2018 Year in Review

Our little company has gone through a lot of changes this year. Each year we like to review some of those changes. There's no real reason for it. It's fun for us, and if you're a follower of ours, then maybe it's fun for you, too.

Changes

The two biggest, most obvious changes we underwent this year were our website and our name. We adopted a new name - now MONSTER, dropping the "Beard" from the old name - and designed a new site around it.

The reason for the name change has a lot to do with some of the stuff below; we are offering more than just beard products now, so "Beard Monster" ran the risk of being a tad misleading as a name. We also had as our URL MonsterBeardCare.com, so a lot of people already thought we were called Monster (or some thought Monster Beard Care). So given that some people thought we were called Monster, and we no longer needed the "beard" part, we just started going by that.

The new URL and website layout came along with the change. A new face for a new name. And given that we are offering more than beard items, we needed "beard" gone from the URL, too.

So, given that our expanding line-up is the reason for a lot of the changes we've made, let's talk about that.

New Non-Beard Stuff

Lotion: Dr. Frankenstein's Flesh Revival Cream was the first non-beard product we offered. For the most part we already had the ingredients we needed for this from our other products, so it was easy to throw together. It's been a big hit - we sell a lot of them, and next year we will probably expand into some new fragrances.

Blood Bath Body Wash: I've always had an issue with body washes. They are either so drying for my skin that they are effectively like washing with cheap shampoo, or they are so moisturizing that when I'm done washing I still feel like I have it on me. So I came up with a formula that would get you clean and hydrate your skin without leaving that thick film on you. It's awesome. I honestly use it every day myself.

Rigor Mortis Pomade: Our first foray into hair care, this is a simple styling cream that will give a pretty solid hold. I have a long hair undercut style, and I use it to help keep that mane over to one side. I'm pretty proud of how it works, and that we can get the job done with a minimum of ingredients, non of which are silicates, parabens, or any of that other carcinogenic stuff. We don't shy away from chemicals (we do not fear science here!) but some of the stuff used in commercial products is dangerous, you know?

Dr. Jekyll's 2-in-1: I thought we'd offer a hair shampoo that conditions, too. Save some money (buy one product instead of two) and save some time. To be honest, the reviews have been mixed. It works great, but a lot of people do prefer to have two products. So next year, we may be breaking it up into two different products (and with each having fewer ingredients, the price should be lower, too). 

That's been it so far for our non-beard stuff. We have a TON more coming next year, some of which will be discussed in a few.

New Beard Stuff

Black Metal Beard Wash: This year we overhauled our beard wash by adding activated charcoal powder. If I'm being totally honest, this idea came around initially because I just wanted it to be black. But when looking for a good way to color it, I read about how great charcoal is for cleaning, and realized that would be a perfect way to go.

Blood Dragon Conditioner: While it's not a new product, we offered a beard conditioner for two years before I finally offered a second fragrance. We make the conditioner in larger batches than the wash (it's more complex, so we prefer to make a lot at once), so offering tons of fragrances has just been a little beyond our production capabilities thus far. But I figured one more couldn't hurt. Too much. DO YOU LIKE IT?!?!

Jack the Ripper: Cthulu was a great fragrance, but it just never really caught on. It was a very base-note scent, with nothing really popping at the top. I think that's probably why. But I don't know. Either way, we replaced it with Jack the Ripper. It's lavender and vanilla, which aren't really considered super masculine fragrances. But I read about a study that showed these were the two scents that men preferred in blind tests. And I certainly like them together. And hey, so do you - cause it's been our best seller since we introduced it in August.

Stickers: We started offering some stickers as well, after getting a daily e-mail from one customer or another asking if we'd ever do it. If a lot of people want something, it's just bad business not to get it for them.

Coming Soon

We intend to start out 2019 with a blitz of new offering. I've been spending any spare time I have over the last couple weeks working on them, and I'm nearly ready to unveil them. But as a little sneak peek:

• New Mustache Wax Formula
• Solid Cologne
• Hair Shampoo & Conditioner
• Bar Soap
• Something for the ladies . . . ?

Stay tuned, jump on our e-mail list if you're not there yet, or find us on Facebook to stay up to date on when these new items start to drop.

Thanks for a great year you guys! Hope we keep seeing you for many years to come.