We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erinne Lester a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Erinne, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I got my start by mixing my mom’s perfumes as a child. I’ve always had a good sense for smell so naturally I came up with all sorts of good blends. Eventually I built up my own perfume collection and discovered what works best together.
After working for Lush Cosmetics in college, I had a friend suggest to me that I should make my own bath bombs. It was after getting the recipe just right, I thought it would be a fun idea to sell them at anime conventions and use that as an excuse to travel.
At that time, I really felt like I was the only hygiene-centric business in the gaming/anime scene. It all started by wanting to encourage con-goers to stay clean and make sure to take care of themselves.
Being able to meet our customers in person helped me learn about several skin allergies and conditions people face, which further inspired me to offer products anyone could use. Our motto “self care for ALL” was born!
I think my purpose in this world, to help people take care of themselves, was always a core part of myself. Even if at first didn’t know how specifically to achieve that goal, my friends, family, and followers offered me the suggestions I needed along the way.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m blessed to have been able to make bath art for 10 years! I also make self care items like soaps, body scrubs and shower steamers, all with the geek/gamer in mind. We want to make sure everyone can use our products, so we cater to both bath and shower users.
Our best venture yet is our Parteon self care box! Each month we message our patreons, ask them to select up to 3 or 4 products of their choosing, then given them one exclusive product and an additional completely custom-made product for those who opt-in.
I’m excited to celebrate 10 years of Twootie Tarte, so we’re working on upgrading our packaging as well as making our first guest artist apperance at DreamHack, which will be our first San Diego convention.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
One of the most important things I learned is staying true to your vision when running a business. During my journey I’ve met a countless number of people who will suggest product ideas. In the past, when I’ve catered to their requests, that average person isn’t actually interested in supporting that item they themself requested. This is why I’ve learned to only take product advice from my Patreon supporters or long time fans. There is the rare suggestion that we will try out, but I would say 90% of my products are based off the things I personally want to create.
I take pride in pioneering the types of products I continue to offer. I was the first to offer any bath products inspired by Animal Crossing with our Fossil bath bomb, and more recently debuted the first ever bath product to feature DLC content for video games.
So listen to your fans, but trust yourself first.
Another really important lesson I’ve learned is that it’s okay to fail, as long as you own up to it. If you are an upstanding business owner and you are honest with your customers, failure is part of the process of improvement.
An example would be when we debuted the DLC coin bath bomb and took in too many orders at once for a 2 person team to fulfill.
I might have not made the deadline I set, but ever since, I have made it a point to keep our customers in the loop. A one day delay could be the difference between a great and bad experience. Communication is key!
To help you start to get your footing as an artist, collaborating with other artists is a must. It keeps things fun, fresh and opens up your style to a whole new audience.
My first big artist collab was with a friend who made her own DLC coins, which were a smash hit. Another favorite was helping a small business with their kickstarter by ordering bulk of their anime macaron keychains. This helped us make a profit while also getting another artist’s name out there, which makes it feel even more fulfilling to see them succeed too!
Since my area of expertise doesn’t include digital art, I’ve also worked closely with artists like CloudVirtua to do artwork on items that require a label. Not only does it make an otherwise plain product stand out, it also allows me to support another artist!
I have THREE bath bombs in the works with other artists, all of which should be dropping throughout this summer, so keep an eye out!
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
As a business if you aren’t taking steps to grow, you might as well be dying. With that being said, the thing that made the most sense for our business to remain profitable is to move back to Louisiana. This was due to a number of things, our landlord raising rent by nearly 50% being one of the major factors.
Due to our new living arrangements I have to adjust to a longer commute, so each second in the office is much more precious. It makes it so that we have to strategically plan each moment, which is equal parts stressful and invigorating.
I’m hoping as the business grows, we will be able to afford a workspace that will cut down on travel time, as well as allow us to have hired help. With our current set up it doesn’t really allow for us to have employees come and go.
Having our own sanitary space on our property is my business’s next big goal! It will be a huge investment but if we continue to get support this year it’s very possible by 2024 we can have something in the works.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://twootietarte.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twootietarte/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/twootietarte
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/twootietarte
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@twootietartechannel
- Other: Patreon – Self Care Box: https://www.patreon.com/twootietarte https://www.tiktok.com/@twootietarte
Image Credits
@ariesphotographynola
