What Goes Into A New Product Design?
By Rebecca Gallagher
Some of you all may be wondering how we come up with designs here at Lady G Artisan Soap Company.
Well the magic all begins with inspiration. And it comes in so many forms. It’s sometimes a picture or a landscape, the way a flower is formed, a scent or even a song can trigger something in the artist’s heart. Sometimes we just try to think of how a scent would look if it were solid. What does the scent of wind look like? How do you get the idea of ocean into soap without liquid water?
Sometimes its visual, sometimes not. For example, our Sea Moss, Sea Clay, and Charcoal Soap, I wanted it to look like sea moss. That can be tricky! And I can’t share all of my tricks but suffice it to say it takes hours of planning. Sometimes your plan works out the very first time, that happened with the Cocoa Mint. I was thinking of Shamrock shakes from McDonalds to be honest, I thought it would be a great concept! I did a vanilla mint one at the same time thinking that they would be popular together. Turns out no one liked the vanilla mint at all! I couldn’t give it away! Who knew!
That’s why we believe it is so important to take special requests. I as the designer can’t possibly know what your personal preferences are, or what you think is beautiful! And guess what, that really does transfer over to other people liking it too! Just because one of us thinks it is a great design, does not mean it is, or that it will work…
I spent over a year dreaming up a new soap design, I started with a name, thought of how I wanted it to smell, what emotions I wanted to evoke. It was based on a famous painting, a famous artist and a song sung about it… Starry starry night, or Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, the song sung by many artists, it is about his struggle with maintaining his sanity, and is very sad, but also speaks to the beauty of the night sky, and the artists legacy after death. I know very depressing, but quite inspiring!
I designed with a formula that I thought would work, and same with the design, thought it would work the first time, thought I was satisfied with the scent, at least out of bottle. And then I made it. What a disaster! And I did not know it was going to happen! It came together perfectly, I thought, I had everything ready, but when I went to cut it, disaster struck. I did not factor in what one ingredient would change in the final product, and that one thing made the soap so hard that it would not cut, it just crumbled into chunks even with a super sharp knife. Then the scent, ugh. It just was not great. It didn’t smell nice anymore! So, I tried to reform the soap so I could give it to charity, and that soap wouldn’t cooperate even to do that! Lol now I have a bunch of soap I must use in my shower or something, because it doesn’t even make the cut for giving away. The point is, no matter how long and hard you plan something, you can never expect that it will turn out the first time.
Our designs generally start with me browsing through some sort of place for inspiration, I write it down, I think on it for a bit, could be an hour, could be years. Some concepts I came up with at the beginning of my business still haven’t even been put into a formal plan, its all up here (I’m tapping my head). Currently we have between 400 and 600 designs in the wings, and it grows every day, everything from candy scented rainbow bath bombs to herbal infused massage oils. Sometimes its all about the cash on hand to start a new line, sometimes we see a new vendor and go through their supply list and we get to drooling… LOL it can be as simple as that! Who doesn’t want to make a soap with a crazy scent like Monkey Farts?
Formulas are planned the same way as designs. We have many of them because last time I checked, not everyone has skin just like mine! The general formulas that I have were designed for certain skin types and may still be getting tweaked even in 20 years! Who knows? I look into the best oils for the type of skin, look into the vitamin profiles of the types the pros and cons of each, adjust for the cons and then we test, tweek, test, tweek, test, tweek! Sometimes I have the very best formula for feel, but it just doesn’t hold up in the shower, it melts away too quickly, or doesn’t have enough lather, or, just feels like a brick, and not in a good way! Every time I make a soap, I think of these things. How can I make it better? How is the scent retention? How can I make it last longer for the customer? Is this mild enough for delicate skin? Does this make oily skin oilier? Is the scent the best it can be or do I need a new scent? Do the scent and the design really mesh?
Because of this fact, you may see us label something improved, or new design. We promise we do think it through! But if you liked something just the way it was, please speak up! Let us know! We love to hear about what you love.
So that’s about it! When you see a product for sale know that it was loved a long time before it came to you, and its meant to make you feel loved, by yourself and from us… We hope that you enjoy our products as much as we enjoy dreaming them up for you!
