What It's About
Two sisters team up to create their own skincare products.
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
It's important to know who your target audience is. Here is what Jen and Whitney say about the subject: "Unbeknownst to us we were targeting people like us, when we didn't even know what a target audience was. We put ourselves in the buyers’ shoes and made it look like something we'd want to buy."
Fun Fact
Jess and Whitney spent so much time and effort experimenting with products that they ended up with a large stash of what they call “reject lotions.” Till this day, their family still has no clue what their actual products feel like because they are still trying to finish using all of the misformulations made by the two sisters.
Notes from Chris
Episode 1151
Jess Acheson had resigned herself to a lifetime of skin oiliness, acne, and rosacea. With the exorbitant prices of skincare products on the market, she decided that she might be better off living as a hermit. Her sister, Whitney, had another problem. Despite being a beauty consultant, Whitney was unable to find products that wouldn’t flare up her eczema or cause a severe allergic reaction with her dry and sensitive skin. This was a problem that even doctors couldn’t make go away. Exhausted after spending hundreds of dollars on consultations and commercial products, the two sisters decided that they’d had enough. They came together and started researching alternatives. They experimented with hundreds of DIY recipes, some they found online and some they invented. Then, they would tweak and enhance their creations, increasing or decreasing the amount of the active ingredients as necessary. This went on for months as they balanced their project with full-time jobs and families. Before long, they had quite a stash of “reject” lotions. Still, they knew that this was part of the learning curve—so they persevered through the mishaps. Eventually, the sisters created blends they were satisfied with. Whitney remembers that the first products they successfully made included a thick cream for her dry skin and her daughter’s eczema, along with a deodorant and face wash that wouldn’t cause an allergic reaction. As they continued the experiments, they toyed with the idea of selling them. Might there be people just like them out there? Six months later, Whitney and Jess decided to launch their own Etsy shop. They named it Moody Sisters to reflect the duo’s attitudes towards mainstream commercial skincare products. Within minutes of launching their store, they got their first sale. This wasn’t completely a fluke. Growing up, the two sisters had spent their time in the world of handmade products, accompanying their parents to weekend fairs to sell their pottery. This gave them the real-world experience that no marketing or sales workshop could. So they made sure that photos of their creams and lotions looked uniform, appealing, and professional. They tried to mimic that level of authority (“I-know-what-I'm-doing”)—even when they didn't. With slow, yet steady progress, it grew to the point where it was bringing in more than $4,000 of profit each month. This team spirit has enabled them to weather the ups and downs, from solving their own skin woes to developing products for their customers. On some days the sisters are still moody, but they no longer have to put up with poor skincare products—and they have a new way of making a living.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Check out Jess and Whitney's entire skin care lineup at their website, MoodySisters.com.
SEE ALSO:
- Holiday Body Butters Become $1,000/Month Side Hustle: An entertainment industry professional transforms her body butter holiday gifts into a quickly growing Etsy store and craft show side hustle.
- Cow Fat Skincare Line Steers to Grade-A Paycheck: A mechanical engineer invents her own “fatty skincare line” after not finding what she wanted on store shelves.
- Squeaky Clean Couple Raise the Bar with Online Soap Sales: A husband and wife clean up with a homemade soap side hustle that’s no lathering matter. It’s currently earning $50,000 a month!
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Resources
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