HELLOOOOOO LADIESSSSSS!

I’m so happy to be back with my journaling. I do have one announcement to make: from now on, I’ll only be putting out one journal entry per month. I’ve often felt that it was getting cumbersome to do two separate journal entries, especially since so much of what I experience and talk about is related to both businesses. So here we go, one journal at a time.

Did you have a great summer? I can't be the only one who feels like summer flew by (again and again). We were away almost every weekend! I barely enjoyed my backyard at home. Every year, it's the same story. I'm going to try to enjoy it a little more this fall, especially since the nice weather tends to last longer now.

Summer is often a quieter time to move forward on new projects. With many businesses closing for vacation time, it's sometimes difficult to maintain a steady pace. Internally, we've experienced a lot of changes. At first, change like this is always really demanding. It comes with its fair share of questioning, but as I’ve already learned and am fully experiencing: expanding is NEVER easy. Sometimes you have to make some difficult decisions, and honestly, it's not something I naturally gravitate toward. For a long time, I tended to avoid important decisions or confrontations. If you know the colours associated with human behavior, I'm green and yellow!

At school recently, a coach told us this phrase: "Without change, there is no innovation." On paper, it seems simple... but in reality, it's a whole different story. It's far from easy to apply on a daily basis. In fact, one of the most beautiful things I've learned thanks to school is that by sharing what you're going through with other entrepreneurs, you realize that you're really far from being alone in going through those experiences. We often feel like what we're experiencing is unique, that our own mountain is too big to climb; it seems almost insurmountable. But the more we talk with others, the more we understand that there are many of us facing the same challenges, the same doubts. And that's both reassuring and encouraging.

The end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026 will be full of challenges and new things, and I'm truly grateful for that. I'm looking forward to the coming months—trying new things, working differently, getting to know new people who are joining the company, evolving in new markets (hello, Womance boutique in Trois-Rivières!), creating ever more beautiful collections with the purchasing team, and discovering new ways of doing things with Sans-Façon. We've also launched new product bundles at Sans-Façon. The idea is to allow new customers to discover the brand through formats designed like discovery boxes. We are now offering bundles for skincare and cosmetics, and others for hair care. It's a great opportunity for everyone to try - or repurchase - products at a reduced price.

SOOOOOO! I went to my first cosmetics and skincare conference in Las Vegas! (Vivaaaaa Las Vegas, a really hot city in the middle of July). It was a conference focused on developing new contacts for product manufacturing. For our part, we mainly discovered new suppliers for packaging - jars, boxes, etc. To be honest, I was really stressed before going. The event was a good investment, and I was afraid it wouldn't meet our expectations at all. But in the end, I was pleasantly surprised! I brought Matt with me since I've been to orthopedic conferences with him so often, so it was his turn to accompany me. I often find my English to be really ordinary, and I was afraid of being misunderstood. It really took me out of my comfort zone. It seems I was really good at it (Matt may just be telling me this because he loves me, but I think I did pretty well). A great first experience!

Every return from summer vacation brings a very different energy from the rest of the year. Nothing like the Christmas break, where we often come back tired... and a little too full of pie. The return to work after summer awakens a new motivation, a fresh energy, tinged with lightness and a very special creative impulse. I'm really excited about everything that's coming!

- Andréanne Marquis, founder of Sans-Façon Cosmétiques