What Should I Do

[P&V]

For the last 8 months I have been working on tweaking a tried and true diaper rash formula. And I do mean tried and true. It will clear up a diaper rash within no more than 4 days, usually 2 to 3. It doesn't contain any drugs and is so much easier than the usual methods. My tweaking is only to make it more appealing to the general public. By no means is this formula perfected yet (testing & preservation need to be checked) & I won't go anywhere with it until it is.

I'm usually pretty good at thinking outside the box but my brain is shot. I have researched, read, re-read and researched some more. I have overdosed on so much information that I just can't think.

So someone, anyone, everyone, please tell me what you think.

1. Should I patent? What would this do for me? I could do a provisional patent at first to keep costs down so this would not be a financial issue.
   
2. How can I market it so it's legal without jumping through all of the "OTC drug hoops"? They don't really seem to approve too much in the way of this kind of treatment. However, it could still be an option if the cost was low.
   
3. Does anyone know what the proper wording would be such as "not fda approved" or whatever. I looked but couldn't retain any info. I told you my brain is shot.
   
4. I live in Florida, to have an internet based bath & body business do I really have to go through all of the b&b "bs" that we have here (we have to register every product and pay for every product). I want to do it but would prefer to postpone the expense until I make sure that the market loves my products.

Okay so this was my brain dump...... Sorry if I rambled. Input Please. I'm stumped!

[LaurieF]

As far as the patent, I think it would be a waste of money. All somebody has to do is change one little thing and they are not infringing on your patent. I don't know about the FDA thing but go into a health food store and check out labeling on just about anything. There is so much that is not FDA approved. I'm gonna pm ya on a private subject.

[LaurieF]

Well I guess I can't pm ya....was wondering if you ever heard of a product called Calmoseptine? It is basically a cream for skin irritations for "delicate areas" and medical type wound irritations. It has very basic ingrediants but not sure which one would be the preservative. But this product is the only thing out there that helps my "medical condition."

[P&V]

I checked out the ing's on the Calmoseptine and a preservative didn't jump out at me. After giving it some thought though I think maybe the menthol and the baking soda could help aid in preservation. They do have a few ing's I'm not familiar with though and couldn't find the right info on them.

I still need to do more research. It seems like the more I do the more questions I end up with. Did I mention I've been at this for *8* months. I must be crazy but I just really believe in this product and I really enjoy every aspect of formulating and learning about the best ingredients, what they do & how they do it. I have an entire list of things to do but at the rate I'm going, I may be dead before I get anywhere close.

[LaurieF]

And you have to figure out your market and how to get it to them. Your biggest market of course would be in the baby aisle. Where do you plan on marketing this? Again, depending on the ingrediants and their affect, you could market to a very large market of people who need this for medicinal purposes. Might want to keep that in mind when labeling it. So not to limit yourself to just diaper rash.

[P&V]

I'm doing this in addition to bath & body. I will have a complete line of products marketed to women in their 20's to 40's, teens to come later (for my daughter, 13).

This particular formula can actually serve to be either A) single multipurpose product or several different products. This stuff is great for rashes, sunburn & ant bites. My MIL used it on her hives and she says it worked when nothing else helped. If I do A I'm stumped on packaging it, if I do B it costs more to package.

I live in Florida so I can market it at the beaches for the sunburn. Other than that all I can do is a web page, word of mouth and free samples.

I can't do the baby isle because I'm not in the position to do the whole upc code thing. I've chose not to finance any of this so it's all out of pocket. Occ. licence, insurance, incorporation, web site, packaging, supplies, samples and the list goes on and on. Which, by the way, I haven't even began to touch on all of that because I'm still formulating.

Then I'm still undecided on whether or not people care about parabens from preservatives in their products. I didn't, then I read up on it and now I don't know. Then I think, I don't want to put anything in a product for a baby or anyone for that matter, that could be bad. So again still more market/medical research.

What's your opinion?

[so-soy]

Do YOU believe in the product? (Its obvious you do) Do YOU believe it will sell? Will the average income people be able to afford it for their babies? I used CRISCO for diaper rash...least expensive and worked better than anything else I ever tried...no need for anything else! But that is my opinion. Can you market it to higher end baby boutiques instead of trying mainstream? Might find more money in that area. If its something you feel passionate about, then go for it!

[P&V]

Yuck to the Crisco. This is a spray, I hated having that crap on my fingers and this has anti-bacterial and anti-inflamitory properties among other things. But yah, if I had to choose between Crisco & oitment, I'd go with Crisco too.

Beleive it or not you just put me back on track. Thanks, I better go write this down before I forget again.

[MissMary]

I'm with ya so-soy! My stepmother, after complaining about how much A&D cost (other diaper rash creams weren't as good and were just as costly), told me that her grandmother used to brag about using lard on her dad's booty. I tried Crisco and his rash was cleared the next morning!

I then used it on his chapped face from a cold, less than 24 hours it was gone.

Also, I'm not sure on this, but it's something to check into, if you are selling it as an ointment type, you might need to make sure you list all ingredients. Don't quote me, but it's a thought I had, it could be worth checking into.