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Salem Vendor Fair 2014
| Posted on August 6, 2014 at 9:00 AM |
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 This past weekend I participated in a small local vendor fair in Salem
Va. taking only a few MGA scents to sell. This was the first time to share my products
out locally after having made them for many years. I had never done this before
so I did not know what to expect but was most curios to try it. This was not a very
big event and there was not much in the way of visitors to the site. I think
that had to do with the overcast and looming rain cloud over head all day, but
it was a fair turn out of people , and I am so glad to have had my beautiful daughter Victoria (who never misses a photo opportunity) there
to help me out with set up and packaging. :)   It was great to meet many fabulous and interesting people who were not
aware of what natural perfumes were and so my day was spent talking to and educating
those interested about them and the process. This was quite wonderful spreading the word
and I got to hear people's testimonies on using synthetic commercial
perfumes , the rashes and irritations , headaches and nausea they experienced after using them . Though there
were some visitors to my booth who did not understand the whole concept and looked
at me and my display strangely or just walked on, it was most of the other visitors however
that came in that never knew of the unknown harsh chemicals in commercial perfumes
and were amazed at how that could affect their bodies so much . They just thought the scent was to
strong and avoided perfume altogether and it was wonderful to enlighten them and introduce them to the natural perfume realm with products they could actually enjoy wearing without the bad experience. So rewarding to see the perfume shunners and sceptics
hesitantly pick up the glass bells and then
suddenly begin to deeply inhale my scents over and over and every time smiling or saying " I loooove this one" or “wow, not
what I expected at all”. I found it very
interesting that when I asked what type of scent they enjoyed most responded with a very quick “I do not like rose
and jasmine or any floral” but when they sampled both “Flamenco” and “Black Velvet” they immediately
were drawn to them and ended up purchasing those . I then told them afterward
the infusion ingredient in those two and they were very surprised to hear that jasmine
and rose were prominent notes in both for they had never had the pleasure of
smelling true natural jasmine or rose notes before. Same for Patchouli….ha… NO
ONE liked patchouli in a perfume but sampled “Into the Woods” and they changed their
mind .
Overall what I did not make in sales I made up in a lot of local exposure and sharing with people what natural perfumes are all about ;
which was exactly what I was hoping for and why I agreed to do this event. Many
folks took cards to go online and read through all the scent descriptions at their
leisure or wait for the Fall scents as
some asked for Fall like scents which I had
none of :(  I also had a few invitations to
other local vendor events which I was so very flattered with to be noticed and invited.
What I did find even though this was a good exposure, I realized sadly that I believe these
fair and shows are not really for me. Perhaps the setting was all wrong for my type of products and need a
different type vendor venue. I felt I had
to really push my products to interest people a bit too much which is
exhausting to do over and over all day. None the less I channeled my inner gypsy and embraced my heritage and began to work the sales pitch inviting people in to my tent; which by the way was complete with a small crystal ball, black lace shawl display on the table and candelabra with black candles...of course !I do think after all this that online commerce is the way for me ,being much easier to manage and not so time consuming for preparation .
I may change my mind later if the right opportunity presents itself ...maybe. For now
I am quite content working my scented gypsy magick the way I do, but am so very grateful to have had the opportunity . It was a unique experience, and I am proud that I ventured to try something new :) |