Bethany in the New York Times Blog!

Our brilliant creator and savvy entrepreneur Bethany Karlyn is one of 3 business people giving their advice in the latest installment from the New York Times Small Business Blog.  What do you think?

Would a Home-Shopping TV Appearance Damage a High-End Brand?

By JOHN GROSSMANN

 
Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times


On a single live broadcast, Ms. Pearl could reach multitudes and build her brand.

Case Study

What would you do with this business?

We just published a case study about Eve Pearl, a cosmetics company named for an Emmy-winning makeup artist who created a line of products with skin care nutrients. Begun by Eve Pearl in her New York apartment in 2005, the business moved three years later to an Upper East Side boutique with an address befitting the high-end positioning of her goods.
By last year, she had built sales to about $1 million through three primary outlets: retail sales in her shop, wholesale distribution to makeup professionals she cultivated at trade shows, and retail sales on her Web site (which accounted for the vast majority of her business). Eager for faster growth, Ms. Pearl faced a big decision when ShopNBC, the nation’s third-largest home-shopping network, invited her to appear in front of its cameras.
Ms. Pearl immediately recognized both pros and cons. On a single live broadcast, she could reach multitudes and build her brand. But her profit margins would shrink drastically, and waiting 60 days for payment, minus returns, could cause cash flow problems. She worried, too, about whether the mass sales platform offered a good fit for her high-end cosmetics.
Below, you will find the recommendations of business owners familiar with the outcome of a home shopping network appearance. Please use the comment section to share your thoughts. Next week in a follow-up post we will give you an update on what Ms. Pearl decided.

Jen Groover, creator of the Butler Bag and chief executive of Jen Groover Productions, which is based in Philadelphia and New York: “Home-shopping television is ultimately a branding strategy for most vendors. Think of it as your eight-minute commercial. How much would you typically spend on an eight-minute commercial? It allows the creator to tell her story in an extremely saturated category of business. But in order to not jeopardize the equity of her brand, she should offer slightly different product configurations on ShopNBC or create a diffusion brand, a step-down line extension of an existing high-end brand. If Eve Pearl performs well on ShopNBC and her personality shines, she’ll raise consumer awareness and increase her ‘celebrity,’ which should, in turn, increase street traffic into her store. What most people don’t realize is, when products are on a home shopping channel, it actually increases the sales in brick-and-mortar stores.”

Scott Jordan, founder and chief executive of Scottevest, which makes multipocketed travel clothes and is based in Sun Valley, Idaho: “The home-shopping networks typically require a highly demonstrable product and a charismatic owner/entrepreneur to make the presentation. It appears Eve Pearl has those things. Moreover, QVC told me they appeal primarily to women buying for themselves — so she qualifies for that as well. But unless you have excess inventory, like we did, or insane margins, or you do real volume with them, you need to consider it a complete advertising proposition.”

Bethany Karlyn, founder of Prtty Peaushun Skin Tight Body Lotion in Sherman Oaks, Calif: “Maintaining a high-end brand image in a home-shopping venue is not the challenge it once was. In fact, she’ll find herself in good company. The schlock impression has changed with high-end brands such as Elizabeth Arden, Benefit, Lancôme, Vincent Longo, Lorac and Shiseido, on HSN. On QVC, Perricone has a two-ounce product selling for $495. Since cosmetics are an aspirational product and every socioeconomic group is aspiring to the next level, exposing only the top 1 percent to your brand is a death sentence.
“You may want to consider hiring P.R. to further your reach, if it is within your budget. If not, then do an in-house outreach to beauty editors and beauty bloggers to review your products and expand your social networking to promote. Encourage your celebrity clientele to support you with tweets and perhaps an appearance on your shopping network segment or at least a call-in during the segment. You may also want to consider freshening up your Web site so it is as beautiful to enter as the physical store itself.”
What do you think?

Click here to read comments:    
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/would-a-home-shopping-appearance-damage-a-high-end-brand/

Splendora and Joyus SALE!!!

Splendora and Joyus.com are partnering and selling Prtty Peaushun at an amazing price.   Go to Joyus.com and buy Prtty Peaushun for $29.  Sale is over on August 1 so get them while you can!! Check out the video below, a great interview with our own amazing Bethany Karlyn!!



http://www.joyus.com/sale/body-lotion-to-make-your-skin-glow

Splendora's link:  http://www.splendora.com/

The Notion Behind Prtty Peaushun

Interviewher.com had the opportunity to get to know Bethany Karlyn, who has worked for 25 years as a makeup artist in Los Angeles. She works on photo shoots for various magazines and Her clientele includes both celebrities and models. Her task? Taking their skin to the next level for the camera.

“What I found to be the most common question when people see my work and find out what I do for a living, is, ‘how do you get the skin to look like that?’ And my answer always was, well, I have my own little recipe I blend up in my kitchen and I bring it to set in Tupperware. I can’t really tell you what I do because I use so many ingredients and it’s just my own little formula I’ve worked out over all these 25 years,” she told Interviewher.com.

The “little formula” Bethany concocted is now Prtty Peaushun (pronounced pretty potion) Skin Tight Body Lotion, a glowing, conditioning body lotion. It looks gorgeous on your skin but at the same time, it’s lifting, tightening, firming and helping with bruising and sore muscles. It makes minor imperfections less noticeable. In short, it’s a magic potion.

How the brew came to birth
“I had to create a product I could use myself and on my celebrities and models,” Bethany explains. “I started working with Tracy Anderson about six years ago. She is a celebrity fitness guru and she has trained every a-lister you can imagine, from Madonna to Gwyneth Paltrow to Shakira to Jennifer Lopez, you name it. Anybody who has an unbelieveable body or who needs an unbelievable body, Tracy is the one getting them there. When I first started using my product on her, she was like, “’what is this, where do I get it? I’ve used everything and I’ve never seen anything like this!’”
“I told her I’d mix her up a batch, but it’s not something you can really get. She started giving me a hard time about it, saying, ‘you need to get this out there. This is amazing. Everyone needs to know about this.’ I kept saying it was kind of her to say, but I had doubts. I felt I couldn’t just take my savings and launch this. It’s the worst economy ever. How could I take a risk like this?”

Double, Double, Toil, and No Trouble
After several years of support from Tracy, Bethany realized this was something worth pursuing. She started to envision her magic potion spreading to different faces and bodies all around the globe.Bethany decided to use her connections in the industry to interview chemists who could help her take what she was mixing up in her kitchen to women everywhere.

“I started really investigating. I had to make the formula so it would hold up on the shelves. It had to have preservatives so that it would have a long life. I started working with a chemist and we clicked right away. She totally understood what I was trying to do. By working together side by side in the lab we were able to bring it together very, very quickly.” Bethany officially launched her company in January 2010. “I didn’t know if it would be a roaring success, but enough people who are the kind of people you turn to for their opinions on these kinds of products were loving it that I felt like I had something. I took the first batch from the chemist and I took it to the set, started using it on everyone to make sure it would perform the same as the original formula, and it really did the trick. Everybody was loving it.”

No Essence of Newt or Bat’s Wings
“I had a list of what would make it the perfect product to me, as if I was the ultimate customer. For myself, it came down to not only looking gorgeous on the skin, but also being a natural product made of raw ingredients – no animal products and no animal testing. As far as all the conditioning elements, I wanted the same thing every woman wants, my skin to be lifted, tightened and firmed and I wanted the imperfections to disappear.” She goes on to say, “I did a ton of research on all of the plant extracts I added into the formula. I really wanted to create just one product that did the work of several different products. I wanted to hit every point with one bottle. I wanted my packaging to have as light a carbon footprint as possible. In the makeup industry, you don’t get a lot of extra packaging. You get the product and you put it in our own pallet. I used a similar philosophy for Prtty Peaushun. I wanted lightweight packaging that would allow the customer to get every last drop from it and it wouldn’t fill up landfills.” Bethany’s unique packaging minimizes shipping costs and with no glass bottle, there’s nothing to break in your bag while you are carrying it through the airport. Also, Prtty Peaushun is not made with chemical propellants so taking it on a plane is no problem.

Skin Potion No. 9
“The product doesn’t have any dyes in it, so there is no color to transfer. It’s very sheer and very forgiving. The shades come from the color of the mineral glow that’s suspended in the plane base that gives a shine. The light, medium, dark and deep dark have a glow and those shades are the color of the glow itself. It’s not going to change your skin color. I’m light, I have very fair skin, but I can wear the deep dark and it looks like I have a natural, warm, subtle tan.”

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, who’s the Fairest of them all?
“I start every single makeup with Prtty Peaushun. I had a model in my chair the other day and we were doing tight face shots, with hands in beauty shots for OPI. She looked in the mirror and said, ‘what foundation is this? My skin has never looked like this?’ I told her, it’s not the foundation it’s the Prtty Peaushun beneath the foundation. It allows the glow to peak through. If you have flawless skin, you can wear the Peaushun alone on your face. If you want to even your skin out slightly, a drop of Prtty Peaushun and a drop of foundation mixed together become the most glorious tinted moisturizer.

The Recipe for Magic
“Everything kind of worked out very organically and synergistically with this whole process. In February 2010, Tracy mentioned the product in a magazine interview in London. When that came out, the phone started ringing off the hook. People called wanting to carry it, distribute it, write about it. One of the first calls was a spa that does a lot of celebrity work and are considered one of the top spas in London. They wanted a three-month exclusive with them in exchange for free PR. I would recommend that to anyone to help get a brand launched. PR is so expensive and you don’t always know who you are getting in bed with. Everybody is going to promise you the world because they want the account. It can be really frightening and your press is important. Where is a new business owner going to get the kind of money for good PR and a guarantee that it will work for them? For me, this was a great opportunity to barter in exclusivity and get PR. The press I got from them was insane. It was one article after the next, after the next, after the next. Instyle named Prtty Peaushun as an editor’s pick in August which was only eight months after launching the brand. That was pretty amazing. Then in November, Harper’s Bazaar UK named it the best skin enhancer in the top 100 beauty products.”

Continuing to Concoct Success
“I didn’t really know what to expect because I’d never done this before. I had some money tucked away and I was hoping it wouldn’t use everything up. It only took a few months to get the money I invested back. It’s been really great.” Bethany goes on to say, “I will always continue to do makeup because it’s a great way to showcase Prtty Peaushun. Of course I’ve got it out to the makeup kits of every makeup artist out there. Right now, all over LA, every photo shoot has Prtty Peaushun on it. It’s great to get positive of feedback from models in the industry and see that it really has legs. The product is really running on its own.

Hard Knocks
“It’s definitely challenging at times, but don’t be afraid to take a risk. Make sure you are making smart moves and decisions and you aren’t taking silly risks. It’s important to see that it’s really possible and there is every reason to trust in yourself. Believe what you believe. Do your research. Do not leave any stone unturned. That is going to be your strength. You don’t want lack of information to be your enemy. You want to be informed. Go for it. Absolutely go for it because it’s the only way to learn, and from there a million other opportunities will come out of it.”

Written by: Sherry Liantonio

Edited by: Bridgette Larcada

5 Minutes with Bethany Karlyn via BeautyConnexion

What are you doing in 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years from now? "10 minutes: Flying coach. 10 months: Flying business. 10 years: Flying first.

Who inspires/inspired you?My mom because she created a successful business doing something she's passionate about at a time when few women did.  Who do you want to inspire?Women... To be independent, entrepreneurial and to believe in their own self-worth.  What do you love about yourself?My sense of humor. I make myself laugh! What would you change about yourself? Obsessive behavior, on many levels.  What is your biggest regret? Not listening to my grandmother and saving a percentage of every paycheck from day one. She was right, young doesn't last forever and there isn't plenty of time. What are you learning right now? To delegate responsibilities to others.

What are 3 words your best friends would use to describe you? Creative. Inventive. Driven. I would trade places with? Estee Lauder, because she turned one cream into an empire and did it in her 40’s. What do you treasure most? Family and friends. What 5 words would you pass on to anyone listening? Take a risk. Every day. Connect with Bethany Karlyn: bethanykarlyn.com twitter.com/prttypeaushun Read the latest on Prtty Peaushun

Vegetarian Beauty Products

We were recently reviewed by "Vegetarian Beauty Products" ....to see the actual article click HERE!

"At first glance, it looks like this vegan beauty products creators forgot to hit “spell check” before they had the packaging printed for “Prtty Peaushun” skin tightening lotion (pronounced, simply, “pretty potion”), but this wonder lotion, made with raw ingredients, comes backed with an ability to do something for which many women vie: the ability to conceal minor imperfections on the body, while making the skin glow. It is a skin tightening body lotion that also comes packed with minerals that are suspended in an emollient base to offer a glow to the skin. You know that beautiful sheen that you see on the legs of leading ladies such as Charlize Theron and Cameron Diaz? This product offers that sexy glow without leaving the skin looking too shimmery or sparkly, like many of the products found at places like Victoria’s Secret. Those type of products are often geared towards teenagers and women in their early 20’s, but for the over 25 crowd, can look a bit like they are trying too hard to look younger than they are. But with Prtty Peaushun, the shimmering minerals are so finely ground, that they offer a radiant effect on the skin that looks healthy and vibrant.

While Prtty Peaushun is relatively new to the mass-market, the creator of the Peaushun, celebrity makeup artist Bethany Karlyn, has been using it on her celebrity clients for years. Using her own special mix, held in an unlabeled bottle, she applied the Peaushun to clients prior to photo shoots to give them that all over healthy sheen. At the urging of one of her best clients, fitness guru Tracey Andersen, she finally unveiled the Peaushun for purchase.

Part of Prtty Peaushun’s success in offering such great cosmetic results on the skin is that it can be purchased in four different shades: light, medium, dark, and deep. While these shades are translucent, and quite forgiving, they aide the mineral particles in concealing minor imperfections. This is not a full coverage foundation by any means - think of it as the same effect as the “photo corrector” options that you have on your computer. It is subtle and makes imperfections much less noticeable.

Aside from its concealing and beautifying capabilities, Prtty Peaushun is also a healing lotion, chock full of raw, vegan, ingredients that promote healing of sore muscles and bruises, while helping to diminish stretch marks and varicose veins. The healing ingredients in this lotion include: arnica, calendula flower, and green tea (anti-inflammatory ingredients), Blue Vervain Leaf (relieves muscle aches and pains), and Allantoin (promotes natural production of collagen/elastin). The ingredients that comprise this product are so simple and pure, that you can even use Prtty Peaushun in your hair to give it some shine and tame fly-aways! To stay up on the latest information and news, follow their blog here!"

Thanks for the awesome review Vegetarian Beauty Products!!! xoxo Prtty Peaushun.

Beauty Big 3!

 
Hooked On Beauty has done another entry for us, but this time she asked Bethany what are her 3 top products she uses to make her clients look FABULOUS. Check it out here!

Meet Bethany.....the Creator/Founder of PRTTY PEAUSHUN!

Have you ever wondered how Prtty Peaushun got started? Who's idea it was? etc....Get to know the creator and founder of Prtty Peaushun.....BETHANY KARLYN.  If you want to see her credentials, resumes and bio check out her website: www.bethanykarlyn.com

1. What were your first steps in starting your business?

Coming up with the formula. Although I’ve been mixing up my own formula at home for use on the set, it was not the exact formula I wanted to release to the public. The issues I wanted to address concerned natural ingredients, raw plant extracts, and natural preservatives to affect a positive change in the condition of the skin besides the aesthetic payoff.

Is this a passion of yours?
Yes… apparently, so. It starts as passion and then obsession takes over…

2. How large a part does creativity play in your business? With your original  idea?
Creativity plays a huge role in my business, especially with the original concept, because I created this product for the camera. It had to be visually stunning first and foremost.

3. Did you do any primary or secondary research prior to starting your business?
Primary:  Searching the marketplace for competitive products to ensure that my product was going to be unique. Also, using it on set for discriminating celebs and models for over 10 years to test the response and performance of the product.

Secondary: Researching ingredients and extracts that would give me the properties I was looking for in the formula. Seeking out the right relationships with a chemist, filler, fulfillment, packaging, labels, website, etc, etc…

4. Did you write your business plan yourself or did someone help you?
Business plan schmusiness plan. Noooooooo... I’ve done biz plans for other businesses I was trying to get off the ground. They all involved investors and partners and took ages to organize and none of them got off the ground. After 10 years of that, I decided to pare things down, simplify and fly solo.

5. How did you arrange financing? Or did you use personal savings?
Personal savings... part of the flying solo philosophy. Which is why I started with one product, one size, five shades.

6. Who is your target market?
Celebrity makeup artists, celebrities, models, dancers, singers, swingers, musicians, athletes, actors, wannabes, the young and the young at heart.

7. What is your best marketing technique and do you still use this marketing technique today?
Getting my product into the hands of those mentioned above... The power of word of mouth by influential people and early adopters is priceless. Pursuing media opportunities, seeking press mentions and utilizing social networking as a grassroots form of advertising.
 

8. What makes your business unique?
My product was developed by a professional makeup artist with 25 years of set experience, having been tested on the most discerning bodies in the world for over 10 years. It gives a gorgeous effect while being natural, raw, vegan, eco-friendly, fragrance free and locally produced to leave the lightest carbon footprint possible.

9. How are you managing in a down-turn economy? What are you doing differently?
Well, I started in a down-turn economy, so I don’t know any differently. I hope that the prudence that’s been required to survive in these times proves to be the strong roots that will allow us to flourish as the economy improves. I believe that tough times bring out creativity and that risk brings opportunity. When we look back on this time, I think we’ll see that lots of exciting and inspiring companies, products and ideas came out of this period.

 10. Do you plan on selling your company sometime in the future?
You buying? LOL... Let’s see what the wind brings... I wouldn’t be opposed to the right situation. I have lots of other ideas up my sleeve. The road doesn’t end here.

11. Are your rewards tangible? Intangible?
Both, really. My makeup career has been driven by the whim of others. Now I’m in the driver’s seat. My efforts are bringing a more consistent return both emotionally and financially.

12. Anything else you would like me to know about your company?
I launched PRTTY PEAUSHUN in January 2010 and within 4 months; I’ve earned back my initial investment and have appeared on the bodies of countless celebs, in the kits of countless makeup artists and on the pages of both national and international magazines. I have been blessed to have the encouragement, support and enthusiasm of so many influential people. Without them, PRTTY PEAUSHUN would not be here today!