I have long been a fan of Erin’s Faces for so many reasons, from the incredibly low Think Dirty ratings, to the lovely packaging (more on that below!) to the way founder Erin Williams stays close to the women (children and men!) who use and love her products through her beauty workshops around the country and her personal approach to education and social media! I was fortunate to try a selection of her products and fell in love with the scents and textures and just wanted to know more about what makes Erin tick!
Was there a particular moment or catalyst when you said “I can do this” before you started Erin’s Faces?
As the concept for Erin’s Faces started to pick up steam I actually literally picked up my head, looked up and said “is this what we’re doing???” to God :). I had moved to New York City to do theatre and that was the path that I thought I was supposed to be on. So I felt more of a “this is totally what you’re doing so get on board Williams” over feeling nervous that it wouldn’t work out. Erin’s Faces was not my idea, it was an unfoldment from prayer, so I felt like I was following directions.
3 Favorite products – go!
Clarifying Serum
Peppermint Lip Balm
Peptide SPF 30
I know you love to travel to different cities and host events in the homes of your customers, how did this personal approach start and what do you love about it?
Thank you! It was honestly the only way I could think of in the beginning to keep Erin’s Faces afloat! I had no money for marketing or advertising and all of my friends in NYC had already been invited to the launch in Nov of 2011, so in Feb of 2012 I did my first Green Beauty Workshop trip down in Texas which is where I grew up. My computer was almost dead, not great for an online retailer, and so I had hoped to sell $2000 over the week so I could cover my travel and buy a new computer. I ended up selling $9000 and that’s when I knew that I was supposed to keep going with Erin’s Faces.
I LOVE talking with women – it’s the best part of this job – so getting to be in a room full of them and talk about greener choices from an educational standpoint is great. Then you’ve got the empowerment standpoint which comes from making educated purchases but also really comes out in the makeup portion. I find there’s so much guilt, disappointment and feeling “less than” and “supposed to’s” with makeup. So I love tearing all of that down and talking about each step in makeup, what its purpose is and then someone can decide if they’d like to do that or not – and now they know WHY and HOW. The lightbulbs that I see going off for people through the evening are awesome!
Your packaging has me swooning! How did you arrive at your signature Erin’s Faces look?
Thank you so much! That means a LOT to me because it was a long road. For the first 3 years my skincare literally had a logo sticker that was Erin’s Faces in Times New Roman font in a circle, for real, and the name of the product from a P Touch Label Maker. That was it. Totally NOT pretty but it’s what I could afford. Labels and logos cost money and I didn’t have it. I had a meeting with a beauty editor from a big magazine the summer of 2014 and realized that even if she loved my stuff she could never put it in her magazine next to Chanel/Stila/etc as it just looked so unprofessional next to them.
I loved the writing on old seed packets and Victorian style stuff, so that was my inspiration for my logo. Looking back, it’s not the easiest to read and it’s hard to fit it on a skinny pencil but I love it and my friend Kristin Serafini (http://www.krisanthemumgraphics.com/) did it for me. For the labels I really loved the concept of an illustration for each product and a handwritten element in the title. I like vintage/antique things and so Kristin helped me clean up a first round of labels I had made and made them easier to read and improved upon the drawings. It’s funny because I had been drawn to these really clean labels that looked super cool and Brooklyn :) and mine don’t look like that, but I feel like they’re an extension of me and they’re representative of who I am and of what the line has to give.
What is the best compliment you’ve gotten from a customer?
Giving them confidence – that is the best hands down. Whether it’s improvement in their skin, ability to do something with their makeup that they couldn’t do before or just knowing how to make a future purchase – my number one goal for each client is for them to feel confident.