Paris Angel Trading Company

Life in the eighteenth century moved as slowly as clouds drifting across the horizon.

Although Joseph knew that the noble ladies of Versailles Palace were scrambling to buy Angel Water, news from the Shop did not reach him until the beautician's assistant brought it back the following evening.

"So they sold a total of 1,460 livres?" Joseph stared at the young man in surprise. "Forty bottles?"

"Yes, Your Highness. Those young ladies and madams were bidding against one another. It was impossible to buy it at the original price. I heard that at the Source of Elegance Shop, their attendants nearly came to blows."

Joseph let out a long sigh. What a miscalculation—he had sold it too cheaply!

It seemed that

his heart was still not black enough...

he still did not understand the weight of noblewomen's purses well enough...

and he still did not trust the Queen's influence in the fashion world enough...

After dwelling on the pain, he resolved to change his ways. Mistakes had to be corrected, and Joseph immediately decided—raise the prices!

Of course, he could not simply slap a high price tag onto the original products. That would make him look far too greedy.

Joseph realized that his previous business plan had been too hasty. It had failed to fully tap Angel Water's commercial value.

He immediately returned to his study and wrote at breakneck speed, filling more than ten pages. After revising them several times, he finally put down his pen in satisfaction.

In the business plan before him, Angel Water from the previous version would be discontinued as a trial product. The official Angel Water would be divided into three grades: luxury edition, deluxe edition, and standard edition.

Segment the market and harvest noblewomen of every spending level!

The standard edition would have the same ingredients and packaging as before, but its volume would be reduced to four ounces and priced at fourteen livres.

The deluxe edition would add some Olive Oil, use heart-shaped Glass bottles, and come in Brass boxes. Four ounces would sell for twenty-six livres.

The luxury edition would build upon the deluxe edition by adding a small amount of lanolin and introducing several fragrances—Lavender, jasmine, and everlasting flower. In truth, it merely used different essential oils, while the bottles would be shaped like the flowers of their respective scents and packaged in pure silver boxes. Four ounces would sell for fifty livres.

In addition, he needed to develop a whole series of Angel Water products.

The first to be developed would be facial masks.

He had seen facial masks from this era. Most were applied directly to the face, while some were mask-like contraptions fastened over it. The disposable cloth masks of later generations, with openings for the eyes, nose, and mouth, had yet to appear.

This thing was extremely simple to make. He only needed to custom-order some face-shaped cloth sheets and soak them in Angel Water without thickening agents.

Seeing the madness Versailles Palace's noblewomen had shown toward beauty products over the past two days, one could foresee that the market for facial masks would certainly not be poor.

Joseph also divided the facial masks into three grades.

The luxury edition would use silk, the deluxe edition wool, and the standard edition cotton cloth. They were disposable products, to be thrown away after one use. They would cost five livres, three livres, and two livres per sheet respectively.

Besides that, the product line would also include hand cream, foot cream, toner...

In truth, it was simply a matter of adjusting the proportions of Glycerin and Salicin in Angel Water, or mixing in more lanolin. Change the packaging and name, and it became another product—just the usual tricks of Cosmetics in later generations.

After expanding the product line, Joseph also redrafted the marketing plan.

Relying on consignment sales definitely would not do. Direct-sales specialty stores were the professional approach.

A VIP membership system would be implemented, divided into gold card members, silver card members, and standard card members. The membership cards for the first two would be made from real gold and silver, with the sense of ceremony filled to the brim. Luxury was the entire point.

Finally, he would allow franchise stores and spread them across all Europe!

Joseph looked at that thick stack of business plans and realized this was no longer something he could pull off alone on a whim. He needed a company, as well as a large number of employees, to support such an enormous operation.

He immediately summoned all his attendants and began assigning them tasks.

The accountant would lead people to purchase raw materials such as Glycerin, as well as order bottles and outer packaging. This time, they would also sign long-term contracts with suppliers to ensure a stable supply of goods.

The beautician would lead several Maids in handling the bottling of Angel Water. For the time being, they would release two hundred bottles onto the market each day, then increase production after the specialty stores were ready.

The lawyer, meanwhile, would register a company in Joseph's name.

At this point, Joseph, who struggled terribly with naming things, paused again. After thinking for a long while, he felt the company should emphasize its connection to Angel Water. Thus, its final name was Paris Angel Trading Company.

As for the company premises, recruitment, management, employees, and such matters, he was not worried.

All the bottles and packaging used for Cosmetics were custom-made by Shops in Paris. Raw materials like Glycerin and essential oils could be bought anywhere on the market. France Angel Company was actually only responsible for the final steps of bottling, packaging, and sales.

Those jobs required no particular expertise, so workers would be easy to hire. As for managers and salespeople, Paris, one of Europe's most commercially developed cities, had such talent in abundance.

Besides, most of the Crown Prince's personal attendants were idle. If they truly ran short of people, they could temporarily fill the gaps.

The only core technology behind all the products—Salicin—was firmly held in Joseph's hands. Even Lamarck did not know that what he was processing for the Crown Prince was actually a Cosmetics ingredient.

So even if every person they hired betrayed them, they would still be unable to replicate even a single drop of Angel Water.

After arranging the work, Joseph became idle again. Seeing that it was still early, he had Eman prepare the carriage and made a trip to Paris, intending to personally choose a location for the specialty store.

The carriage jolted along for several hours. Just after noon, it entered Paris proper.

Eman suddenly pointed out the carriage window. "Your Highness, your Perfume Workshop—oh, it has now been changed into a Pharmaceutical Workshop—is right over there."

Sure enough, Joseph saw a sizable courtyard in the distance, pressed against a tributary of the Seine River. On the eastern side of the courtyard stood an enormous Waterwheel, turning slowly.

He said to Eman, "Come on, let's take a look."

"Yes, Your Highness."

The courtyard was very large. It contained more than ten rooms of varying sizes, as well as an open area larger than two basketball courts.

Seeing Joseph's party's bearing and attire, the gatekeeper did not dare stop them. Instead, he eagerly led them into the courtyard.

Before long, Lamarck came out to greet them, wrapped in an apron. He bowed to Joseph and said, "Your Highness, what brings you here?"

Joseph returned the greeting with a smile. "I want to open a Shop in Paris, so I stopped by to see you on the way."

"Thank you for your concern, Your Highness," Lamarck said. "As it happens, I have something I wished to discuss with you as well."

"Oh? What is it? Please, go ahead."

Lamarck raised a hand toward the workshop. "There used to be more than forty workers here, but refining Salicin simply does not require so many people. Do you think we should dismiss them, or have some of them continue making perfume?"

Having more people is a good thing! Joseph immediately instructed, "Neither dismiss them nor make perfume. Purchase more equipment and continue expanding Salicin production. Then they will have work to do."

His goal was to turn Paris Angel into a Luxury Goods Empire sold across all Europe and entering the Americas. The demand for its core raw material would undoubtedly be an enormous number.