Name of your website?RAESIN IMAGES Cosmetics
Your name?
Rae Kat Switzer, Owner/Founder
Your Location (city, etc)
Clarksville
Please give us a short summary of your website?
The Authority in Mineral Makeup. RAESIN IMAGES Cosmetics. Manufacturing FDA and physician approved 100% authentic earth element mineral makeup. No fillers, dyes, bismuth, or mica known to cause rosacea or acne in our matte mineral foundations. Just pure minerals to promote healthy natural skin.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
As a professional licensed makeup artist for over 20 years, as well as a cosmetic and biochemistry major, I knew I had the ability for formulate a true mineral makeup line of products. We carry the only matte mineral foundation that does not contain mica, bismuth, or other known acne causing fillers. Just 100% pure element minerals. I wanted women feeling GREAT about themselves again, and raising women's images and awareness is what RAESIN IMAGES is all about.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
RAESIN IMAGES was started as a Image Consulting business over 17 years ago. The launch of the RAESIN IMAGES Cosmetics website was around 2004.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
Rae is my biological given name, thus RAEsin Images. The whole concept is just that Raising Women's Images, so they feel great about themselves even when magazine covers, tv, forums, etc, bash women constantly, we want women to know they are always safe and can contact us or join the RAESIN IMAGES forum to speak with others that feel just as they do. Daily pick me ups are always in our emails and newsletters, we're not just about makeup.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
We offer the only matte mineral foundation on the market that doesn't contain dyes, fillers, bismuth or mica. Our products are FDA approved, so what we manufacture has been certified, we're not just one of those fly by night companies purchasing in bulk from other mineral companies to make a fast buck from women not knowning what's really going on. We're here to help women with their self esteem as well as their makeup application.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
The goal of RAESIN IMAGES will always be to help women with their Images, from the inside out :)
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
10% of all sales go the the ARMY Relief Fund for Military families. My spouse is a career Army Officer and I understand that Army wifes and families are treated poorly by the military and it's problematic systems. We're here to offer them some financial resource that's free to them, and we're glad to be able to donate what we can each month/year. These women deserve a break for putting up with the poor facilities, housing, and lack of chain of supports. Money isn't the answer, but it helps them keep above board when their spouses are only getting $2 an hour or less for fighting for the USA.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
Personally I'd donate more to needy charities. People need help, especially after all the government aftermath problems. RAESIN IMAGES would start an organization to help women, especially the military wives and their families.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
We did and do keep up with the demand. RAESIN IMAGES went from one of less then 5 real mineral makeup companies to the more then 100,000 mineral makeup companies. We do all our own webwork, photos, and articles, as well as we manufacture 100% of our mineral makeup. There's less then a handfull of companies that can say this truthfully, and we're glad we're one of them to help women with their custom needs.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Headaches, lol, that's a good one. I'd have to say being in retail before we started RAESIN IMAGES Cosmetics, really helped with knowing what 2-way customer service was all about, as well as the work force really needed form employers, not just employers from their workforce. All of RAESIN IMAGES employees are military spouses, or Military brats as we call the kids. lol Lived the life and WE work around their mom and school schedules. Unexpected costs, lets just say Hurricane Katrina and Rita hit us a few years back, we had no phones, no power, no communication of any kind, that brought intresting challenges.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Hurricane Katrina and Rita hitting us directly when we were located in Lousiana. We had no communication, Bellsouth didn't get the relay stations up again for almost 2 months, so we had no communcation, no computers, no cell towers, nothing. We worked through it using a Library in Dallas that helped us out, drove up there once a week. What amazed us was that other Business Owners, used profanity because They couldn't get ahold or ship things into us. It really gives you an awakening when a long time business owner written up on natural skin care books out of Utah, uses the F word because they've shipped their goods to you and they are lost in the mail. It was unreal. I have kept everyone of those nasty emails from those so called business owners and being glad I'm not one of them, that what happened to us in Lousiana was taken out on us by others, without compassion for anyone but their $$$$. Very very sad. We're just very glad we're not them. :)
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
We'd have to say pay-clicks, but we don't use them. Keeping up with SEO information is helpful since I do all the webwork, we're tops in Google without advertizing. :) We keep pricing low, so we don't want to pay for ads, we like the fact that we can keep our website up to day with current information in the cosmetic industry whether it's posting on new mineral companies news, or international beauty and cosmetic news. We have a great link for everyone looking to stay updating on the current cosmetic industry news and we feel that's the best way to help the internet do what it's designed to do.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It's alot of hands on work, and not always alot of fun, but learning from the ground up and learning and changing things daily is challenging and my employees get to see what really goes on. That's important that others see new and exciting things also.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
Russ and I have 7 total kids. 3 girls and 4 boys. Since I also majored in BioChem and Chem, I have other things that I'm working on besides the main site. We do alot of charity work, as well as formulating products through our main company which is EpiDermalogy Labs, LLC. USA As long as there's a need to Raise Women's Images, we'll be here for them.
What to you feel is the number 1 reason your business does so well?
RAESIN IMAGES is about women and for women. That's why we do so well. We aren't one of those corporations that puts all it's money into packaging and nothing into products, that's 97% of all cosmetic companies and we're darn proud not to be like that. We are physican recommended and FDA physician approved, and very very few mineral makeup companies can say that! We're number 1 on product formulations and we have other sites that help women make their own mineral makeup private label brand products. As the name says, Raising Images.
What is your website address?
RAESIN IMAGES Cosmetics
No trackbacks.
Comments