Birchbox

With t-minus one day until the big move to Brooklyn (hello there, Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill), I’ve found a silver lining to the neverending packing: I’ve been forced to parse through all my half-used, unused, broken, and otherwise sad-looking makeup and lotions. I’ve been ruthless in my tossing out - goodbye old crumbly shadows and yellowy looking sunscreen. Marie Claire has a good crib sheet on expiration dates but I have an easier one: if I can’t remember when I bought it or when I used it last, it’s in the bin. Whew, I feel lighter already. (Next task is cleaning all my brushes!)

We love Thanh for many reasons. She always calms us down when we’re in a tizzy (boy-related, apt-related, work-related) and has a magical way with pork belly that demands seconds, thirds, fourths… But beyond this, she’s also one of the smartest people we know and is going to help us whip our website into tip-top shape. We’re so excited to have her on board!

She’s also gorgeous - here’s a snap from her wedding last month!

a co-worker always used to ask me to bring her back kukui oil whenever i visited hawaii. it worked wonders on her dry skin, she said. i never saw the appeal - it’s unscented and a bit oily - until i got a bit too much sun on the north shore this past week and needed something to stave off the flake-fest. i picked up some pure kukui oil at the north shore soap company and it’s already doing its job. it also works on scars, so you can bet i’ll be saving some for the next time i take a tumble and scrape up my legs. you can order it here.

After a small mishap in the hotel’s lot (those parking spaces are soooo small and the columns are very large) Birchbox was set-up as a “side dish” at WebInno 26.  For 3 solid hours I waved around Birchboxes, demo-ed our beta site and pitched over and over and over again.  It was a great and varied crowd that kept me on my toes. 

Shout outs to the following new friends from WebInno…

• All the ladies!!!  It was a welcome reprieve to pitch to potential Birchbox customers, many of whom signed up for our wait list.  Especially great to see Golden Seeds, The Naughty Nutritionist and the fabulous Carolina Jung (she has mastered the false lash challenge with aplomb).

• Manpacks, the company everyone kept on calling the male version of Birchbox.  They focus on replenishment of basics such as socks, underwear and t-shirts instead of trial and experimentation.  Boys will be boys, but they do know how to harness the power of subscription product delivery.

• Chargify, who are hopefully going to hook us up with a slick recurring billing system.  Thanks for the t-shirt!

• The guy that kept on smelling my Birchbox.  Couldn’t tell if he thought there was already an aroma or if he was trying to tell me we should add a smell, but I like his style.  Get right up in there.

Lastly, a big Birchbox thanks to Adam, Melissa, Ashley and Fredrik for helping me pitch, hydrate and carry heavy objects.

While Hayley and Katia were running to meetings with amazing beauty brands (hello NARS!), I popped into ThinkSocial’s #Promise conference. The #Promise, part of Internet Week, brought together tons of smart people to talk about social responsibility, both with respect to corporations and individuals. It was thought-provoking, interesting, and inspiring. I dashed off a stream-of-consciousness email to Hayley and Katia during one of the presentations, punctuated with phrases like “core mission,” “do good and be good,” and “integrity! empowerment!” I’m excited to think about ways in which we can marshal our social media powers, our communication channels, and our energy to not just make people pretty and happy, but to also have a positive impact.

A few of my takeaways:

Add it to the reading list: Douglas Rushkoff’s books, especially his latest, Life, Inc.

Website list: Check out Crowdrise, Edward Norton’s new media meets fundraising website, Hunch, Caterina Fake’s website, and Howcast, the best how-to vids on the web.

Girl crush: Caterina Fake, founder of Flickr and Hunch. “I’m an extrovert and a homebody so I was an early adopter of social networking.” Fabulous, funny, smart. Love her.

Award for beating my expectations: GE Global Marketing Director Linda Boff talked about their healthymagination campaign and other initiatives and was candid, interesting, and made good use of videos - especially this hysterical yoga clip.