Opening Day Postponed till April 3rd

Sorry to have to do this on such short notice, but I was really hoping that I'd be able to pull off a March 27th opening. Spring is in full swing in NY and I believe I've developed, for the first time in my life, allergies which have led to a sinus infection. Mind you, this is all from the wisdom of WebMd and the poll I've taken of all my friends and family members. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to confirm my suspicions and self-diagnosis because I can no longer continue freaking myself out googling "sinus infection" and reading about worst-case scenarios. On top of that, WebMd states that yes, I may indeed have a sinus infection BUT it could also be a brain tumor, progressive blindness (an oxymoron in my opinion) or a good old migraine. So I'm postponing the opening for one week, till April 3rd to give me time to deal with this ailment and recover. Besides...I need my sense of smell.

There will be no new scent launches when we re-open. We're opening with our entire product line and most of the scents in our permanent collection. We'll continue to offer this until the first week of May, at which point, we will then offer another type of sampler that will feature the new scents we'll be launching in June. Which leads me to...

Upcoming changes at CLC

We are re-categorizing our fragrance bar and product line. Our Signature Collection will feature approximately 10 permanent fragrances that will be available in our large size products (8 oz and up). We will also have a more dynamic collection that will feature new and returning fragrances.

This means that in May, we will take down our entire scent list and implement the rotating schedule going forward. All the fragrances that you see now and that we've termed classics will continue to be offered, but on a limited and rotating basis. We'll give you plenty of advance notice as to what scents will be coming back in rotation and for how long. This will give you time to a) use up your stuff and b) plan your purchase. Think of it as something similar to how Target features a designer for a specific period of time - Proenza Schouler for Target from x-date to y-date. So none of our scents are actually going away forever. They're just going on a rotation schedule. This keeps our fragrance offering dynamic and give you a chance to try something new.

We'll also offer some kind of sampler prior to the next rotation that will feature some of the scents in the upcoming launch to give you a chance to try and plan your next purchase. And again, we'll give you plenty of notice either on our blog or in our newsletter about what scents are scheduled for release and on what date. We're thinking that each scheduled rotation will feature at least 15 fragrances for approximately 6 weeks. This will give you time to purchase, try and re-purchase before the fragrance goes out of rotation.

Does this sound like a good plan? We think so. From our end, our hope is that by making the scent list more manageable, we'll be able to shorten our turnaround time. To our customers, it means you'll be able to plan your purchases and usage ahead of time.

I'll provide more details on our Signature Classics Collection as I scope out the project. This is a more complex undertaking and will take some time to finalize and launch.

A Penny for Your Thoughts...

Actually, more like $2.

To all those who purchased a Spring Sampler - would you kindly drop me a line and let me know what you think of Orange Blossom & Midnight Jasmine? It's a blend I've been working on for about a year now and I'm interested in hearing your thoughts...good, bad, ugly or indifferent. I'll credit your account 20 points as a small token of my appreciation.

Orange Blossom & Midnight Jasmine was inspired by my trip to Peru last year. In the courtyard of our hotel in Lima, there was an orange and jasmine tree that during the day, stood underwhelming and non-descript. However, come dusk, the heady scent of jasmine and the sweetness of the orange blossoms immediately transformed the courtyard into something straight out of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. The scent was truly awe inspiring and I would stand in the courtyard, with my eyes closed and inhale as deeply as I could, trying to sear the memory of the fragrance in my mind. And this is the result. It's heart is unabashedly heady and floral, laced with the flower, pulp and peel of the sweetest orange.

Okay, so drop me a quick note at sharonn at craterlakecompany dot com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Attitude of Gratitude

Last week, as I was writing out my thank you notes on all the invoices for orders scheduled to go out that day, it suddenly occured to me how seemingly lame this practice was. Not to say that I find the task of writing my personal notes on each customer invoice lame, but it just seemed to fall so short of the gratitude I really felt. These financially trying times where we can all find 10 different uses for every dollar in our pocket makes me even more grateful for the customers we have, both new and returning.

So...I decided to pick up the phone and call a few of our beloved customers. Of course, I wasn't as decisive as I sound now. What if they think I'm like a psycho e-tailer - like Jim Carrey's the Cable Guy? What would I say to them? What if I just start babbling away like an idiot, the way I tend to do when I get nervous and excited? What if they think I'm trying to sell them more stuff, like on the infomercials? But wait - there's more! Order 10 more jars of Sugar Cloud and get a free set of ginzu knives! Throwing my apprehension and debilitating shyness to the wind, I dialed. And you know what? It wasn't so bad after all! As a matter of fact it was ABSOLUTELY FUN putting a voice to an order! After the intial shock and suspicion wore off, all of whom I called were more than happy to talk about B&B stuff with me! You know? It was like...You get me! You really, really get me!

To all the wonderful ladies I spoke to last week, thank you for being so gracious. If I failed, in my nonsensical babbling, to communicate my gratitude for your support, then allow me to say it now. Actually, this goes out to all our wonderful customers...Thank you for purchasing from Crater Lake Company. Your support is truly and deeply appreciated. I know that now, more than ever, consumers vote with their dollar and this message is not lost on us, so thank you. I promise to continue to find ways to bring you the most value for every dollar you spend at CLC.

And speaking of spending...if all our work goes on schedule, it looks like we'll be opening up shop by Friday, March 27th. We'll offer most of our products in most of our scents before we switch over to a rotating schedule system. Sounds fancy right? I'll discuss further in my next entry.

Till next time...I have some calls to make.

Spring 2009 Sampler

The Spring 2009 Sampler contains the following goody good goodies!

1. 1.5 oz Comforting Creme - Coconut Bavarois (Karley, this one's for you!)
2. 2 oz True Lustre Conditioner - Honeysuckle Fizz
3. 2 oz *NEW* All Tressed Up Shampoo - Peach Fizz
4. 0.5 oz Flutter Butter - Cherry Berry Swizzle Candy
5. 2.5 oz Sugar Cloud - Apple Mango Chutney
6. 2 ml Mini Perfume - Satsuma Lily
7. 2 ml Mini Perfume - Orange Blossom & Midnight Jasmine
8. 1 oz Aloe Smoothie Lotion - Sweet Lavender Milk
9. 2 oz *NEW* Putting on the Spritz Hair & Body Spray - Twisted Candy
10. BONUS while supplies last, 1 oz - 2 oz cold-process soap slice in a scent of our choice.

This sampler is great for upcoming Spring Break travelers, past CLC customers suffering from LSS (Low Stash Syndrome) and new customers who'd like an introduction to CLC's line of bath & body luxuries. This set, on sale for $19.95, retails separately for $35. Sweet!

You'll notice that there are 2 new products and a few new or reformulated scents in this sampler. We're finally releasing our much awaited Hair & Body mist. It's gone through numerous trials and reformulations and we've finally got the formula jjjuuust right. I love it as a fragrant hair mist and refresher in between shampoos and for a quick post-workout spritz. Formulated with soothing chamomile leaf extract, moisturizing sodium lactate, silk and wheat proteins, panthenol and a water dispersible/solube silicone to add shine and manageability without the build-up.

All Tressed Up is CLC's new sulfate-free shampoo. It's safe for colour-treated hair and for daily use. As with any sulfate-free shampoo, lather takes a while to build so for those who love, love, love the lather, we suggest lathering, rinsing and repeating. It's always better the second time around!

We've also reformulated our famous Sweet Cream and Lavender fragrance to make it just a little sweeter and creamier. Honestly, I wasn't a fan of lavender until I created this scent. It's approachable lavender scent that's easy to love.

We're bringing back some scents from past collections later in the season. The Tooth Sweet Collection from last summer was such a hit that we decided to bring back our most popular scents in this line as well as introduce some new ones in the near future. We also have a new collection or two in the pipeline.

There's a lot of things happening at CLC right now. In corporate America-speak, I'm trying to streamline operations and maximize efficiencies. In my own words, I'm trying to find ways to reduce turn-around time or at least maintain it at an acceptable level, and keep cost and prices down especially in these difficult times. One of the ways I think I can achieve this is by paring down our scent list to something more manageable. We'll be restructuring our scent offerings into 2 groups. The CLC Signature Collection will be a permanent line of 10 - 15 scents. The collection will feature some of our bestselling scents as well as some new ones and there'll be something for everyone - from the Floral Femme Fatale to the Gorgeous Gourmand Gal.

The second line will showcase our Limited Edition Collections and will be constantly changing for those gals who suffer from SADD (Scent Attention Deficit Disorder). We'll be rotating scents in and out of this line according to season, sales and because I'm a girl and I'm entitled to it - my mood swings.

Lastly, I'm thinking about opening up an etsy store. I really have to evaluate this option though since it's yet another moving part in my already hectic life and I don't want this decision to negatively impact CLC's main operations.

So as you can see, there's still ways for me to go to get CLC fully-operational especially in light of all these changes. There's a lot of work to be done to the scent list as we pare and re-categorize fragrances and incorporate these changes into our product categories without negatively affecting the site's navigation. I love, as I know you do as well, how well the site navigates and this is all due to my genius web designer. As he says, I know just enough to be dangerous and I will surely meet an untimely death if I screw up all his hard work in making the store easy and intuitive to shop.

Thanks for reading this long post! I'm really happy to be open albeit in a limited capacity for now. I have so much in the works and it's taking all my willpower and discipline (both of which I have very little when I get excited) to reign myself in and take one step at a time.