Almost five years ago I came up with the idea to make my own lip balm. Challenging myself to do something like this was a task in itself as I planned to do the entire venture independent of a manufacturer, a marketing team, or any outside funding.
All I have learned during the course of creating my product feels like a Chemistry and Psychology course rolled in one. From cooking up the lip balm in my very own kitchen to working with a range of personalities, I have learned that creating a product from scratch is far from easy. You have to be extremely tough on many levels and often, your own strongest advocate in the most trying moments.
I suppose ventures that already have a well-oiled manufacturer, and a reliable source of investment with deep pockets, not to mention a heavily staffed PR team, have quite a different experience than mine own. I wouldn’t have experienced such a range of challenges and emotions had I been one just one role in an extensive team making a unit for sale. However, I started creating this lip balm simply because I wanted to personally challenge myself and make a quality product from scratch. Now, five years later I laugh when I realize how much easier it would have been if I had taken a more traditional route— choosing a factory with pre-tested ingredients and flavors, finding a source of funding from the start. Yet, this is a challenge I wanted to take on my own –making a lip balm from scratch– and so I have.
Starting with Product.
The most important element of this product, reflecting both my lifestyle and personal ideology, was to make it all natural. It helped that I would be using my kitchen as my lab. I researched tons of different lip balm products to find out their ingredients. I had two primary inspirations for the feel of my lip balm: a very glossy roller lip-gloss and Burt Bees balm more waxy balm. I have been using Burt's since the early ‘90s and enjoyed its simple effectiveness, but the thought of creating something similar to sweet childhood lip balms with more natural ingredients excited me even more. In my kitchen I tested all different kinds of oils. After a few months, I created a thick glossy all natural lip-balm for a roller ball container. I was very pleased and wanted to give it a name reflective of my personality and philosophies. Being Filipino-American, I first considered Filipino names. I wanted a name reflecting the tropical essence of my birthplace in the Philippines. I ended up finding a Hawaiian word: Hiwa Lani (pronounced Hee-Wah-Lah-Nee). It means “the attractive one”.
I wanted people feeling attractive each time they put on the lip balm (I still do!). I named the entire line Beauty by Maharlika, expressing my belief that each use of the balm could enhance one’s own natural beauty. I had my product, I had its name, I just needed to get the word out. And so I hired a publicist...
Imperfections Creating Unique Strength.
When we first met, the publicist I hired had an extreme amount of enthusiasm and I literally thought she was going to make this product a well known success. I was delighted! It seemed that the product was well on its way. But that’s just when things started getting really difficult. After ordering thousands of roller lip balm containers, I realized that my natural products were not thick enough for these tubes made for more standard, goopier lip glosses. When the roller was turned on its side, sometimes laying in my friends’ purses, it leaked. Compounding my problems, I soon realized that my publicist was just collecting her monthly retainer fee and in return, the only exposure my lip balm really received was a presence in occasional gift bags at Los Angeles' events. I was providing the lip balms for these bags free of charge. The chance of some celebrity using the product and then talking to a magazine about it was about as slim as a shiny needle. I felt stuck in the arm with a painful needle because I had now spent thousands of dollars of my own money and countless hours in the kitchen. I needed a break.
A Refreshed Perspective.
I wasn’t giving up— I never give up, and I never see difficult experiences as failures. In the course of my creative endeavors I have always chosen the hard way, only to come back with much knowledge and so much more faith that I could succeed. I needed to come at what had now truly become a passion project with a fresh perspective. And so, I went to Italy for a month.
After returning from traveling, none of my obstacles had gone away: I faced many more trials creating this lip balm. However, I felt stronger, more focused, and ready to take my lip balm to the next level. I started managing a women’s spa because I thought it was the best way to get to know my customer. It was a great job, and it definitely gave me more insight of a variety of women. I had spent years in the entertainment business working primarily with men, so learning to work with and around women in a sector of the women’s beauty industry was definitely eye opening. I’ve never been the girl who expresses my femininity through tons of make up and rarely visit make-up counters. But I do love all kind of lip glosses, and balms, even certain goopy, chemically-preserved ones.
Same Lab, New Recipe.
Six months since I had worked on the lip balm recipe, and I found myself excited to return to researching and get back to my kitchen lab. I decided to enhance the lip substance quality by making it almost exclusively from nut butters. I still wanted it to be glossy despite the fact it was a balm and not a gloss. And I wanted this shiny lip butter to provide plenty of vitamins for your lips.
Nuts such as coconut and shea make for a very smooth product, plus they have the bonus of containing many vitamins. In order to keep in the good vitamins already present in the nut butters, it needed to be cooked on very low heat. These butters also have a very low natural SPF. Coconut oil naturally helps to prevent skin damage because there are natural constituents including antioxidants that help protect your skin against free radicals. It took me less than the half time to create the second lip balm formula than the first. I changed the lip balm containers to slim tubes to give my balm more of a feminine touch. The final perfected product, the one that you’ll find today, has just six ingredients…all of these are pronounceable. You’ll recognize all of the simple nut oils and butters with the exception of one more secret, but equally natural shine-factor ingredient. Additionally, I drastically restructured the look of the brand after reconsidering marketing from my experience and gained knowledge working in commercials.
Trusted Connections
Rather than rely on a publicist, I decided to take a different marketing approach and help the brand speak for itself through a photographic campaign that expressed the ideals of my lip balm. I started my career in commercial production. A promoter of artists, musicians, directors, photographers, my black book continues to fill up with names of prolific personalities and artists I have been lucky enough to work with and be around. My experience working in the commercial advertising business helped me try a different approach for getting the word out the second time around. I had worked quite successfully with companies I’d known to do impressive work with strong degrees of integrity. And so, similarly, I turned to one of my most trusted sources of talents!: I gathered my creative friends to help assemble and visualize the photographic campaign for my brand.
Not to leave anyone out, it was during this time that I would also create a men’s line to pair with my women’s line. Hiwa Lani is the everyday girl: she can be hanging with her friends in the city and at the beach. She can be a musician, a pilot, a tree hugger. Whatever she is, she will feel attractive, strong and fearless. My Men’s line Hunter's embodies the same pathos of healthy confidence regardless of his walk of life. I feel the Hunter design is a refreshingly familiar one as any man may seek to find. I chose the easily recognizable plaid pattern that most men have worn at some point in their lives. Men actually do wear lip balm, but less available to them is an all natural brand that I’m thrilled to offer.
As everything began to come together and materialize, I felt like I was emerging, renewed, revitalized, and glowing from a deep and heavy sleep. The final touches would be complete with a new brand name. Because my full first name, Maharlika, is hard to pronounce for many and because many in the entertainment business know me as Mikki, I realized that naming my brand Maharlika as well as calling the women’s lip balm line Hiwa Lani might be too confusing. I changed the brand’s name, Beauty by Maharlika to Is the Balm. I chose this name because it’s simple, it’s lightened up a bit, and because this product IS The Balm. Try Some! www.isthebalm.com
