It took a total of 29 different trials for me to be happy with the formulas, but I finally have new products for the Harvestcare line that I actually made myself. And now, I’ll be launching them next week.

Just a few weeks ago, I was telling a friend that I didn’t want to be a skincare maker. Instead, I wanted to run a business and have experts make the product. While I still prefer to do this, I have to admit that it’s incredibly satisfying to go through this process – from research to trials to production of some products that I’m very proud of to put on the shelf.

Even more so satisfying is the feedback I’ve had from friends who have tested my products. The real test will be when strangers give me unbiased feedback.

I just ordered the labels that I designed myself too.

My timing for finalising these products was quite important too as yesterday the Old Bus Depot Markets finally responded to my application. They had more questions about my products and how they are made. Fortunately, I could finally say that I made some of them myself which has been a stumbling block for other markets.

I have much bigger plans than weekly markets, but I need to start somewhere to get customer feedback and to frankly, just to pay the bills. So hopefully they will say yes.

I applied to be a part of their markets a few years ago with my tea company, but they told me then that they already had enough tea companies. So, hopefully they won’t say that my new skin and body care products are too much like other stallholders they already have.

In the meantime, with these new products and more reasonable margins, I feel that I have something valuable to offer retailers especially with more of them opening back up in Canberra.

Now, I’ll be spending this long weekend getting ready for the launch of these new products!