Etsy Seller Interview with Amber of Addictive Cosmetics

How Addictive Cosmetics got started

Introduce your Etsy shop and tell us your story. How did you begin and decide on what to sell on Etsy, and how do you create your products?

My name is Amber Rodgers. I am a mother of 2 girls and wife to a wonderfully supportive husband. I have always been creative and love working with my hands. I'm an entrepreneur and have the “I can do that, and do it better” mentality. I have had quite a few different small businesses. All of them being stepping stones with successes and failures leading to where I am today with Addictive Cosmetics.

I am a makeup artist of 20 years, (yes, one of my small businesses lol). Over time, as I was going broke buying really expensive, brand name makeup in every shade possible, it really got me thinking, “What am I buying?”.

I started researching makeup and how it’s made. What I came to realize is we buy a lot of products for the name. It has to be good right? This eyeshadow is $20 and by a big name brand. Wrong. What we are really purchasing are a bunch of watered down products chalked full of toxic ingredients because they are cheaper than using all natural ingredients. 

So with my mentality of “I can do that, and I can do it better”, I started mixing things up in my kitchen. Lip glosses were first. I gave some to my friends and they loved them. I had created lip glosses with natural ingredients that were gorgeous in color and felt great on the lips. 

A friend of mine suggested I start an Etsy shop. I was like, “What’s Etsy?” We are about to celebrate our 10th birthday on Etsy this year!

Favorite items

What are your favorite items? What makes these so special? Why do you think these items might be selling well?

Oh man, this is an ever changing answer because as I make new items, they are my favorite at the moment. That being said, here are 5 new flakie nail polishes that we just released. I’m super excited to see how they'll do:

A couple products I can always rave about are our Fountain of Youth Anti-aging Face Cream and our Hydrating Mango Face Cream. Both are so rich and emollient and I just love the way my face feels after applying them. Like my skin was really thirsty and I just quenched its thirst. My customers love these as well. They are Best Sellers!

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Getting sales on Etsy

How long did it take for you to earn your first sale and how do you currently attract customers to your Etsy shop?  

Not long, it was the first week and then once I made a few sales, I was all in. That was the fuel to my fire to start creating like a mad woman. Etsy gave me visibility to an audience I wouldn't have been able to get on my own. There's nothing better than hearing the “cha ching” sound from the Etsy app on my phone alerting me of a sale.

I use social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. I also do Etsy ads. That is one thing I am not the best at: social media marketing. I get overwhelmed. It’s one of my goals to get better at, understanding what works, and what doesn’t.

Managing Addictive Cosmetics

How do you manage your shop? Are you running solo or do you have any team members? What tools or services do you use to run your shop and how do you handle fulfillment?

I try to run my shop Monday through Friday, so I can have weekends with my family. But the beauty of working for yourself is that you can make your own schedule and work weekends if needed, or into the nights if you have things to do during the day.

Addictive Cosmetics has been a family-run business. My Mom, my daughters and my niece have all worked with me.

I start most days taking down all the orders through a certain date. We pull and check off items we have in stock and circle things we need to make new batches of to fulfill. It usually takes 2 days to get a group of orders completed start to finish. Finished meaning packaged and sent off. 

Then we start over. Sprinkle in some ordering ingredients and packaging materials and answering customer questions and emails. 

Oh, and I like to have a creative day when I can squeeze them in. Days where I just create the things I have been really wanting to make.

The future of Addictive Cosmetics

What goals do you have for your shop in the future?

As I said above, I want to really get good at the marketing side of my business and maybe take some classes. I’m kind of a “fly by the seat of my pants'' type of girl and don’t have set goals. I like the unknown. That's what keeps life exciting. As long as we are growing and I get to keep creating, I am a happy girl.

Advice for new sellers

What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?

Take great pictures! Your photos will either engage your customer or deter them to another seller. Your products could be gorgeous in person and you know that, but your customer doesn't. So make sure you show them in their photos. Think, “Is this photo Instagram worthy?”

The customer is always right, even when they're not. You can't make everyone happy all of the time, but do your best to try. Hear their issue, even if you don’t agree. Don't get defensive. Just work with them to come to a resolve that makes them happy. Even if you're not. These types of customers are few and far between, so just get to the resolve and move on. Sometimes, you have to just bite your tongue, smile and nod even when you know they are full of it. Small situations can blow up and create big problems for your business.

Engage with your customers. Ask them what they would want to see.

Add new products to keep customers coming back to see what's next.

Encourage reviews to your shop. We all know we read the reviews before purchasing something.

Package your products with care and detail, so when they open it, it’s like opening a gift.

Take a break. Rest and do something else if needed or you’ll get burnt out.

Give your business time to grow. If you love what you're doing and are passionate it will reflect in your work.