COMMUNITY OUTREACH Most of Lippy Lu’s customers have found them online, but they are also in a few stores nationwide. These include the Northeast Arc in Massachusetts, Creative Gifts in New Jersey, and One For All Gifts in Long Island. “All of these stores have very similar missions to our own—providing employment opportunities for those with special needs. We are very proud to be affiliated with amazing companies like these,” says Bentley. Lippy Lu also attended and sponsored a 5K run in Virginia for the Organization for Autism Research. “We were able to set up a booth and meet lots of wonderful people,” she says. “It was an honor to be part of such a great event.” FUTURE GOALS Lippy Lu would love to be in stores in each state where their label artists live so that their communities can rally around and support them. “We have artists in many states, including New York, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Washington, and California. How wonderful would it be if their specific scent was sold in their state?” Partnering with more stores would allow Lippy Lu to sell more products and create even more employment opportunities for disabled people. Lippy Lu is also excited to announce the launch of customer-requested larger bath salts in the beginning of May. Another way they would like to grow and expand is by developing more purposeful partnerships. Currently, they are looking to source all their ingredients from farms run by adults with disabilities. Also, they intend to build and nurture more connections within their own neighborhood in the area around Idaho Falls, ID. Marisa says that if she and Lincoln could start over with Lippy Lu, they would have reached out more deeply within their local community from the beginning. “It has been amazing to meet so many amazing like-minded businesses from our online presence, but having the strong foundation from our home turf would have helped us feel more supported and more a part of the community. We had the idea and just took off without looking around us. Now that we are up and running, it has been nice to start bringing in other adults with disabilities to help in the product creation.” They look forward to growing more of a presence and supporting others in their neighborhood in a more significant way and believe that connection will enrich everyone. “As soon as people understand the purpose behind our products, something changes, and their support is almost immediate. It is beautiful to see the way Lippy Lu products have opened hearts and connected the broader community in such a personal way. The bonus? Our artisans feel seen and valued, and our customers enjoy remarkable one-of-a-kind skincare products that change lives and that they will love. For this reason, I would have started with our local community on a greater scale.” In terms of products, they want to double down on what they already know they do best. “For now, we are going to keep our product line relatively small with an expansive choice of scents. Within the product line, we have bath salts, body scrubs, lip scrubs, lip balms, and matching accessory bags—all made from natural ingredients!” In the future, they would like to provide seasonal scents featuring new LINC-d artists, perhaps chosen through regular art competitions. “Wherever Lippy Lu takes us, Lincoln and I are grateful to be going there together!” Marisa affirms.
Lippy Lu creates their products in small batches so that their artisans can see the entire production cycle from start to finish. Also, this allows artisans to complete projects in small increments with more flexible deadlines and schedules. In addition, customers receive fresher, better-smelling products that have not spent a lot of time sitting on the shelf. The labels for each of Lippy Lu’s 15 different scents were all created by artists on the online art marketplace LINC-d, which specializes in showcasing work from neurodiverse artists. “Each scent has its own art provided by a LINC-d neurodiverse artist—all with varying special needs from Autism to Down syndrome to cerebral palsy, to name a few. In a collaboration with LINC-d artists, we were able to choose from some amazing art. We looked over their art and let the art ‘guide’ us,” says Bentley. Lincoln Bentley is also an artist with work featured on LINC-d and loves to draw animals. Lippy Lu’s vanilla products sport his Rainbow Zebra, a zebra covered in rainbows, which he created for a show at Brooklyn’s Autism Museum. For the other scents, they started with the art first and matched it to a scent. Some pairings were relatively simple. For example, artists Celia Landreth and Jackie Emanuel created lovely paintings of roses and peonies that matched the scents of the corresponding flowers. Other pairings required more thought. “For example, D.J. Svoboda, an accomplished autistic artist out of North Carolina. I looked over his art and let his art guide me. I kept coming back to his ‘Mupperezmo,’ which is part of his Imagaville collection. This character has a long neck holding his head upside down, with the caption, “Look and see things from a different point of view.” I think it makes the perfect art for the Coconut Collection, and D.J. agreed,” says Bentley. The Mint collection’s label comes from Texas LINC-d member Kenny Davis, who is autistic and an abstract artist. “His paintings have a lot of movement and colors. Something about his ‘Deep Blue Stratus’ screamed ‘Mint!;” Stephanie Tacey, an Arizona artist with Down Syndrome, created a colorful piece entitled “Little People” that inspired the Eucalyptus scent label, and the Peach scent’s label came from “Tri-Me,” a painting by Georgia artist Noah Williams, who lives with cerebral palsy. (Marisa admits his location might have inspired the decision as well!)
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