Garland, TX -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/08/2012 -- Bluelips, a company that was founded in 1999 by a cancer patient who was dealing with a grim prognosis of advanced breast cancer, is currently celebrating its fourteenth year in business. The founder of the company, who successfully scared off the grim reaper, is also celebrating 14 years of life and hope.
Toni, the company’s founder, was originally given just two to five years to live. The cancer had spread to her bones, and the outlook for survival was bleak. When Toni read her medical chart, it said “incurable.” Toni was so incensed by this term, she made her doctor change the wording to “incurably alive.”
Incensed by the cavalier and disrespectful way a funeral home pre-need counselor treated her when she met with him to plan her own funeral, Toni decided to start a website that was dedicated to saving lives and changing the way people think about breast cancer, funeral homes, and death.
Every year that Bluelips has been in business, Toni has donated 25 percent of her company’s profits in support of breast cancer research. Today, she remains as passionate as ever about educating people about advanced breast cancer as well as unprofessional funeral home directors.
The Bluelips website, which offers shoppers a wide variety of Day of the Dead merchandise, gothic gifts, flaming skull T Shirts and other morbidly-themed merchandise, combines an incredible array of unique and often thought-provoking items combined with outstanding customer service. The website and its products can best be characterized by their grimly satiric and morbid humor; yet they are also fascinating and educational.
Or, as an article on the website notes, shoppers who visit Bluelips can find “everything from gothic jewelry to chocolate hearts.”
“Experience the very things that define comic incongruity,” the article noted, adding that the website’s mélange of offerings include edible a popular line of mortuary novelty items including delectable chocolate treats shaped in the form of hearts , brains, ears, feet and teeth.
“Now you can eat your way out of a box with our gourmet chocolate coffin bars that melt in your mouth and truly to die for. We put our heart and souls, literally speaking, to come up with a cornucopia of diverse products for every taste bud in taking humor beyond the norm with our collection of infamous creepy skulls collection to century old like antiquity gothic jewelry.”
Using the website to shop is both easy and entertaining—people are welcome to visit the intriguing merchant at any time and browse through the vast selection of items. Helpful category tabs located on the left hand side of the home page make it simple for shoppers to find what they are looking for.
For example, anyone who is fascinated by Gargoyles just needs to click on the word to be brought to a page filled with Gargoyle figures and related merchandise. Those who wish to purchase Egyptian statuary and Anubis collectibles will find plenty of items to choose from that feature the jackal-headed Egyptian God of the dead.
In the 14 years that Toni has owned Bluelips, she and her website have caught the attention of some very notable people. For example, she was asked to appear on the Penn and Teller “Bullshit” show in the United States, and she was also interviewed for the documentary “Flight From Death.” The Bluelips website was also featured in the book “Internet Babylon.”
When she is not busy running her website, Toni spends her time educating others about advanced breast cancer. She also advises people on how they can protect themselves from dishonest funeral directors.
Toni was both thrilled and humbled when she was called “the new Jessica Mitford,” after the author who wrote the jaw-dropping “The American Way of Death” about the funeral industry. As a huge fan of Ms. Mitford’s work, Toni feels that her website honors her work, only in a different way.
“Jessica was my hero growing up. She taught us to stand up for ourselves and to ask questions,” Toni said. “All that I learned from her I have put to use in my everyday life so that I question doctors, lawyers and any professional to whom I am entrusting my well being to.”
About Bluelips
Bluelips was founded in 1999 by a cancer patient who has successfully scared away the grim reaper for now. The company has donated 25 percent of its profits in support of breast cancer research every year in business. The website features a wide variety of morbid gifts and other items. For more information, please visit http://bluelips.com