I started my bath game Journey around May 2017 when I discovered lush. I remember my brother gave me a $200 gift card to lush for Christmas... annnd I ended up spending $378 on like 6 items ha-ha I mean, it was a little more (I guess 🙄)!
I thought to myself, “I’m crafty AF I can make these! So, I did… And it was probably the worst bath bomb I’ve ever experienced to date! it was oily, and I almost died getting out of the tub and the water was NOT BLACK!!
Which I wanted. 
However, my obsession with self-care only fueled my learning, leading me to creating the perfect bath bomb recipe.
I remember searching for spooky packaging and thinking to myself,”Why TF am I not making the bombs spooky?” My love for horror, Halloween and all things spooky has been deep rooted since the earliest I can remember and being an October baby only made it that much more extreme lol.
That’s when Sweet Shop of Horrors was conceived. I initially wanted it to be a spooky bath bomb bakery type shop. 
But it just grew really fast into more crazy bombs as my ideas spiraled outta control.
I was sitting on my couch one September day, and I kept getting orders every couple minutes. Until everything was gone! (Granted I had like 8 products and also making to order with customizable scents hahahaha. WHO TF WAS I?! 🙄Iykyk) I remember thinking, wtffff is going on? Is this a scam? One of my followers sent me a video on Instagram saying, “I saw this on Facebook.” and I remember thinking, “oh great it’s gonna be a bad review.” or something bad!!! (I’m always prepared for the worst ok!) Well, it wasn’t! it was a little compilation video a company made and shared, of all my customers unboxing and demos of my products! When I first saw it, it was at 75k views and I was like, “Holy Shit balls I’m famous!” 😂😂 (I think the video tapped out at over 5 MILLION VIEWS!!!) But everything is sold out what do I do? One of my fellow horror bombers was like, “Bitch, you better do pre orders!! Don’t lose that money!” So, I put up a pre order. Those sold out! I put up another one. Those sold out! Another one and those sold out!!! Within the Hour!!! Next thing I knew I had over 3000 orders to fulfill! And it’s not like one order was one bath bomb! I didn’t even own a mixer or know I needed one. I did it all by hand, baby!
I was waking up with my hands completely numb and had MULTIPLE breakdowns on the floor crying saying, “I can’t do this, and I have to send everyone their money back!” I knew I needed help BAD but I’m not good at asking for help. I had Rue Morgue Magazine reach out and ask to interview me along with pophorror.com
Sweet Shop Of Horrors Archives - Rue Morgue (rue-morgue.com)
WiHM 2018-Interview with Talia Jenà, Owner of Sweet Shop of Horrors - PopHorror
I had People asking me to be at their CONS and fly me out to be on their paranormal TV shows! It was insane!!
I pulled myself together and with blood sweat and tears (literally) I got every single one of those orders out by mid-October (1 month from going viral)! I look back and I have no idea how I did it and with no help!
Finally, I had time to relax and buy a mixer ha-ha and right when I thought I could relax… another video went viral 😱 and I ended up back in the same situation only this time I had it a little easier Because had a mixer! Kitchen aid saved my carpal tunnel and my business, man! *eligible for commissions* 😂
**Side note** (It might sound like I’m complaining or bragging even. But I promise I’m not! I was very very grateful and excited but I didn’t know 2 shits about running a business! I had NO IDEA wtf I was doing!)
I went viral a couple more times but it was nothing like the first time (it never is 😉) and a little bit more manageable.
My dream of running my own business was coming together beautifully, I had learned SOOOOOOO MUCH by trial and error… I had everything I wanted in terms of where I wanted to take this newfound fame 😂
I've always harbored grand visions (and I still do) of crafting an entirely new perspective where Horror intersects with Self-Care. When it all came to a screeching halt!
My partner and I split (That’s another deeeeep story time 😅)
I had to pack everything into storage and close up shop effectively immediately!
Shit got rouuugh! When your whole world flips upside down you start to forget your own name and shit! I spiraled into a major depression. Not only did I lose my 8-year relationship in some ratchet scenario, I lost my house, my shop I worked soooo hard to build, my friends.. shit, I even think my brother and I stopped talking for a while.
I was living in friends' spare bedrooms with my cat and working shit jobs that I hated again. But I eventually got back on my feet (thanks to my true friends), met a fancy doctor and right when I was ready to bring my business back… I got pregnant! And wouldn’t you know he was born on EFFing Halloween!!! It was perfect! (Not for opening my shop though lol)
I’m now in a place where I have the room and my child is old enough to not need my constant attention. I mean he’s 3 so he still does! But he’s in his “Mr. Independent stage.”
So here I am! Back with a little rebranding and a mindset of no matter what I’m not giving Up. I have big goals with all intentions of meeting them!
Growing your page just isn’t the same anymore since everyone and their 4th removed cousin is a “content creator”. Now instead of making products, as if that’s not hard/time consuming enough… I have to:
have content to post every single day
post reels
TikTok’s
carousels
stories
run ads
be a marketer
be a digital graphic artist
a clothing store
a web developer
a shipping warehouse
a video editor
engagement
Have excellent customer service and make sure to include SEO, keywords, trending Songs, blogs… just to get 4 likes. Bro what!?!? All while training a 3-year-old dragon, keeping my home looking like it’s not a homeless camp and have a EFing smile on my face while I do it? This shit needs to change! There seems to be no more organic growth or engagement anymore! Unless my vag lips are out, or someone wants to argue, no one is gonna see you in the world of social media. Running your own business is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do (now more than ever) and no one seems to realize what happens behind the scenes just to make things run smoothly. Just when you think you got a handle on it you get bitch slapped right back into submission. You have to be truly EFFing sure that this is what you want, because it’s not for the EFFing weak!!! Maybe I’m a masochist, who knows…