefully stepping off of.  Since Aubrey's birth I've been very conscious about the chemicals I expose her to.  Have you ever actually read the label on baby shampoo?  Scary stuff.  Laundry detergent is even scarier.  As she got older I got more savvy about what was safe and what wasn't and started making bath and body products for our little family.  This of course expanded into cleaning products as well.  After all if I don't want the chemicals on my body I don't want them on the rest of my house so I can inhale or absorb them somehow.  Somewhere along the way I got lazy and stopped making my own products.  I decided I would just buy the most natural pure products on the market and that would be that.  Then I went shopping.

STICKER SHOCK doesn't even describe what I felt.  There were little 4 ounce bottles of body wash that cost well over $10.  Who the heck can afford that?  Even if I could afford it why would I want to spend it?  I quickly became "unlazy" (that is a word as of now) and started making my own products again.  I would let family try some of our stuff but beyond that I never really made it for anyone else.  I figured if people wanted to spend a fortune on that stuff then let them.  The really sad part is some of those $30 jars of body butters have the same exact harmful ingredients as the stuff at the dollar store.  It is just worded differently on the label. 

Once 2012 was upon us I knew that it was time for me to go back to work.  I didn't want to go back to a 9-5 if I didn't have to.  I enjoy 99.9% of the moments I spent at home with Aubrey.  The other 0.01% I'm trying to figure out ways to legally ship her to other families as part of a baby exchange program.  I had to figure out something I could do that could bring in a little extra income, but that I would find enjoying as well.  Bring on the soap!  How many women get excited about soap?  Not many, but I'm weird.  After talking to more and more family and friends I realized there is a real gap in the market.  It seems there are two spectrums of bath and body goods.  On one end you have the stuff that you can afford with ingredients you can't pronounce, but you're pretty sure may be related to same thing you strip the wax off your floors with.  Then there is the illusive trendy, organic, "all natural" end of the spectrum.  I especially despise this end.  These are the companies with enough money to know how to trick you into thinking that the $20 you just dropped on lotion is going to help you because it's expensive and it just has to be better for you.  WRONG!!!

I'm going to get a list of people's favorite bath and spa products over the next few days.  When I come back I'm going to list every single ingredient in those and see if what is marketed to us as natural and healthy is really doing us any good.  

When I decided to start Bliss I did it for one reason, my daughter.  She has such sensitive skin and I'm tired of having to bring an interpreter to read the labels on bath products for her.  Granted it would give me an excuse to tote Sheldon Cooper with me everywhere I go and what woman wouldn't want that?  

The weeks ahead for Bliss are going to be full of growth and expansion.  There will be bumps, but I'm praying that those I love will help me get through those and Bliss will grow to become a stronger company for it. 

I can't promise that everyone is going to love our products.  Just like Hershey's can't promise that everyone is going to love their new M&M's.  I don't.  I loathe M&M's.  See I'm still weird.  

There are some things that I can and WILL promise you though.

I can promise you that I will ALWAYS be honest about what is in my products.

If it isn't on the label then it isn't in there. 

I will NEVER put something into a product that does not directly benefit a customer. 

I'm not going to put an additive in just so it can have a shelf life of 80 years.  Why?  Because that additive is a known carcinogen and I really hope you use it up way before then.  

I will also promise that if for some reason you don't love my product I will work with you find a formula that works for you.

Our skin is as individual as we are.  Two people with oily skin may need two completely different skin regiments.  That's fine.  I'm willing to try and find what works for every single customer.  Is that tedious?  Is it a lot of work?  Absolutely, but that is the same level of care I would want.

 

My last and final promise to those of you who have made it to the end of my mini novel.........is that I will make my products affordable.  

I hate seeing people with problem skin (eczema, acne, wrinkles, etc) be ashamed about the way they look because they simply cannot afford the products that can help them. I was one of those people as a teen.  My acne was terrible and we couldn't afford the products that actually helped.  I don't want that for anyone.  

I can't guarantee that I can make all your skin problems go away, but I can guarantee that I will try to find a way to help.