The Rocket

Issue date: 9/30/05 Section: Life

Media Credit: PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY NATHAN COLLINS/PHOTOS COURTESY OF WWW.SPICEOFLIFEPARTIES.COM Two Spice Of Life party-goers enjoy their time riding a mechanical bull.

After a long night's work, there is nothing Dawn Rust likes to do more than finally get off her feet and enjoy a relaxing peaceful evening at her house. On this particular night, her clothes are encrusted with the smell of smoke, a small price she had to pay in order to make ends meet.

"Tonight, I was at a party hosted by the Y103 radio station," Rust said. "I made about $700 at the party. There was a lot of smoking but it was such a good time."

Before you get any wrong ideas wondering exactly how she made the money, let it be known that Rust is the owner and founder of Spice of Life Parties, a company that specializes in tasteful in-home girls' night parties.

"When I started this business, I wanted to create something in life that would be well-received by women like me," Rust said. "We have fun, but not like the other 'wild thing' companies."

Rust described her parties as "a fun night with the ladies," talking, laughing and giggling with a sense of camaraderie among each other. Rust believes her parties are more tasteful and classy than parties hosted by other companies.

"We are reaching out to the girl next door," Rust said. "The type of girl who has a boyfriend and wants to spice things up with him."

Rust offers customers a variety of sex-enhancing products, such as flavored creams and lotions, sparkly glitter and an assortment of massagers. The No. 1 best-seller is a peppermint patty Pleasure Cream that costs $12. According to the Web site's description, "(the cream) enhances your sensation on 'muffin' and the 'little man on the boat', lubricates like silk and makes you taste delicious!"

Some of the massagers include a little fellow named Life Saver, priced at $15, which the Web site advertises as the "best value for vibration." Another massager is nicknamed Bob.

"It stands for 'battery operated boyfriend,'" Rust said

There are also sample packs available for $20, in which the customer selects four different products out of a variety of creams and lotions.

While the company receives a lot of re-orders from customers online, Rust said the strength of the company is not the Internet business, but the parties.

"We always have a good time," she said. "We spend two to three hours talking and sharing with each other."

Unfortunately, guys, these parties are strictly for the ladies.

"We don't do parties for guys," Rust said. "It's not so much that we don't want them there, it's just that they send the party right into the gutter. I mean, when we pull out all the glitters and sprays, the guys don't want to see that. They are always like, 'I want to see the vibrators!' They think it's all one big orgy."

Rust said the parties are nothing like that at all.

"We're the nice girl sex toy company," she said. "If girls just wanted product, they could go to their local porn store. But it's not about the product. It's about an evening with the girls."

Rust employs between 30 to 70 part-time and full-time representatives, who host parties in Ohio, Erie and Pittsburgh. Part-time representatives do about two parties a month, while full-timers do about 12 a month.

Rust, who formed the business 12 years ago, is a former graduate of Slippery Rock University and said a class at SRU helped her develop the idea for Spice of Life Parties.

"I had a class called human sexuality," she said. "It was my first real experience with anything like that. I come from a very conservative background and didn't even get my ears pierced until I was 35! The class was so educational and I learned so much from it. The atmosphere was non-threatening and I thought it would be cool to re-create something like that."

The parties are free to host and women can register online at http://www.spiceoflifeparties.com.

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