Battleship anyone??

This week I watched the movie Battleship for the first time.  It's your typical save the planet from an alien attack plot, but surprisingly I found myself strangely intrigued by the movie.  Maybe it's because its the classic fable of David vs Goliath.  One lone Navy Destroyer and a few highly determined men are able to defeat hundreds of aliens with advanced weapons.  It's a make you feel good movie, and I definitely need to surround myself with feel good influences right now.
This is how my husband and I feel.  The small guy fighting everyday against the odds to make our product a success.  Its seems like every day we get slapped down.  But the few small wins we have had keep us grasping to our belief that we can do this.  I guess time will tell.
So I last left off with a non-functioning ugly prototype.  We examined it over and over for a week before deciding that it was good enough to find a manufacture and figure out how much it would cost to make this thing for real.  And so the search began.  My husband stayed up long nights for a week searching for plastics manufactures, ones that we thought we could afford.  He found three, and so began the interview process....  us interviewing them.  After speaking with all 3 over the phone, he decided he couldn't make a decision with out visiting their plants.  After all, quality control is everything.
One after another he flew out for a visit of the plant.  And one after another he came home disappointed.  We were both frustrated and almost ready to give up.  I decided to do one more search, just for the heck of it, and found a manufacturer about 30 mins from where we live.  It was almost too good to be true.  My husband visited them the following week and called as he was walking out of their office...  We found our manufacture.  Of course, him being such a great partner, insisted I tour the plant as well before we entered into a deal.  So there I was in my tube top, shorts, and wedge sandals walking a plastics manufacturing plant on my next day off.  Oh, and lets not forget the hard hat that is mandatory when on the plant floor.  While I didn't understand any of the technical information that was being discussed about plastics injection molds, I did understand the time and money investment it would take to do business with them.  But when we discussed several products they manufacture that I use in my everyday life, I knew we found the right place.  They had great quality standards, and stand behind what they manufacture.
We still had a major problem....  we found a manufacture with out having a final product to make.  So we sat down with our account manger and discussed our prototype, what we liked and didn't like about it.  But no worries because they have an in house engineer team that can work with us..WHAT??  So the $8,000 we spent on a private engineer company was a complete waste.  We were real happy when we figured that one out.  After several attempts at functionality and numerous changes, each one coasting money, we decided to have them start from scratch and redesign the Moisturizing Mate into a functioning form.  The end result was the same guts of the unit, but the exterior was completely redesigned into the form the final product is today.  We loved it instantly.  It still looked like a paint roller, but had more of the shape of a woman's curves.  And once again, we knew we made the right decision on a manufacturer.
And one of the best things about our manufacture is that they have plants in the US and over seas.  And I would love to put Made in the USA on our package.  And thus brings us to the next stage in this crazy process...  every detail of product design, before another prototype is made.
Stay tuned.....

You have to blog....

So that's what I am told.  If you want your site to have a better location on google you can blog.  So here I am once agin trying to blog.  And once again I find myself asking what it is exactly does it mean to blog.  When I ask the silly question the response is always....  you can write about anything.  Doesn't even have to be about the product whose web page this blog is related to, just write something.  Easier said than done for a person who isn't a writer.  For a person that is guarded with everything in my life.  But yet I am supposed to put things out there for anyone and everyone to read at will.  So here is my best attempt...  not that anyone reads my blogs anyway....
How starting a company gives you a gut check about who you really are!!

The Moisturizing Mate endeavor began 4 yrs ago, I think.  Truthfully it has been so long that I have lost track of time.  Of course some would say I don't know because I don't have any ownership of the process.  But that is a story for another time.  So far it has been four years of short lived highs and devastating lows.  Watching our life savings disappearing around every corner.  And let's not forget to acknowledge the daily cliches of "you are already a winner because you tried" or "if it was easy everyone would try it" and my personal favorite "you have to know failure in order to appreciate success".  Easy for someone to say when they have no vested interest in this project but stand by watching from the sidelines.  Recently my overwhelming internal dialogue is that we should just cut our losses.  Its not worth all the stress and heart break.  But then I look at my husband who has dedicated the last 4 years bringing this product to life and I know he needs this success.  Even if it means we have to loose everything in the process

I have told the story before of how the Moisturizing Mate was conceived.  And if you aren't aware of the story you can read it on the site for Beach Bum Bars where my husband recently did an interview.  What I am focusing on is the first stage where we wasted money.  Through no one's fault, we just didn't know any better.  My husband developed a concept for a lotion applicator and I drew up pictures of how we wanted it to look.  So the next logical step would be.........  for those of you who guessed finding an engineer firm to design the product, you would be correct.  So that's what we did.  At first we were told that it couldn't be done.  Undeterred by the feedback, my engineer degree-less husband found a way to make the product function.  Armed with this new brilliant idea the engineer went to work.  What came back were cad drawings for a functioning product that looked like something a man who can only envision machines designed.  It was hideous!!  But we were assured to not worry about the design because we can change that anytime.  At this stage we are only worried about functionality.  And we believed it because we were the amateurs.  Once all the specs were ironed out for functionality it was time to discuss design and surprise surprise, we were then told there was nothing we could do to change the look.  And to top things off, the prototype that was sent to us didn't work.  So here were, 1 year and $8,000 later, we had a non-functional prototype that looked like a weapon out of star wars.  So what did we do next.........
That is going to have to wait for my next blog...  or whatever you call this thing.

So excited!!

Just received my philosophy french vanilla body lotion.  The yummy smell and rich and creamy texture feel absolutely luxurious.  It is the perfect addition to my Moisturizing Mate to complete my daily moisturizing routine.  Its nice to realize that the time spent searching and sampling resulted in an excellent choice.  Its nice to embrace the recent colder temps with a new scent to freshen things up.

Is your skin dry?

I know mine is, the winter weather has just been teasing us, but my skin is already feeling the effects.  Nothing is worse than feeling itchy dry skin and struggling to get lotion where I need it.  My Moisturizing Mate has been coming in very handy.   Beat the winter skin blues by getting your Moisturizing Mate today.

Are you asking yourself....Where can I find a Moisturizing Mate Lotion Applicator??

Now there are three places to get your Moisturizing Mate:

1 - From the Moisturizing Mate website

2 - From your local Bed Bath and Beyond store

3 - Amazon

Be the first in your family and circle of friends to get a Moisturizing Mate and spread the word.  Soon you will be saying how did I ever survive with out one!!

The only lotion applicator you need

If you are tired of lotion applicators that don't work....  you know what i mean.....  that roller thing that gets clumpy and doesn't work or the pad on a stick that is messy, then you need to get a Moisturizing Mate.  Your search for an easy to use lotion applicator that actually works ends here.  Its pump driven so you control the flow of lotion, stores 2.5oz of lotion for quick multiple uses, can be used right or left handed, and seals for air tight easy storage or travel.  Try one today, you won't regret it.