10th June, 2015 - On this day, one year ago, I was pretty nervous. And busy.One year ago today, we launched our equity crowdfunding round to raise $200,000 in exchange for 16% of Ethique. The day itself is blurry, but I remember the evening like it was yesterday. Ethique crowdfundingThe campaign opened with a tinkle, as we rang the bell at 7pm. Almost immediately we got our first pledge (thankyou Nate!), followed by our second and third… very quickly we were on our way to our goal. It took just under a week for us to hit $150,000 (our minimum) and within 10 days we had maxed out at $200,000. So now we have 142 shareholders from every walk of life. We have chemists, economists, beauty editors, builders, CEOs & even some travelers. Already we have involved them in some big decisions and they’ve proven just how useful it is to have a pool of people from different backgrounds who share in our vision.So what have we done since? First things first, we’ve prevented 55,000 bottles, jars and tottles (upside down bottles) from being sent to the landfill, or recycling plant. We’re so proud of that and the next goal is one million. Introducing .... Ethique Our first big decision came out of the blue (although, it shouldn’t have done.)Two weeks after closing our investment round and welcoming our new shareholders on board, we ran into a snag. Well, snag is putting it mildly. Prior to our raise, I had not checked into international trademarks for Sorbet, and when I did, well… they weren’t available. After a few hours of feeling rather sick and frantic phone calls with my business partner, the path of least resistance was to decide upon and roll out a new name, as quickly as possible.So that is where Ethique came from, as so many of you have asked. Ethique means ethical, or ethics in French and that is everything to us. Everything from the way we operate, to the products we create must have as minimal negative impact as possible. So the name is perfect. And it’s say ‘Et-eek’ for those of you still unsure.We’re working on securing international trademarks around the world in our future markets too, so that was a lesson well learnt.Growth in the Ethique FamilyWe welcomed Margot (whom many of you will have met/emailed) early August as our first full time hire and she couldn’t have been more perfect. Margot has grown leaps and bounds in the past ten months and now runs our warehouse & logistics and is our customer service queen.Helen has been with Ethique since the beginning as our first employee. She has been hand wrapping all our bars almost single handedly and now her young children have grown a little she spends two days a week in the office helping with orders and learning the ropes in the lab.So we now have six team members; Margot, Janette (my Mother, who whips up almost all our bars), Helen, Dee (another one of our wonderful wrappers), Moses & me.New Packaging : Ethique solid beauty barsI stumbled across some old Sorbet wrapped bars the other day and was appalled at how terrible they looked. A thing of the past thankfully as in September last year we rolled out our beautiful new packaging, which is of course, 100% compostable as it is free from acids, chlorine & chemical & plastic laminates.Our freight method is now totally plastic free. We finally managed to get a courier company on board with our idea of using cardboard and paper tape only without using satchels but at a good rate. Awesome work Post Haste!HOW DO I STORE MY BARS?We now have an answer to this question! We developed our in-shower containers over 18 months and they were finally launched late last year. Made with sugarcane & bamboo, they are fantastic to keep your bars dry and looking great in every bathroom. They biodegrade but will last up to 5 years in your bathroom. Genius.NEW WEBSITE… SORT OF.This is an interesting one. We developed a wonderful new e-commerce platform in the last few months of last year which unfortunately, never really worked. We have finally pulled the plug on this and our new, new one will be launched end of next week. I know so many of you have problems with the site every time you go to use it and I’m delighted to say it’s nearly at an end.PARTNERED WITH SOME AMAZING PEOPLE & BRANDS.We’ve developed some wonderful relationships with people like Makaia Carr from Motivate Me, Ben Warren from BePure & Jamie McDell and we’ve got some more exciting ones coming up.OUR FIRST INTERNATIONAL TRADE SHOW.We hopped over to Melbourne in March for our first international trade show. It was a massive learning curve as it is five times harder and ten times the price to run a show internationally but it was wonderful to introduce Australian’s to solid beauty bars and get them to #giveupthebottle!SO WHAT’S NEXT?We’ve got big plans, so here’s what we know…Obviously the biggest thing for most people is new products. We have several in the R&D queue at the moment, the most requested being a deodorant. We expect to release this in time for Spring in September.Bon Bon, some of you may remember was our hair treatment bar which smelled, looked and yes, tasted, like chocolate. It’s also coming back, but in a way which is easier to use. Keep an eye out in July.Masks too are nearly ready, with more trialists receiving bars next week.Over the next six months, you might notice some packaging changes as we move to some more user friendly containers. It’s still a work in progress (and a surprise), but keep an ear out for more info.We’ll be increasing the team by two in the next twelve months, taking on an intern to train in cosmetic chemistry alongside learning the ropes in our lab. We’ll be opening that up for applications in the next few weeks, so if you know of someone who is interested or has experience in chemistry or is just a dab hand in the kitchen, we definitely want to know about it!A move is on the cards too thankfully. If you have ever popped into the store in Christchurch you’ll see that our current space is laughably small and we are tripping over one another. By December we aim to be in a new improved space, but not too far away from where we are now.It’s been an exciting, chaotic, busy year and I expect the next to be no different. Thanks for all your support throughout and as ever, we’d love any feedback you have for us.- Brianne