> "But I was getting such good feedback that people loved it & were gonna buy it"

Welcome to creating your own business/project 101. Never trust feedback from friends, or basically anyone not handing you money or committing their own time to it.

This is the first hard lesson you learn and probably the most important one.

Also the fact she "flew out" a photographer and makeup artist was a questionable business choice for something that could have been tested for free, considering her apparent reach. Either way even bad press like this is good for business.