A brief history of the origin of Molly Rose Balms.

Picture it. January 2011. I had been unemployed for nearly a year, and I grew weary of applications and dead-end interviews. I spent a lot of my free time online, particularly in YouTube. It was an escape for me, but helped me develop a love of both DIYs and beauty tutorials. One video that combines these is this video which ultimately led to MRB:

It should be noted that the recipe in this video bears no resemblance to my current recipe or any recipe I’ve ever sold under the name of MRB. However, it is this video that inspired me to make lip balm, and it was seeing this video while struggling financially that inspired me to attempt to make my living by creating fun lip balms rather than relying on someone else to deem me worry of hire.

So with the little bit of cash I had, I bought some coconut oil, mango butter, hempseed oil, and beeswax. This was three years before I became a vegan, and the use of plant-based waxes was not something on my radar. I knew that I would want to change the recipe, but I started with the same ingredients and decided I would experiment with other ingredients later. I created several recipes, using the one from the video as a control. Eventually, after several cycles of trials and using every last scrap of ingredients that I had, I had my “final” recipe. Final at this time, that is. You’ll see what I mean.

Once I had my formula, I was ready to start building my business. Unfortunately (though it seemed very fortunate at the time), I got a job offer. I’m grateful to have had that job for three years, but it was a distraction from what I’ve come to realize is my true passion. I put lip balms to the side for two years, until the day I needed to support myself financially and independently again.

Next week, I’ll tell you about the rekindling of my interest in handcrafting lip balms after a severe back injury.