Your peek behind-the-scenes ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Things are very weird behind-the-scenes in green beauty these days. The surface may look normal-ish given that websites are still up and brands are still taking orders, but behind this facade things are anything but "business as usual". As we discussed last fall tariffs are a big part of this chaos. There are other factors as well, but very little has impacted costs and choices as quickly as Trump's arbitrary, rash, and devastating tariff policy. Blissoma has so far been largely somewhat insulated from the tariff-inspired trade war. This is mostly due to the fact that we had (by chance) ordered in a lot of packaging and supplies in 2024. Our grace period is about to end, though. In May we had to commit to a new bottle order from our Chinese supplier. Our bottles from our Chinese supplier will soon begin their journey to the USA, and will be affected by whatever tariff policy is in place at that time. Whether the President has the power to even enact sweeping tariffs is being actively fought out in court. Lawsuits against the tariffs enacted in 2025 have been filed by states and small businesses. Initial rulings have been made by the Court of International Trade that would end the extensive tariffs, but these decisions have been put on hold temporarily while the federal government goes through an appeal process. (source) Currently tariffs are still being collected, and it's unclear how long this matter will take to fight out, or what the end result will be. What is clear, though, is that our costs are indeed rising. (All our opal white glass bottles come from China and closures come from international sources. Our boxes are printed in the USA.) | | Our international sourcing concerns go beyond packaging as well. In March 2025 Blissoma's facility received Organic Handler Status from the USDA National Organic Program. This is a huge step for us, and we took it partly to maintain our international, organic supply chain. New rules put in place by the NOP meant that no organic material could be shipped to us from international sources unless we had Certified Handler status. The legal change was made partly to ensure the integrity of organics brought across borders, and reduce fraud. It's a testament to our facility's cleanliness and how we work that we are now a Certified Organic Handler. It does add to our costs annually as we have to pay for inspection, and we still can't market most of our skincare as organic because most skincare doesn't qualify for USDA NOP standards since they don't allow ANY ingredients to function as a preservative, even naturally based preservatives. To make sense of this additional expense and labor we plan to sell more bulk ingredients. However our ability to get started has been hampered by the prospective tariffs. Our goal is to add more single ingredient organics later this summer. We're hoping that the 10% tariffs on all countries will be struck down by then so that our first round of imports won't bear extra, unnecessary costs. | | We also hear about challenges from our fellow indie beauty brands. We may be low our out of stock on some of the most popular Alima Pure shades, and unfortunately we're not going to be able to restock right now. When we reached out to order they told us they're not accepting wholesale orders until at least July due to supply chain challenges. While they didn't say precisely that it's tariffs that's what we're guessing. Sappho also recently sent out an email indicating that the future of their brand is uncertain. The founder, JoAnn Fowler, indicated that they are liquidating their existing inventory and their ability to fund a new production run was dependent on their current sales. These kinds of stories are just the tip of the iceberg right now. We could tell you all about crazy high insurance costs, about new PFAS testing requirements for our sales into Europe, about people who have harrassed us for speaking out for what is right and kind, about high interest rates that are meant to slow inflation but that are actually keeping costs up, and about very long work hours put in to navigate all the challenges. But most importantly we are grateful to say that because of people like you shopping with our independent business we are here and we are taking on the challenges day by day. And so far we have not increased our prices!!! We hope to not have to. | | One of the best ways for us to keep prices the same is to sell more products. Unlike many brands who manufacture overseas we could realistically solve our cost increases simply by selling more goods. This is because all of our product mixing, bottling, and finishing happens within the USA. Volume sales would spread out our fixed costs like our building, utilities, and software costs, allowing us to spend more on ingredients, packaging, and labor without causing a price increase. We're hoping you'll invite friends to try Blissoma this week. We make amazingly effective skincare. Our products are worth the switch. Just one of our potent products can replace several cheaper ones. It's also more important than ever to put your shopping money towards companies that are doing the right things. Every day we have a choice of if we want to fiercely support a kinder world, and to value the worth and beauty of all people. Blissoma is doing that work daily. Please share Blissoma with a friend this week and assist our mission to make skincare healthy, business more human and trustworthy, self-love accessible, and sustainability the standard. And shop our Summer Sale June 13-15 for 30% off! Thank you!!! - Julie and the Blissoma team | | | | |
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