Haus Urban Apothecary

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The last week has been a complete and total shitshow.

Last monday, one of my epically huge migraines decided to come knocking on my door, which meant that I was out for the count. Sweats, Nausea, sensitivity to light and sound. Of course, when you feel like you have Lady Gaga thrashing around in her McQueens between your temples, and all you want to do is rest, is when the when the construction crew shows up next door and insists on banging away. On Wednesday, I thought I was well enough to go to work, so I got all the way there to find out that I wasn’t, and had to go home.

So at this point, I feel like death warmed over, I’m stressed about the money lost (I have supplies to buy!), and then UPS wants to start playing games with the supplies for my lip balm. I had strategically planned to do a sampling/marketing blitz that Sunday, as it was West Hollywood gay pride, and no one loves glossy lips like those gays! I switched my shift from an opening one to a closer (3 AM!) to make sure I could hit the streets and talk about Haus Urban to anyone who would listen, and maybe get a few more FB fans in the process.

Welp, seeing as UPS and their employees couldn’t get their act together, or follow simple instructions, I didn’t have all of my packages in hand until yesterday, almost five days after it was originally supposed to be here. And did I mention that I had to pay extra for the inconvenience?

I decided to take the time and really focus on what my next steps for Haus were going to be. I had a conference call with Jason from Entact Studios to work out more packaging/branding solutions (gray? white? clear? opaque? waterproof? gloss? matte?) and really gave some thought to HOW I was going to move this product.

The initial idea was to just have people come to tumblr, and send them paypal invoices for the product, as I didn’t expect that much interest in just two products. After trying to get folks to donate for an unrelated volunteer project using PayPal exclusively, I realized that wasn’t the best idea. I had avoided saying the “E” word for a while, but I bit the bullet…

Etsy. There was something about it that irked me. I wanted my line to be seen as Urban, Sexy, and Fashion Forward. Not Holly Hobby. And posting and reposting and relisting ad nauseum didn’t sound appealing either, until I came across the “Quit Your Day Job” blog series that Etsy produces. I learned that not only is it possible to sell your wares via Etsy to much fan fare and appreciation, but it is ALSO possible to have your full time job be devoted to just that.

DING DING!! That’s the end game! All I really want to do is educate people, make stuff, and hang out with my friends. I had been complaining that no one wanted to pay me to do that, so this seems like a natural progression. I understand that this will not happen overnight. I haven’t even signed up for the new Etsy account yet, out of fear that no one will buy anything (I know, I know, irrational). I still have more research to do, as I’m a big believer in “fail to plan, plan to fail”, but the “Quit your day job” series has given me so much hope and belief that this can be done, and done without selling my soul or sweat to a corporation.

Unfortunately, due to the setbacks of the last week or so, we may not be ready to ship out any balm until July. I’m doing everything that I can to make our initial target deadline of June 30th (Launch of the Etsy store, and taking orders), but there are many variables. Thank you for patience and know that it’s coming, I’m hustling, and it’s going to be well worth the wait.

Love and Lip,

H.