Since the store opened in 1999, Brooklynites
– and an ever-growing number of celebrities – have flocked to
the Carol’s Daughter boutique in Fort Greene for its all-natural,
hand crafted body-care products.
Now, with the release of her courageous, tell-all memoir, "Success
Never Smelled So Sweet: How I Followed My Nose and Found My Passion,"
Price is offering her fans something even more fulfilling – a
recipe for some peace of mind.
In the book, Price tells of the heartbreaking obstacles – some
she put up and others she encountered – which she has had to
surmount in order to turn an in-home hobby into a multi-million
dollar business.
She recalls growing up in Bedford-Stuyvesant in the 1960s inside
the warm, loving cocoon of her extended Trinidadian family; her
joining a cult where she was married in a group ceremony with
many other couples; her subsequent divorce; and leaving a life
of austerity to become a vocalist in the music group Fedora,
where she ran in the same nightclub circles as Prince and Eddie
Murphy before being betrayed by the band’s manager.
But still, she persevered.
"I’ve long-stopped feeling angry," she told GO Brooklyn
of the incident with the manager of the all-girl band. "I
let go of the negativity and I wouldn’t have met my husband [Gordon
Price] if I didn’t go through that experience."
For someone so successful, Price’s book, surprisingly, often
focuses on the slumps in her life – obesity, abortion, bankruptcy,
miscarriage and the death of her mother (her company’s namesake,
Carol Frances Hutson) on Valentine’s Day 2003 – rather than her
triumphs.
"I feel like I made myself less vulnerable because I didn’t
hide anything. I told it, and I told it the way I wanted to tell
it. So many different events contribute to the person that I
am now," she said. "I’m hoping other people that go
through traumatic experiences or can’t seem to get over an event
will say, ’If she can get over that, then I can get over this
thing that happened to me.’"
Price, 42, modeled "Success," in part, on the combination
of the magical and the practical she enjoyed in Laura Esquivel’s
recipe-structured novel "Like Water for Chocolate."
For each heart-wrenching revelation, she includes a recipe for
the soul; she reveals how to make her nurturing lotions at home
and even suggests mystical healing rituals.
In many ways her story is like a chat with a close girlfriend,
who literally tells you everything, and you’re grateful to read
it because it seems that no one ever talks about these important
social issues.
Price, who co-wrote the book with author Hilary Beard, said she
elaborated on the passages she wrote about her abortion at the
urging of her editor.
"So many people have been in that situation with a friend
or they go through it themselves," said Price. "The
editor wanted me to be honest and describe it – and the miscarriage
– in more detail and it was difficult."
"I didn’t ever want to say [abortion] should be illegal,
but there were so many people in that clinic that shouldn’t have
been there. One was having her fourth abortion!" recalled
Price. "I knew I would never be there again. There’s a part
of anti-abortion activism that you understand – this is a little
out of control. You don’t want to say take choice away, but at
the same time, OK, come on, wake up. Don’t do this to your body.
I was much more careful after that, and I never wanted to be
in that situation again."
In 2002, Carol’s Daughter products, all created by Price in her
kitchen, generated $2.25 million in sales, Price said, thanks
in part to endorsements by some high-profile clients.
Oprah Winfrey has touted her foot cream on air; actress Kim Fields,
the cover girl on a recent Carol’s Daughter catalogue, enjoys
the rose and pear scented products; and Jada Pinkett Smith buys
the Mango Body Butter and Lisa’s Hair Elixir, said Price.
But while her famous clientele don’t hurt sales, Price, now the
mother of two sons – Ennis, 6, and Forrest, 8 – revealed that
her financial boon was in part due to overcoming her own fears
and insecurities.
"I’ve met people that never get past ’it.’ But you have
to forgive yourself," she said. "I met someone a couple
of weeks ago who left her job and looked at it as a failure because
she quit. I told her, ’You hated that job and it made you feel
sick, so why would quitting be bad?’ Even if there was weakness
involved, and you could have stuck it out, you have to let it
go and forgive yourself. You were weak once. Forgive yourself
and you’ll succeed again and be stronger."
Lisa Price will give a talk and book-signing
of "Success Never Smelled So Sweet" (One World/Ballantine
Books, $24.95) at Carol’s Daughter [1 South Elliot Place at DeKalb
Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 596-1862] on May 18 from 2 pm to
4 pm. The store will offer 20 percent off Price’s favorite products
on May 18. For more information, log onto www.carolsdaughter.com.
