In all the years JOLI have been operating we've had three people contact us wanting to know the exact ingredients of our products. Even though it states on our website that we do not share this information readily (only our lucky customers know exactly what's in the products they've purchased).
One enquiry came from a lady who works with and sells essential oils. Another came from a lady who ran a small gift shop in a quaint county town. In each circumstance none of those queries resulted in them doing business with us even though they can see from JOLI's ingredients list that our skin care is one of the most natural brands on the market.
The most recent enquiry was interesting. It came soon after we were approached by a one time customer wanting us to sell our base products to them in bulk for them to repackage and sell as their own. This particular customer was always starting new business ventures and kept in contact with JOLI wanting us to support their endeavors (even though they only placed one small order with us years and years ago). Sometimes we gave support, other times we didn't.
It just so happened that this customer made her queries over the weekend when JOLI are not open for business. By the time we logged on, on Monday morning, she was irate, telling us not to worry about selling to her in bulk, she'd found someone else to supply her with base products.
Within days of this contact another (questionable) lady contacted us wanting to know the full ingredients for a handful of our most popular products. She was told that information wasn't given out but this didn't stop her from contacting us again and again. She was quick to reply to all emails after asking for more information. Various bits of basic information were given while secret ingredients and product adaptions were omitted. The reason information was given was purely out of curiosity to see what would happen. Would she then place an order when the naturalness of JOLI products had been proven? Or was she asking for other dubious reasons?
As soon as she had the information she required she stopped replying to follow up emails asking if she required any more assistance. No surprise there.
When the second lady (Molly Staey [sic]) made her query I assumed it was related to the customer, D, wanting to place bulk orders. Perhaps the supplier whom she'd found was now contacting us wanting to know our ingredients to see how her own base products stacked up? Perhaps it was D pretending to be someone else because she really hadn't found anyone with base products comparable to JOLI's?
[Upon some slight investigation thereafter it was found that Molley Stacey looked remarkably the same as D (FB profiles). Curious... ?!]
So this makes me wonder... why make the enquiry with no follow through? Did she have her own agenda? Maybe plan to try and replicate JOLI's awesome products? Who knows? She can give it her best shot, however with only base formulations given with key adaptions missing from the formulations, the attempt will never be as good as the real deal.
I can understand other people's desire to try and poach because JOLI are one of the few companies who make their own products from scratch without additional toxic preservatives. We do not purchase bulk ready-made skin care to repackage and sell as our own. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it's just not what we do; and also we've not found any base products that are as natural as we want. JOLI purchased exclusive rights to their product formulations from a manufacturer with 50 years experience in the natural skin care industry. There are literately hundreds of formulations for us to drawn from (on file) yet we currently only use a dozen or so of those formulations ~ which have been adapted and altered to suit our customer's needs and desires.
Even if someone tried to poach our base formulations they don't have our product adaptions, quantities, essential oil blends, technical skill set etc. Not only that getting the company started was intensive with years of training, in depth learning about essential oils, blends and medicinal properties, correct cooking temperatures and amalgamations, safety regulations, liability insurance (a compulsory part of any retail business - which Donna admitted she wasn't going to get), labels, design and so forth.
The fact that we have our own private formulations, that no-one else has access to, without the use of additional toxic preservatives, plus product adaptions to suit individual needs - sets JOLI apart from the others. No matter who tries to poach and pinch our awesome formulations they'll never rival what JOLI have created in the 10 plus years we've been in the industry.
