We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brenda Mierzejewski a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Brenda, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?
Brenda Mierzejewski is the Founder of Mizzi Cosmetics. Over the last several years, Mizzi has developed its imprint as a proudly and positively, women owned and operated manufacturing company, dedicated to the creation of small batch, artisanal, safe, smart, science –driven, and sublime lip care in ever so cool and calm, Connecticut.
Brenda has always focused on sustainably sourced, good for humans and good for the planet creations. Her work has not been the result of pure curiosity alone, but rather, like many other wonderful innovations, arrived out of necessity after her son, Brady’s, birth.
Brady had open heart surgery at 6 months old, and as a result suffered greatly from painful, dry, cracked lips without immediate, safe, or hydrating remedy available. While attending to him during his recovery, she noticed that he could barely open his mouth and was unable to share his adorable baby smile.
After quick and intense research stemming from genuine motherly love and a natural dose of panic, Brenda learned there was no ideal product on the market, safe enough for hydrating a baby’s lips, that didn’t have petroleum as a primary ingredient. Everything, in fact, had a petroleum base. She also knew that if ingested, petroleum could not be safely metabolized and then purged from the body. Luckily, years in pharma and chemistry work enabled her to create a better product for Brady.
She formulated a hand-made lip balm, to aid in his healing journey. LipLuxe, Mizzi’s signature balm’s future name, became the brainchild and beautiful end result of this difficult family experience.
Whether you are a mother to humans, to pets, or to the planet, we see you, because we are you.
And we are committed to the creation of safe, natural, healthy ingredient products, full of hydrating, harmonious antioxidants, that bring your wellness forward and add more joy to your life.
Brenda, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Brenda Mierzejewski is the Founder of Mizzi Cosmetics. Over the last several years, Mizzi has developed its imprint as a proudly and positively, women owned and operated manufacturing company, dedicated to the creation of small batch, artisanal, safe, smart, science –driven, and sublime lip care in ever so cool and calm, Connecticut.
Brenda has always focused on sustainably sourced, good for humans and good for the planet creations. Her work has not been the result of pure curiosity alone, but rather, like many other wonderful innovations, arrived out of necessity after her son, Brady’s, birth.
Brady had open heart surgery at 6 months old, and as a result suffered greatly from painful, dry, cracked lips without immediate, safe, or hydrating remedy available. While attending to him during his recovery, she noticed that he could barely open his mouth and was unable to share his adorable baby smile.
After quick and intense research stemming from genuine motherly love and a natural dose of panic, Brenda learned there was no ideal product on the market, safe enough for hydrating a baby’s lips, that didn’t have petroleum as a primary ingredient. Everything, in fact, had a petroleum base. She also knew that if ingested, petroleum could not be safely metabolized and then purged from the body. Luckily, years in pharma and chemistry work enabled her to create a better product for Brady.
She formulated a hand-made lip balm, to aid in his healing journey. LipLuxe, Mizzi’s signature balm’s future name, became the brainchild and beautiful end result of this difficult family experience.
Whether you are a mother to humans, to pets, or to the planet, we see you, because we are you.
And we are committed to the creation of safe, natural, healthy ingredient products, full of hydrating, harmonious antioxidants, that bring your wellness forward and add more joy to your life.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Covid, 2020
Our business needed to stay alive somehow in this pandemic. Because we have the means to purchase ISP (Alcohol) we pivoted quickly and started to make hand sanitizers before March 13th, 2020. We were producing sanitizers day and night. Local consumers , Fire depts, EMTS, Police and other medical personnel were picking their orders up curb side every single day for several months. We provided 1 ounce up to 1 gallon refills. This opened up doors for future opportunities for Mizzi and we still sell hand sanitizer to this day. We not only were there for our State, but for the entire USA. It makes us feel so proud that we were able to move so quickly to get ahead of what was a trying moment for all americans and companies around the united states.
How’d you meet your business partner?
When my business was first taking off in 2015, I was doing this solely out of my home kitchen and alone. I live in a super small down and word got around fast after my products made it into the Oscar swag bags. A local mother reached out to me to tell me about another local mother who was interested in speaking with me about Mizzi. I blew it off for several weeks because I was so busy with this new business and my kids. I would see this other mother out and about. She was constantly waving at me. At one point I was getting annoyed :) LOL.
I finally decided to meet with her. Her name is Rebecca. She worked for Paul Mitchell for several years which is also the beauty and health industry. I decided to hire her as my sales coordinator. Fast forward 9 years, we are the best of friends, she bought into Mizzi, and is the most successful President of sales at Mizzi and trains all our staff. We are like peas and carrots and I am so grateful our paths have crossed.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mizzicosmetics.com
- Instagram: Mizzicosmetics
- Facebook: mizzicosmetics
- Youtube: mizzicosmetics
Image Credits
Brenda Mierzejewski