OPRAH GOES ORGANIC.

During her 25-year talk show run,Oprah Winfrey had 283 “favorite things”: products she handed out in her annual audience scream-a-thon each holiday season. Her carefully chosen gifts ranged from favorite books and CDs to BlackBerrys (de rigeur at the time) to, famously, shiny new cars for all 275 hyperventilating audience members.

Some of the nascent products she promoted became instant bestsellers, like shapewear brand Spanx, in its first year of production when Winfrey held a pair of footless pantyhose aloft in front of millions of viewers. Spanx founder (and now, like Winfrey, a billionaire) Sara Blakely’s website crashed with the immediate influx of buyers.

Winfrey also chose favorite foods and beauty products, like Fat Witch Brownies and Carol’s Daughter makeup. Both companies reported huge surges in interest. Patricia Helding of Fat Witch told ABC News that her phone didn’t stop ringing for six months. Lisa Price, founder of Carol’s Daughter, said her site “went from four visitors to 17,000 within 10 seconds.”

So, Winfrey can sell other people’s products. But what about her own?

On Monday, the New York Post unearthed a handful of applications to the US Patent and Trademark Organization for Oprah-branded organic food and health products. A search of the office’s records shows seven in total under the names “Oprah’s Organics”, “Oprah’s Harvest” and “Oprah’s Farm”. Among the products Winfrey looks set to make, taken straight from the filings:

Food:

Organic salad dressing; organic sauces; organic beverages; Frozen organic vegetables; organic soups; organic snack dips. Food, beverages, agricultural and catering services.

Beauty products:

Bar soaps; bath and shower gels; bath oils; bath salts; bubble bath; massage oils; non-medicated skin care preparations for the face and body, namely, cleansers, toners, moisturizers, creams, lotions, oils, scrubs and masks; lip balms; sunscreens; eye creams; hand lotions; hand creams; hair care preparations, namely shampoos, conditioners, hair sprays, hair gels, hair mousse and hair oils.

The official line from Winfrey’s spokesperson is that these trademarks “were filed for Oprah’s farm on Maui to enable the farm to grow and distribute produce on Maui and throughout the Hawaiian Island.”  The talk show queen, worth $2.7 billion, indeed started buying up land in Hawaii a decade ago and co-owns parcels of land in Hana with one-time personal trainer Bob Greene. It seems unlikely, though, that someone with Winfrey’s reach and influence would go to the effort of filing extensive trademarks only to confine her new organic food business to Hawaii.

Still, if Winfrey does end up taking her food and beauty line national, she’s chosen the right time. “Organic is the hottest growth segment in the supermarket industry,” said Robert Vosburgh, responsible for all things health-related at Supermarket News, including natural, gluten-free and non-GMO food. “The market is still growing at around 10% a year so there’s room for new products in all categories.”

Absolutely boundless, i'm moving on too.
One love.