The "Rolls-Royce" of Body Lines

I met Tasha Noriega of Tasha & Co at the recent Face & Body show in San Francisco. Mostly, I walk jadedly by all the booths selling body products (truly, they are a dime a dozen), but hers had such a cool presentation that I was drawn in immediately. The body scrubs, bath salts, and bath bombs were so well packaged - they had pieces of the actual botanical used to scent the product contained inside it. For example, there was a sprig of red currants floating in the Red Currant body scrub, while a eucalyptus leaf graced the sac of Eucalyptus & Lime bath salts. I don't know why, it just made it look extra beautiful and special. I so wish there was a picture available of this fabuloso stuff - I'd post it here in a heartbeat.

But my goodness, the SCENTS! Ooh la la, the scents...truly, truly spectacular. Body products are particularly difficult to retail in my spa for some reason. Skin care flies off the shelf, but body products have always had a hard time moving. So I'm not usually interested in picking up new lines of body products just to pick them up. However, these were so well-packaged and so wonderfully scented that I bought several just to give them a try.

Well, I am IN LOVE with the Vanilla Milk & Grapefruit Salt Scrub, but my favorite is the White Tea & Grapefruit Scrub...I even bought this in every incarnation possible: the scrub, the salts, and the body oil. Love love love love it. I wear the body oil as a perfume, and also the White Gardenia body oil in my hair. Talk about feeling sexy!

I asked Tasha how she got started doing a body care line. She said she had sensitive skin, so she was committed to making a skin care line that would cater to that - she uses only paraben-free products and an organic, unrefined jojoba oil base. I asked her whether she used any synthetics - for example, there is no "Red Currant" essential oil, but there are plenty of synthetic "Red Currant" fragrances. She said that she used only skin safe perfume/fragrance oils. Finally, I asked her how she got the products to smell so DARN GOOD, and she said she used a LOT of pure essential oils and fragrance oils in the products, so much so that her items are actually quite a bit more expensive than competitors.

That's the one thing keeping me from taking the plunge and bringing her line in: $48 for a body scrub!! Are you kidding me?!?! I asked her how to explain to a customer that they should pay nearly $50 for a scrub...she said to tell them that it was the "Rolls-Royce" of body scrubs. I've tried it now, and can tell the world that it most definitely is the best body scrub, hands down, that I have ever used (the scent stays with you a LOOOOONG time and is so pure and fresh and inviting), but I still don't see how I can justify selling a body product for almost as much as a skin care product!

May God strike me with inspiration so that I can bring this wonderful woman's wonderful line into my spa. Until then, I guess I will wait it out...