Members Only: Faeve Naked Oils

 Welcome to the start of the very private, exclusive site of Faeve’s “Naked Oils”

Whoa, who is naked?? Not me I promise!

The oil industry is an interesting one. Just like most things in life, your pricing depends really on relationships. 

When I got into this industry, it was hard for me as a business person to understand how people purchased and received their oils. I thought that there was one “Wizard of Oz” in the oil world and they decided on pricing.

I was wrong. As I got deeper and deeper into the underbelly of this industry I realized that some people are changing over 1200 % markup on their oils. It’s crazy. It feels very much like what you may think the pharmaceutical industry is like. The worst part? The quality isn’t there. My 5,000 hours of study has shown me that I have a deep true understanding of quality. That’s the way I see it anyway.

When I started looking deeper into this I saw a few things:

1200% markup is almost nothing when you have to have a team of 20 running your production line.

1200% markup is almost nothing when you have to pay attorneys for trademarks and corporate contracts.

1200% markup is nothing when you need to order bottles, labels and reducers less than 10k at a time. 

1200% markup is nothing when you have to pay a whole marketing team to market a bunch of 10ml  bottles.

1200% is nothing when you need to build a lab with 30k of equipment to process and follow GMP.

1200% markup is nothing when you have to pay to find relevant research on what you are selling to have the most up to date information.

1200% markup is nothing when you have to pay an independent lab to make sure your oils are of proper quality and chemically effective. 

So really, I can’t blame them. But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t make me angry.

A few months ago, a man “friended” me on LinkedIn. He did this because I am the Treasurer of Alliance of International Aromatherapists, the Aromatherapy version of something similar to the American Medical Association. I had never heard of his company but he had one office in Florida, so I was intrigued. We set up a meeting on Zoom to meet each other.

That was the meeting where I came up with the idea of Faeve Naked Oils. He and his wife are immigrants from Europe that were coming here to create their “American Dream”. They have a large family all over Europe and South Africa and have been in the perfumery and oil world for over 50 years. They are distillers first. Parents, aunts and uncles are distillers in Europe, South Africa and Asia. Children are scientists and lab rats. This couple in particular took over the larger scale business to start up in the USA.

First and foremost, this large family is a family of artists. The art of distilling plants to get oils is not an industrial process, although some have made it into that. It is an art where you are taking gifts from the earth and then the earth supplies them into something more than the sum of its parts. You need to have reverence and understanding for the earth's energy to create good oils. This family was doing that before it was “cool”. 

The wife and I spoke more during the meeting. We went to the same school. We have worked with the same people. She went to learn the science so she could be more effective in their labs. I went to school to understand the chemistry for medicinal uses. For 2 hours, the two of us “geeked out” on each other. Both of us were so pleased that we could talk our crazy language and actually understand each other. That type of conversation is rare.

They asked me why I didn’t “sell” oils. I said because I didn’t want to get into the cutthroat oil business. I wanted to stay in my lane with my science. Then they told me “you still can”. They appreciated my reverence and respect for what they did. I appreciated how down to earth and pure they were.

They then offered me a distributorship. This means that I can get a large copious amount of oil at very reduced pricing. They also sell to others, and probably at the same price point, as they have to make money as well.

The difference is, I’m not going to charge you 1200% markup.

This is how and why:

1. They are including the quality testing from a 3rd party we both know at no additional cost to me, taking that part of overhead off my plate. I believe this is because they know that I understand them, nothing more. It’s truly a gift that saves 1000’s of dollars.
2. I already have a large customer base. I don’t have to start from scratch. This means I don’t need a new 10k website just to start up.
3. I don’t intend to have a full line. Instead, I will find the best quality oils at the best prices. Once that lot is gone, it’s gone. I may have a certain Rosemary for a few months and then it is sold out. I may not get another again for months or years. This saves me inventory and storage costs.
4. My bottling costs will be reduced. THey won’t be as low as some of the big guys out there, but I can handle it because I don't have the other costs.
5. I will not be advertising. I am passing a gift to others. I would rather have 30-40 dedicated customers that I can interact with and give them the best prices then have 1,000s of people I have to keep track of in databases etc.
6. You will not be getting pretty little labels, etc from me. This is a private service and I will not spend an extra $1-2 per bottle to make it look pretty. 
7. Your purchases will be tracked by Lot #. That way if you really like something, we can tell you if we can find that chemical makeup again. So say you buy a Tea Tree from us and it was the best you ever had and you want that exact one, but we don’t have anymore in stock. I can then look at the chemistry and see what I can find and purchase for you that is similar or ask my distillers where possible they may have sold the same lot too if they have no more. 
8. I am not spending a lot of time telling you what the oils do. It is time consuming and time equals money. This is not a place for people that don’t understand oils. There may be some weird ones, and you can seek out the benefits on Google. Don’t expect a large amount of therapeutic use information and recipes. That equals money.
9. I will not be selling these in the store, although you will be able to pick them up there. If I were to sell them in the store, I would have to mark up higher.
10. Sometimes I’ll have 10 oils, sometimes I’ll have 30. I will be going by quality and good pricing. 
11. If you live in the area and want refills, we will take money off of our bottling costs to reuse the bottle. 
12. Bottles will not be prefilled. They will come bottled from the distillery and we will store them properly and bottle as the orders come in. This gives you a fresher product and alleviates us having to buy another $30k in lab equipment, passing those savings to you. Your oil will literally be fresh from the distillery. As we already always do, GMP will be followed.
13. As we ramp this up, you will see lower prices or the same prices on different quantities.
14. If you need it shipped, we will price it by USPS. We will not make any money off of shipping. 
15. New inventory will only be advertised if you are on the special mailing list. Our current and past customers will have first right of refusal as they were with us before this came to light.
16. We will reserve the right not to put you into the Naked Oils database.

As I was explaining this business plan to my friend, she said “you are being really snotty about this”. I laughed. She’s right. However…

I am taking time from me and my team to offer extremely high quality products at some of the lowest prices on the market. I am doing this for the people that cheered me on as I was getting 1000’s of hours of schooling. I am doing this for people who do good work in the world and these oils are their tools. They deserve good pricing for their good work. I am doing this for the people that use this as the true healing modality that it is and not for people who want to collect oils like Beanie Babies. They deserve good pricing to help themselves and those around them.

The rest of 2022 will be in its testing stages. We envision that 2023 will bring a more private exclusive site, with one yearly down payment of $25 to 50 dollars yearly cutting out labor time and money in shipping. We will then have two tiers. Tier one will have first choice when new oils come out, tier two will be invited after Tier one has completed the sale. We don’t see having more than 100 people between the two tiers because we simply don’t want to manage it. 

So if you are reading this now, thank you for your support because you are now considered Tier 1. You have been with me, following me on my path and this is my gift to you. 

Naturally, Organically. Scientifically.

High quality, low cost.

No fancy gimmicks, just pure clean oils.

Naked.