I always paid attention to my face but never had acne, so it didn't take much to maintain my skin. Throughout the years, I had never found products I liked when looking for staple skin care products so I often times settled and then switched up when something gave a result I didn't like. Like I said, I never really had skin issues so I would get complimented regularly on my skin but never thought anything of it.
(2019)
Along came the year 2020 and Covid 19 put us in quarantine, blessing me with some down time to think about my current circumstances (being unemployed due to the pandemic) and the (extensive) life ahead of me. Going into my third month of quarantine, May 2020, is when I got the idea to create my own skin care line. This had been the sum of adding together my nice, clear skin reputation with the new desire to have a more substantial income that would allow me to become debt free and build wealth. Because as we all know, the pandemic taught us depending on one stream of income is dangerous.
I wanted to start off with handmade products to have complete control of the ingredients going in and have a really personalized brand. The goal was to start and then raise enough money to eventually switch over to manufactured products. I started researching and learned to formulate. After ordering ingredients, making small batches, trying the final products, and loving them, I got my products ready and launched September 2020.
I was super excited and proud of what I had created so far. After consistently using my products, I found that one product that was made with oils and butters had clogged my pores and my skin broke out. This led me to seeing a dermatologist that recommended skin clearing and non-comedogenic products and prescribed me a topical cream.
So, I wasn’t using my products at all now. This really attacked my business and my confidence. I just wanted to hide. Since this was during Covid 19, I was lucky to have the mask mandates to hide behind the masks. But only partially because my forehead was also broken out.
(2020)
After using the recommended products consistently, my skin cleared up and my confidence level ROSE, okay child? I started back taking selfies and felt comfortable when I wasn’t wearing a mask. However, I was too afraid to start back using my own products except for my face mist. So, I just continued to use the face wash and moisturizer that was recommended to me in fear of using my own moisturizer. I knew I had to be the face of my SKIN care line, so MY skin needed to be right. So, this whole time I was living with insecurities within my brand. Because how could I sell it but not use it? That didn’t sit right with me.
(2021)
Well business slowed down and I was now back in work, working a stressful full-time job that drained any energy I had to put towards Blossom Skinn. So, my creative juices kind of stop flowing while a few sales came in here and there.
This led to a long pause on Blossom Skinn until summer of 2021, which is when my career shifted, and my life begin to transition. I stepped down from my supervisor position into a part time position to focus on my business projects. I now had more time to think and be creative. I thought about Blossom Skinn more and knew I had to figure out a plan. I began by discontinuing the products that I weren’t using myself, for integrity reasons. That left two products to sell, and I hadn’t had one in stock since the sell out at launch, so really one product to sell.
I closed my store. I needed to pause and think. During this time, I looked into private label products. I found a manufacturer I liked and ordered some samples to see how that experience would go. This was very farfetched for my plans at the time as manufacturing products and ordering inventory was completely out of my budget. I took months to debate with myself what would be best. For a small while, I decided on reopening my store with my face mist, body butter, and shimmer spray for purchase. But during this time, I started to notice complications with my face mist. The nozzles on the spray bottles were accumulating black residue after constantly spraying. This was a red flag. So, I immediately decided to change the formula but how could I effectively change it when I didn’t know the root of the problem? In addition, my face began to act out again. I was now dealing with textured skin on my face. It was not as bad as the first time, but my skin was behaving out of its norm.
(2021)
After doing some googling I picked up a liquid chemical exfoliant that was supposed to fix my problem, textured skin. I incorporated this exfoliant into my daily skin care routine which at this point was strictly my private label samples. (Side note: I fell in love with the samples). I saw results in 5 days. My skin was smooth again and I was back in business- confidence level rising again that is.
So throughout this journey of roller coaster confidence due to having compromised skin as I owned a skin care line, I had made my decision. No more hand made products, private label it must be moving forward.
(2021)
As I mentioned before, this was a transformative period of my life. I was fresh out of college not really knowing what my ideal career was. I was learning who I was, more about myself, and spending more time alone to hear my thoughts more loudly and clearly as I was spending time focusing on my skin. With this still new business, I was thinking about the future and setting big goals. So, I cleared my mind of useless thoughts, and I became more serious about this journey and made room for an abundance of positivity, gratitude, affirmations and zoned in on my mental health, in which I realized was not necessarily up to par and had become a silent struggle of mine throughout college. This included beginning to see a therapist, journaling more, and making more time for self care. I soon realized I had been greeted with a completely new and different type of season of my life that would allow me to see everything in HD 4k now as I was living a life of meaning and walking in God's plan for me instead of my plan for myself.
I now had the perfect products by my side; they provided me with the security of keeping my skin not only clear but glowing. So, I found myself using them more to practice my self care. I made sure I did that mask while I soaked in that bubble bath. I made sure I applied that eye cream after having a long productive day. Skin was feeling dry? I took that extra step and applied that repairing serum before the night cream as I prepared for bed. (Idk why I’m using past tense as if I’m not still doing these things) And while doing all this, I felt amazing because I was choosing me. I was taking care of me. I used that time to transport myself into me-world where all that mattered was my wellbeing for a moment.
So no, this isn't the success story of how Blossom Skinn cleared up my skin. This is the success story of how building this brand contributed to starting a new meaningful journey that consisted of finding myself and learning to love myself while spending time with myself to practice some self care in the form of skin care.
I want to recreate that feeling and assist in that season of all kinds of people lives in this world. We all deserve to bask in being president of me-world occasionally. My message is to slow down and savor life. Enjoy the small things. Pay attention to your mental because you are the only one with a front row seat to it. Even throughout taking care of others, make time to take care of you and from that point you will look forward to life. Live a life that gets you excited. Realize that absolutely only you can control the outcomes of your life, so Choose You. ♡
...sincerely, Miranda (Owner & Creator)
1 comment
Thank you for such vivid details! You were very open and I’m glad you are giving yourself GRACE during these learning trials.