Feature Article: A Renaissance Woman For The Ages by Annette Esterheld

Alicia Grosso owns Annabella and Company Creativity Collective, a group of handmade toiletries that are sold under several brands, including Aunt Bunny and Bunny’s Garden. In addition to being a soapmaker, Alicia Grosso, is the author of The Everything Soap Book and Soapmaking: A Magickal Guide, a Senior Lecturer in Theater and one of the speakers at the upcoming Lifestyle CEO Conference.

About Alicia

Alicia calls herself an “interdisciplinary artist.” She is currently a Senior Lecturer of theatre at University of Southern California. She teaches many courses including Introduction to the Theatre, Stage Makeup, Introduction to Technical Theatre, Directing and Stage Properties. She’s been on stage as an actor and performer and behind stage directing. “I’m a good enough actor, but my heart lies in teaching, directing and design,” she says. Her primary daytime focus is her teaching job, but at home, she morphs into a leader of a different kind.

The Collective

“I’ve always been fascinated by communities of artists and I observed that my home has been a hub for artistic activity and a gathering place for artists, “says Alicia. “My husband John and I hear all the time that our home is a place a rest and renewal, and that people feel creatively energized by being there.” Alicia calls her husband John Rivera “the energetic force that makes my life possible. He is unfailingly supportive, a willing test subject, a tough and honest critic and my biggest fan.” “Our home is open to friends, students and family,” she adds, “and once a person has contributed creative energy to Annabella, they are a member of the Collective if they want to be.

The Collective is made up of real, incredible women. Many women, and some men, have contributed creative energy in many forms throughout the years.” Alicia says the company began with her and her friend Julianna, whose husband sometimes calls her Annabella, hence the name. Alicia and Julianna started Annabella and Company when they were making and selling hats, handbags and earrings in the early 1990s. “The hat and earring thing was kind of an accident, “she says. “Julianna and I were not literally starving artists, but we didn’t have much extra money and would save up about $30 a month and treat ourselves to a lunch at Farfalla Restaurant in West Hollywood.”

At the time the two were working together on theatre projects and spent a lot of time on the run. The lunch was their treat, a chance to shed the paint-covered jeans image and put on lipstick. The women were both crafters so their “dress” for lunch would include crocheted handbags, and earrings and hats they’d made. “Frequently women would ask where we bought our accessories and offered to buy them right off our bodies when we said that we’d made them,” she says. “We made a concerted effort at selling for awhile, but we didn’t get the business we needed to continue it on a casual basis and with day jobs and theatre projects at night we didn’t have time to put more into it.”

Julianna moved to San Francisco and Alicia continued to make rayon crochet handbags for private clients. “Then in the spring of 1995, I was offered a job as a teacher at USC, right at the same time I’d started making salve,” she says. “Being a theater teacher at a university was my dream job, and I went into it with great energy and enthusiasm,” she says. “For a while it was a part-time job, so I taught myself to make soap to go with the salve.”

As her teaching job expanded, Annabella and Company also expanded and the only money she had to begin her toiletries business came from what she made selling her crocheted handbags to private clients.

Annabella’s Wares

Alicia stills makes crocheted bags, earrings and necklaces off and on, she says, to complement some of her product lines. She has a new line called Avalonia that includes earrings and meditation beads along with soap, lotion, fragrance and small crochet bags she makes from yarn she makes. (That’s not a typo — she makes crochet bags from yarn that she also makes — you read that correctly!) “It’s a perfect example of multiple facets of my life coming together — jewelry design, soap and toiletries, fiber arts and spirituality,” says Alicia.

Alicia makes everything from scratch except melt and pour soap. Her products include cold process soap, lotions, cream, balms, butters, scrubs, bath teas, lip products, hair conditioner, aromatherapy blends, natural perfume, and others. “I’m always in process,” she says. “Some things I’ve been doing include refining the aesthetics of color swirling in my soap, reformulating my basic soap formula to offset the alarming increase in the price of olive oil, learning about hair conditioner ingredients and formulating a private label conditioner for my friend who is a very talented hair designer.”

Alicia is also working with exfoliants. “I’m a big fan of exfoliation, especially bamboo sap grains and ground vanilla beans. I’m trying to create the perfect foaming exfoliating facial cleanser. Her best selling product is and always has been Bunny’s Garden Soothing Salve, which has a dedicated following. “It was the first thing I made on purpose and people love it,” she says. “I love it! It smells good, feels good, it does many things, it is inexpensive and it has a bunny on the label (I have a rabbit obsession as you can tell from the names of my product lines.). I’m a gardener and I made it for myself and other gardeners.” (Annabella’s products are available for wholesale too!)

What Lies Ahead

Alicia says she keeps the selling part of her business “strictly limited” and, besides internet sales, she only sells soap and toiletries at two events a year. She keeps this business small on purpose. “Although I’ve had many opportunities to go full time, I continue to choose not to,” she says. “If that changes, I have all the systems in place to move it to the next level including a business plan.”

She says there are a number of variable that might line up that could make going “full time” a viable option. “What I do know for sure is that my creative drive is unquenchable and I know I’ll be creating new things during the next three to five years and beyond, “says Alicia.
Tips for Handmade Beauty Business Owners

Alicia says one of the most useful guidelines she’s found is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. “Maslow orders from bottom to top the things that humans need. At the base are physiological needs, safety need, belongingness, love and esteem,” she says. “Once the ‘base’ is in place, you move to the next level, which is the need to know and understand and the need for aesthetics. When those are working, then you can move to self-actualization and transcendence.”

For Alicia what this means is that “you have to create a strong base from which you can venture. You need a job that can provide a secure home and a network of family and friends. Keeping the job, paying the rent, interacting with your network all work together to create that secure base.” For her the base includes the spiritual. “I think a strong sense of spiritual direction is very important,” she says. “my spiritual group and the personal growth work I do with them are very beneficial to me in all aspects of my life.”

Alicia adds that you risk that base when you begin a venture like a small business. “If you’re able to hang on and transform the source of your money from your ‘job’ to your business, you’ve made it farther than most people,” she says. “You also need to become an expert, like dM says,” Alicia adds. “The way you do that is to study, create, work, push yourself, get feedback, revise, practice and work some more. You really need the skills to back up your assertions. Positive attitude and desire are good, but you really do need to know what you are talking about. Learn by doing!

Connecting With IBN

Alicia joined IBN in early 2002. “IBN has provided me with information and inspiration,” says Alicia. “Every week I make time to read this  newsletter. I look at every new and renewing member’s website, read the articles and even enter the contest! I won once and got a consultation with dM that helped me get the confidence I needed to move forward with a project that is ready for a big promotional push.”

A Renaissance Woman For The Ages

The dictionary defines “renaissance” as “of, relating to or characteristic of the artistic and intellectual works and styles of the Renaissance era.” Alicia Grosso is here in the 21st century redefining that term to include this very day and age. Her unique combination of level-headedness and the ability to know how much risk she can tolerate at any particular time in her life, she sets an example we can all follow: Pursue your dreams, pace yourself and enjoy the journey. And speaking of pacing yourself, Alicia can fill retail and wholesale orders with notice. Products are described and many are photographed at her website, but if you don’t see what you’re looking for, contact Alicia by email.