This week I am launching a new product through my aromatherapy persona, The Scented Groomer. I thought you might be interested in my sharing the process that I went through to bring this product to market.
About The Scented Groomer. Some twelve or more years ago I attended a seminar at GroomWest in Colorado on aromatherapy. I thought it might fit into my holistic grooming practice. I came home inspired, and started “playing” with aromatherapy in my grooming salon. Out of that experience, The Scented Groomer was born and I developed my own line of stress management aromatherapy products for groomers and dogs during grooming.
PHASE I- INSPIRATION MEETS DEMAND. There were two sides to the demand. Last fall, my distributor, Show Season, asked me to develop something new for 2009. About the same time, on two different groomers email groups, there was discussion about “what ever happened to hot oil products.” Voila! Light bulb! The idea occurred, “Hey, maybe I could make an herbal oil for spa grooming!”
PHASE II – RESEARCH. A flurry of Googling followed. I also pulled all my aromatherapy books off the shelf. After much reading, I decided to use either Jojoba Oil or Olive Oil as the base. Jojoba is widely used in hair conditioning products. A Japanese cosmetics company once sent me a sample of virgin Olive oil for hair and I remember loving it. Then my research revealed that that the Olive oil has natural antioxidant properties that help make it practically self-preserving.
PHASE III – PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT. This was an extensive phase. I had to find a source of the base oil. I wanted an extra virgin organic Olive oil that was affordable. Then I started trying herbal infusions. I started with Rosemary from my own yard. Can I say, “labor intensive”? Harvesting the sprigs, cleaning, drying and separating leaves from stems took days and I had only enough for one little batch. It was great stuff, but not exactly yummy for a hair product. My Rosemary oil was a nice cooking oil. I left the Rosemary behind (we may pick it up again because it has terrific value for hair, skin, and massage.) I tried several other herbs, including Lemongrass, Burdock root, and Chamomile. My favorite, however, was organic Lavender flowers. Oh yum yum in my kitchen, and very nice infused in the Olive oil. I settled on a combination of Lavender and Lemongrass.
PHASE IV – A SET BACK. I loved the Lavender/Lemongrass oil. I used it on myself, my dogs, my clients dogs, myself again. The fragrance was delightful, but to my disappointment I discovered that within three weeks the original oil was losing fragrance value. Back to the drawing board. I had already researched some essential oils that could be used in my product. I chose a couple that had great fragrance value as well as aromatherapy benefits and some history of use with hair and skin. To my Lavender/Lemongrass Olive Oil I added a small amount of Palmarosa and Ylang Ylang essential oils.
PHASE V – MARKETING. While I developed and settled on the final formulation, I worked on my marketing approach. I thought I would go with a theme that suggested “spa” so the product could be used as a spa treatment. I spotted a new item in the Pet Edge catalogue, doggie bathrobes. How spa is that?? I bought a bunch. While I waited for delivery, I started working on what I would say about my product, the label, the instructions, all of that. How would I present it? I wrote, rewrote, ran it by friends, put it away, took it out again.
PHASE VI – PHOTO FUN. Trying to get a photo of a dog in a bathrobe looking happy proved difficult. I wanted to use my mixed breed, Gracie, but she was less than delighted with the modeling assignment. Belle, my Bichon, did a little better. I submitted pictures of both dogs to my Groompics group and our Photoshop masters, who had fun adding bubbles and duckies. The photo I picked was embellished by Jenifer Watt of Watt-a-Dog in England. Here is what we ended up with.
HAPPY HAIR HERBAL OIL SPA TREATMENT for Pets and their People
HAPPY HAIR HERBAL OIL has been formulated as a simple and natural nourishing and replenishing treatment for hair that can be used as a spa treatment. Not only is it great for hair, it has calming and balancing aromatherapy benefits.
HAPPY HAIR HERBAL OIL can be used on dry or damp hair. For maximum treatment, warm oil by placing the bottle in hot water, apply moderately to dry hair and wrap in a towel. Leave for at least 5 to 20 minutes. Hot or not, a good result is obtained by simply rubbing oil on palm of hands and running through hair. Do not overuse, and use sparingly on fine soft hair. Leaving on longer will achieve a greater effect. It can also be used after shampoo on toweled hair before conditioning.
INGREDIENTS: Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, organic Lavender flowers, organic Lemongrass, essential oils of Palmarosa and Ylang Ylang with a bit of Vitamin E (Tocopherol Acetate).
HAPPY HAIR HERBAL OIL TREATMENT can be purchased exclusively from Show Season Animal Products or bbird.biz.
most excellent!!!!
Posted by: mary | February 19, 2009 at 01:07 PM
way to go bbrain! lol yay! now for that class, ey?
Posted by: hairdevil | March 01, 2009 at 08:25 AM
Thank you for passing along your findngs! How about that class? Sign me up. I would love to visit AZ in the midst of these long, cold CO winters! I am just embarking on this wonderful career that I love so far and am completely in infatuated with learning the holistic side of grooming with aromatherapy, healing masssage, even animal comunicator skills. I will do my best to keep up with you!!
Posted by: Sarah True | September 22, 2009 at 08:41 AM