A softer landing for the night with Vahe Haroutounian and Edgar Babayan

The messages arrive late, often after lights out. A woman writes that she has not needed to wash her hair as often. Another says her morning creases fade faster now. For Vahe Haroutounian and Edgar Babayan, those small notes became the compass for Blissy, a silk sleep brand built one pillowcase at a time.

When we see responses from customers, the note that comes up first is hair. Less washing, less frizz, less morning repair work. That is how Vahe Haroutounian and Edgar Babayan learned what Blissy was really for. Not a grand sleep system. A softer place to land each night.

Blissy began in 2019 with a simple irritation. Mornings brought frizzy hair, creased cheeks and skin that felt dry by first light. The founders, both skilled in digital commerce, looked at the silk pillowcase market and found it thin and uneven. They thought they could do better with dense 22-momme mulberry silk at a price an ordinary gift budget could hold.

What followed was fast and plain. A white pillowcase in queen and king went live in May 2019. The first month brought 20,000 dollars in sales. By the end of that year the total had passed eight figures. Retail followed in 2020, with space at Macys and Nordstrom and operations opening in Europe.

What we noticed, reading the brief with the lamp still on, is how steady the idea has stayed. Stay off Amazon. Hold the quality. Let customers tell the story in their own words. Better nights, clearer days, one smooth surface at a time.

Thank you for sitting down with us. Your site says Blissy started with the question of why sleep has to be so hard on hair and skin. What did those first bad mornings look like in your own homes, and why did silk feel like the honest answer?

Thank you for having us. For us it was very ordinary. You wake up, your hair is tangled on one side, your cheek has a line from the pillow, your skin feels tight and dry. We had too many mornings like that, and we started asking why the hours we spend sleeping should undo the care we take during the day.

We tried it ourselves. We gave it to friends and relatives, and everyone was blown away. That gave us confidence. Cotton can grip and drink. It pulls moisture from skin and hair and creates friction while you turn. Silk felt different right away. It lets hair slide instead of snag. It feels cool and dry against the face. We went looking for the highest grade, clinically tested mulberry silk we could find, because if we were going to ask people to change something so intimate as a pillowcase, it had to feel better on night one.

When we see responses from customers, the No. 1 benefit they see is with their hair. They haven’t had to wash it as much as before. That line comes up again and again. What do you hear in those letters, and what does less washing mean for a real evening routine?

We hear relief, mostly. A woman will tell us she used to plan her wash days around frizz. Now she can go longer between washes. Her curls hold. Her blowout lasts. She spends less time with heat in the morning, which matters for hair over time.

When we see responses from customers, the No. 1 benefit they see is with their hair. They haven’t had to wash it as much as before. For the hour before bed, that changes the tone. You do not need a long reset. You brush gently, you turn down the bed, you sleep on a surface that does not rough things up. It may help some people keep styles calmer through the night. We never promise perfect hair. We just hear, night after night, that mornings take less fixing.

The second benefit people name is skin. You have quoted customers who deal with breakouts and rosacea and say the pillowcase helps. How do you talk about that carefully, without promising what silk alone cannot do?

The second benefit they see most is with their skin. People that would get breakouts and rosacea are benefitting from our pillowcase a lot. We share those words because they are real customer words, but we are careful with them.

Here is how we say it in our own voice. Silk is smooth and low absorbent, so it may help skin feel less dragged and less dried out by morning. It is described as hypoallergenic and non irritating, which matters if your skin reacts easily. It keeps more of your night cream where you put it, on your face, rather than in the fabric. That is a comfort story, not a treatment story. If you have a skin condition, your clinician guides care. We offer a cleaner, softer surface to rest on for eight hours. For many, that small change shows in the mirror at first light.

You chose 22-momme mulberry silk and held that line while others cut corners. For someone shopping on the phone in bed, what does momme actually mean and why does it matter for feel and wear?

Momme is simply weight. It tells you how dense the silk is. Ours is 22-momme 100 percent mulberry silk. That density is why it feels substantial but still light, smooth but not slippery in a cheap way.

When other people try to copy us, they aren’t able to copy the quality. We say that because we have watched it happen. Lower momme can feel thin and wear faster. Blends can look shiny in photos and feel rough in person. We would rather sell high quality 22-momme silk at a reasonable price than sell subpar silk cheap. You feel it when you slide your hand across the case, and you feel it again after many washes when the fabric still holds.

You have said someone spends about 80 dollars and gets something memorable that changes daily life. How do you think about price when silk is costly and many shoppers are wary of wellness markups?

It provides a lot of value. Somebody is spending about $80, and getting something that’s memorable and that’s going to change their life. That remains how we think, even as colors and prints have grown.

A pillowcase is used every night, close to your face, for years if cared for well. We wanted the price to sit where a gift feels possible and a self purchase feels fair. High grade silk costs more to source and sew well. We try to keep the rest simple, sell direct from our site and in trusted retail, and put the money into cloth rather than into noise. If you try it and your mornings feel easier, the cost per night becomes very small.

Once you try it, you never go back. We hear from people all the time that they can’t sleep on anything else.

Vahe Haroutounian and Edgar Babayan

May 2019 to eight figures by December is unusually fast. You went live with white in queen and king, did 20,000 dollars in the first month, then arrived at Nordstrom and Macys in 2020. What do you remember about keeping up?

We remember the warehouse feeling very quiet at the wrong times. The warehouse is going to be completely empty. That was not a slogan. It was inventory reality. Sales have gone through the roof, and we were learning in public.

We went live on our website with a white pillowcase in queen and king sizes. One color, two sizes, one promise. That focus helped. Then demand taught us what to make next. More colors, more prints, bonnets, sleep masks. In 2020 we launched at Macys, Nordstrom Rack and Nordstrom, heading toward around 200 Nordstrom locations, and we set up operations in Europe to grow internationally. We were skilled in digital commerce, but silk taught us patience. You cannot rush weaving, cutting and sewing if you want seams that stay smooth.

Your advertising leans on many versions of the same story for different audiences, from women 45 and older to younger buyers in their late 30s. What did you learn about talking to a broad audience without shouting?

Targeted means we market the product to a really broad audience, but we have many versions of the videos and other creative assets we’ve produced. That sentence still describes our approach.

An older customer may care most about creases and dryness. A younger customer may care most about frizz and breakouts. A gift buyer cares about the unboxing. So we make many small, honest versions rather than one loud claim. Real bedrooms, real hair, real morning light. We show the fabric close up. We let customers speak. Experience Pure Bliss sounds soft, but the work behind it is practical. Test the light, shorten the sentence, show the zipper, show the wash bag. Let the night do the rest.

You refuse Amazon and refuse subpar silk, and you say you prefer customer stories to miracles in a jar or bottle. Why do those refusals matter for trust at bedtime?

Because the nightstand is personal. You turn off the lamp and trust what is near your face. We want to get it to a point where, when you hear the name Blissy, you automatically associate it with a blissful feeling. That only works if quality holds.

We would rather stay off of Amazon than sell alongside subpar silk pillowcases. On a marketplace, a shopper cannot feel weight or weave, and price can hide thin cloth. We would rather educate consumers with personal customer stories than rely on unproven miracles in a jar or bottle. Once you try it, you never go back. We hear from people all the time that they can’t sleep on anything else. That loyalty comes from touch, wash after wash, not from a bold promise.

The weighted Zebra mask is silk over the eyes with gentle pressure to block light. How does it fit with the pillowcase for people who wake easily or share a room with glow from screens?

Think of it as the second hush. The pillowcase softens touch. The mask softens light. Ours uses a 22-momme 100 percent mulberry silk shell with a weighted design that blocks light with gentle pressure. You wear it over the eyes at night to block light and rest.

We never shame anyone for a screen in bed. Many of us answer one last message with the lamp still on. The mask helps when a partner reads late or the hallway glows. It may help some people settle more easily because the room feels darker and the lids feel held. Keep the fit easy, not tight. If pressure bothers your eyes, loosen it or skip it. Comfort leads.

Your products are Oeko-Tex certified through Hohenstein as safe and non-toxic. What does that label check, and what should a careful shopper still ask about any silk they bring home?

Certification checks the finished textile for substances of concern at set limits. Blissy products are certified by Oeko-Tex through Hohenstein Laboratories, a label for tested safe and non-toxic textiles. For us it is a baseline, not a boast.

A careful shopper can still ask three plain questions. Is it 100 percent mulberry silk and what momme. How should I wash it so it lasts. What is the return path if my skin dislikes it. Ask how the zipper or envelope closes, since a rough edge can undo the point of smooth silk. Then notice the first week. Less tugging at the cheek. Less static in the hair. A case that still looks calm after washing. That is Leading The Silk Revolution in daily form.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with us is the modesty of the claim. No new habit to master, no score to chase, just a surface that treats hair and skin more gently while you rest. The founders speak like merchants who still read the mail, counting washes saved and creases softened rather than hours optimized.

Blissy set out to make sleep less hard on hair and skin with dense, tested mulberry silk at a fair price. In a crowded nightstand market, that plain purpose feels restful on its own. We leave the lamp on a little longer for it.

Product spotlight

Pillowcase - Mystic Blue Eye, 105.95 dollars, Standard size. Woven from 100 percent pure mulberry silk, it is made to keep skin clear feeling and hair frizz free while you sleep. Sleep on it nightly in place of cotton, with hair down or loosely gathered.

Sleep Mask - Zebra - Weighted, 65.95 dollars, one size with weighted design. Crafted from 22-momme 100 percent mulberry silk, it blocks light with gentle pressure to support rest. Wear over eyes at lights out, loosened to comfort, and store flat.