The present and future of Abomination

So I've been thinking recently about where I am and where I'm going with Abomination Cosmetics, and the balance between ambition and ability. I have a lot to say, so I decided to write this blog post to lay out all of my thoughts and see what happens.

Here we go.

Right here I have a product I've worked on, off and on, for several years, and had perfected a long time ago. I (and my lovely supportive mother) have been using this product for actual years now. I wanted to release it way back then, but held off because there was a lot of turmoil going on in my personal and professional life and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to handle the sheer amount of work that goes into making this shit. Well, these photos are almost two years old, and things haven't gotten much better.

As many of you are aware, I recently took down a majority of my makeup products in favor of nail polish to try to lessen my workload and start chipping away at the horrific backlog of orders I had amassed over the holiday season. I was falling so far behind, I was getting more cancellations than orders some days. And when you're already borrowing money to keep up with your recently acquired mortgage, that situation is downright terrifying, and more than a little soul-crushing. I needed to get my work flow in better shape or I was going to quit, hard.

The good news is, I have caught up quite a bit on orders. Not as much as I would like to be, but I'm in a much less stressed position on that front.

The bad news is, I'm only catching up so fast because I'm barely getting any new orders. The removal of all of those makeup products caused a much harder blow to my business than I expected.

So I'm in a tough spot now. On the one hand (pun intended), nail polish is faster and easier for me to make. With the ingredients that I use, I can make fairly large batches without any special equipment at all, basically just mix and bottle and it's done. Creating new colors and perfecting the recipes is the hardest, most costly part of the process. But, as I've had to learn recently, the nail polishes are not as popular as I thought.

Now on the other hand, makeup products are much more complicated, labor-intensive, and time-consuming than nail polish. But... I really miss making them. Makeup really is my true passion, even if only slightly more than nail polish.

I won't lie. This was a bit of a devastating realization on my part. The thing that's easier and faster to make is both less lucrative and less fulfilling on a psychological level? Of course. Just my luck.

So what now? Unfortunately, we live in a society. I need money to live and support myself and my family, and continuing with just nail polish is not sustainable financially at this point. Unless my brand suddenly goes viral tomorrow, I have to make some changes. I have to bring more makeup back.

But I'm going to be careful this time. 12 different types of products in 394 shades, as much as I love having them, is absolutely absurd for me to be making by hand in my tiny home workshop. Apparently, I have a serious issue with admitting my limits, and that's an issue I (and my therapist) have been working on a lot lately.

Here's the plan so far. When I bring a product back --- lip gloss, for example --- I'm going to start with one or two of my most popular shades. And when I introduce a new product, I'm going to try something new: pre orders.

Right now, I'm only planning to release the above mentioned foundation for pre order. I will have more details about that in a later post. Here I just want to rant a bit about how much I adore this formula that I've created. It is my perfect foundation. It took years of experimenting and dozens of failed attempts and so many full days of rigorous wear tests that ultimately just weren't quite right before I finally nailed it. It's medium to full coverage, looks absolutely stunning, and survives gracefully on my oily skin. What's even better, my mom loves it just as much, and her skin is the opposite of mine. I'm super oily and have totally different issues with foundations than she does on her dry, mature, eczema-addled skin, and we both love this foundation equally. This has never happened. I cannot emphasize that enough. This was actually weird.

And it's because I believe in this product so much that I've decided I have to share it with my customers.

The tough part is the shades. I refuse to launch a complexion product that does not have a realistic, comprehensive shade range. Unfortunately, mixing all of those shades is a colossal task, especially without any help, and trust me, I've looked. I've locked down a decent amount of color recipes so far, but it's incredibly time-consuming to tweak these things, and I've spent entire work days obsessing over this instead of getting any orders fulfilled, and I just can't do that anymore. I can't afford to work on this...

...unless it's funded. And that's where pre orders come in. After I get preorders set up, I will not only get an idea of how interested my customers are in the product, but I will have designated funds to work on making it happen. Again, I'll have more details about that later, but, basically, this is the plan so far.