Behind-the-Scenes: Purple Lab Debuts on HSN

Temptalia was invited by Purple Lab and its founder, Karen Robinovitz, to come to their launch on HSN on Thursday, February 18th. Purple Lab showed five times on HSN, and the first one was an 9am show-time, but the big show was on at 8pm. I was there for both! This is an exclusive, inside look at not only how Purple Lab’s show came together, but the process itself and how things run at HSN.

It was a very interesting and educational experience, because there really is so much that goes behind-the-scenes to put together a brand’s launch on HSN. I asked how many people it took to go from the ground and up with Purple Lab, and it was estimated to be at least 100. It takes 100 people’s hands to get a show on the air and ready to go live! I think that’s just one of those, “Whoa!” moments, because as a regular viewer, I wouldn’t have even thought about that many people having to be involved to get it from the concept to finished product.

Karen is passionate about the products she creates and totally in love with her line, so it was an absolutely incredible experience to watch someone’s dreams all come true. She said to me and others on set that she didn’t want to create a product unless it was better than the one she was currently using. Karen wants all products to be “double duty beauty,” which means they’re multi-tasking products that aren’t just color, but are color and contain ingredients helpful to the skin. She’s definitely a strong, confident woman who’s going after what she wants, and she’s been able to realize her dream of being on HSN!

Purple Lab debuted on HSN to launch five new products alongside their first product, Huge Lips, Skinny Hips. The range now includes Cheek Implants (cream blush available in two shades), Lashionista Modelista (tubing mascara/liquid liner), Silk Sheets (foundation, available in four shades), Luvah (lipstick/lipgloss duo), and Luxury Squared (concealer/highlighter).

Check out the behind-the-scenes action!

The Purple Lab set! It wasn’t quite done at this point — they were still doing some of the finishing touches like painting on Wednesday.

See, there’s someone painting!

I like pink, so I dug the set concept. The left side is where the host and guest (that would be the brand, and in this case, Karen); the right side is the “model station,” where they have live models for before and afters (aka B&As).

Karen and her ever-supportive hubby, Todd. They’re totally love-dovey! If I didn’t have my own honey bunches at home, I’d be jealous.

Arrival at Bob Circosta Communications, Inc.! Karen was set to be trained for her HSN debut by Bob & Chelsea.

Chelsea Scott doing a practice run with Karen while at Bob Circosta Communications, Inc. Karen had a three hour training session with Chelsea and Bob to go over how to be yourself, stay calm, and talk about your products in a way that works. Bob Circosta is known for being “The Billion Dollar Man,” because he’s had individual product sales in excess of $1B since becoming television’s first home shopping host.

Chelsea talks to Karen with some last minute advice, before they do a mock trial of how it’ll go on launch day. They record her so they can play it back–both so she can see what she’s doing and saying, but so they can offer advice and critique.

Karen, Bob Circosta, & Me!

Karen’s 6″ heels. I lasted three hours in some kitten heels, while she was rocking these sky high heels all freakin’ day.  I’m still paying for those three hours!

Lighting above the set…

Set on launch day.

Soon, it begins soon!

Live models getting their makeup done and having fun in the green room.

Loved that there was a variety in skin tones and ages in the live models.

Getting the mic on Karen…

Chelsea giving Karen some last minute advice and a pep talk before she goes on.

Getting the Skype session up and running…

Look at how many people are on set… and this is like, with ten minutes until it goes live.

This is the control room… where it all happens. This is the hub, the epicenter! Shot taken about fifteen minutes before the 8pm show.