Karen Rabinovitz, creatrix of Purple Lab NY debuted her line on HSN last Thursday, Feb 18th with 5 new products. Last December, she shared the news with her Huffington Post readers:

"I have the biggest news of a lifetime … HSN! HSN! HSN! Purple Lab and I are coming to HSN! The dream! I cannot even begin to explain the excitement I have and appreciation for this – to be touching something I have prayed for, went into debt for, and worked to the bone for is just such a gift."

Purple Lab NY is a mirror image of Karens’ amazing personality, drive and passion for beauty, fashion and empowering women. I’ve been following her pretty much since  their launch last May and it is amazing what she has accomplished in such a small period of time. A lot of her success, I believe, comes from her use of social media in a fantastic way to share her experiences while inviting people to participate in her journey – very open, honest and inclusive. The debut at HSN was fully supported by her community: from the model that joined her on-air (came from a model search with 2,500 entries) to the 25 HSN blogger parties hosted across the country and Temptalia’s support backstage (one of the most influential bloggers in the beauty industry). Purple Lab NY is a brand to watch and follow. A breath of fresh air in our industry. Mwah to Karen and team! 

Read more about the launch on HSN:

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As part of our Beauty Series of Interviews, launched during Social Media Week NY (February 2010), we interviewed Ron Robinson, industry veteran and founder of BeautyStat – a highly targeted expert driven community that connects women around beauty. He shared with us his inspiration to start his community, how he came up with his tagline "Beauty of Facts not Fiction", how brands can listen to consumer conversations and involve them on their product development process. He also touched on trends for the future, the power of social media, the role of the beauty blogging community and BeautyStat VIP Blogger program and much more. Check out the video on YouTube: Part 1 and Part 2. Enjoy!

I recently made a great discovery on Twitter. I met Cheri, a self proclaimed "Beauty Junkie, Mineral Makeup Maestra, Mompreneur" and founder of Orglamix. She is a living proof that there is still room for innovation in the industry, offering high quality products, great value, developed with passion and customers in mind. (Launched July 2009 and received so far 1649 positive reviews on Etsy.com)

Cheri caught my attention because I noticed that she was inviting her over 5000 Twitter followers to suggest names for her upcoming fragrance on Facebook. I Twitted her that I was curious about her mass collaboration (crowdsourcing) efforts and I supposed she was intrigued by the terminology I used and responded almost immediately…and the rest is history. We had a great chat right before Christmas and talked about her passion for the industry, starting her business on Etsy.com, mixing colors, figuring out social media, working from her attic while being a mom, and plans for the future. It was so inspiring and exciting that I thought it was a great way to start the decade.

Why did you chose to start with Etsy.com? I wanted a place to start fast and easy. I was using Etsy as a test platform. I’ve been there for over 5 months now and it has been great (there were a little over 1500 positive reviews by December 23rd, so she got another 100 over the holiday season). However, I can only stay there as long as I make the products myself. I will launch my own website Q1 2010 as it will facilitate sales and enable me to sell other products that are not handcrafted.

What is our background? I’ve been in the industry since 1990. I had a local spa in the Chicago area, worked as a consultant and launched other brands. I launched a website in 1995 introducing global niche beauty brands in the US. Soon it became a platform for brands to enter the market, but once they got some traction, they would find bigger distribution and leave my site.

How did you start your own brand? My passion has always been mineral pigments. I started with mixing and matching pigments then came up with Orglamix earlier this year out of my attic and selling small batches on Etsy.com (they would sell out within a week). Up until a month ago, when I opened up a few wholesale accounts.

How do you plan to grow the business given the great success so far? I am looking into expanding my distribution while trying to focus in one niche at the time. I currently have 3 suppliers of mineral pigments and just hired an organic chemist to help me. Soon I will have to work with a lab.

What are in your products? We use as little ingredients as possible for best impact.  Our shades are a combination of pigments. Some minerals have iridescence and some shades are more reflective. The bigger the micron, they reflect more light.  We never go over 10 ingredients to stay as natural and pure as possible.

How can you sell your products for so low? I started packing 1 gram (105 applications) of eye shadow in a 5 gr jar, and then based on customer feedback (people wanted to use their brush in the jar, but it didn’t fit) I am moving to 2gr in a 8gr but only increasing the price by $1. Also, now that my quantities are higher, I am buying packaging in bulk and at half price. So the difference in packaging is being given in product. For example, we have doubled what Baressentials sells for a quarter of the price.

How big is your range? When I started Orglamix, I launched 36 shades and today we have close to 125 in the core eye collection. Our top three shades, since launch, are Teak, Obsidian, and Wasabi and combined they generate 25% of our eye shadow business.

Tell me about the fragrance. I worked on a fragrance for Orglamix. All of our orders ship with rose petals. So we sprinkled the fragrance on the petals and that is how we sampled the fragrance. Then I asked on Facebook what ingredients fans thought were in the fragrance plus suggestions for names in exchange for a givaway. I got a lot good ideas on how to name it, but nothing that resonates yet. Fragrance is very personal. I am looking for something that can resonate with everyone. The one thing that connects us all, is color, so the first scent is going to be named after a color. First fragrance launches February 1st.

Why do you think people like Orglamix so much? My photographs capture people. They start reading and for the price they are willing to try. If you look at my backend, people start with one product, usually an eye shadow. The next order is between 3 – 5 products. 

Who is your customer? Women 25 – 40, active and busy moms who want to put something natural in their bodies without having buyers remorse. I want them to think Orglamix is the best buy ever.

How do you promote Orglamix? I monitor conversations and respond. Blog reviews and contests, I already received 75 blog posts. I usually give products for review and ask that they run a promotion for their readers, BOGO (buy one get one free), PIF. 

What is PIF? Pay it forward is a way to give make up to people who can’t afford to pay, but that are willing to pay it with community work. Over 125 people have participated by volunteering at cancer wards, animal shelters, etc.

Have you broken even yet? Yes! After 3 months. But I reinvest all the money back into Orglamix.

What are the trends in make up? The market is shifting, is going very minimal. Slowly back to a mineral sheer tint. Five years from now we are going to be more skincare benefits oriented with a focus on anti-aging.

I think I’ve seen some brands making skincare claims? Yes, however it hasn’t exploded yet. But it will…

Where do you want to be next Christmas? I had so much fun this year!! I want to launch 12 new products and get into some good niche beauty boutiques. In 2-3 years I want to have my own stand-alone stores. I will go wherever they wanna take me!!

Beauty Stat, an online beauty community destination, introduced this week the “first-of-its-kind”  Facebook application. The brainchild of industry veteran and visionary Ron Robinson, Beauty Stat is an innovative, non-biased, highly targeted expert driven community that connects women around beauty. Facebook provides them with a familiar environment to share, discuss, and engage in conversations about skin, make up, haircare, etc. The great insight for brands is the introduction of the concept of social product development. Beauty Stat offers a targeted forum for beauty companies to listen to customers talking about their brands and the opportunity to engage the network to output better, co-created products. Let’s hope companies get out of their comfort zone and try it out. I am already a fan (become a fan).

1. Did you first launch a regular website then moved to a facebook app? I remember back in January/Feb signing up to Beautystat.com. Yes, I moved to a Facebook app because I saw a huge opportunity given Facebook’s tremendous growth.

2. Why did you decide to make the change? Was it a planned evolution? Yes, this was a planned evolution.  Facebook has nearly 350 million members worldwide.  More than half of those members are women. Facebook is an amazing platform that allows people to connect and share information with each other.  My vision for Beauty Stat is to allow women to connect and share information about beauty.  Facebook was a natural fit given our shared vision.

3. As the first app of its kind, how do you see Beauty Stat changing the face of beauty/cosmetics industry? Beauty Stat will have an effect on both consumers and brands. Consumers are overwhelmed and confused given the number of beauty products out on the market today. And they are skeptical about some of the strong claims being made as well.  Consumers are turning to each other for recommendations and testimonials before making a product purchase. Beauty Stat facilitates that communication on a much bigger scale. Brands are taking notice of this change in consumers and Beauty Stat allows companies to "listen" in on these conversations among consumers as well as expose their products in a zero bias environment.

4. How did you build your network of experts? How do they contribute? We look for experts who are willing to help educate our members. Those that are willing to give objective, expert advice.  Zero bias and no hard sell are part of the core values of Beauty Stat. We have a few more big name beauty experts that will be joining our roster soon as well.

5. Who helped you design the app? We created a partnership with a company called DotBox. They are a digital agency and marketing firm whose clients include Harry Winston, Henri Bendel and Cole Haan.

6. What are the main ways people can participate/be part of the community? Aside from exchanging advice with other members, the feature that members are really excited about is the ability to connect with one of our beauty experts. Members can email them questions directly as well as have live chats with our beauty experts. Soon we will be offering this service through live video streams as well.  

7. What is your business model? We provide beauty manufacturers with the ability to test new product concepts and advertising with consumers of different demographics and shopping habits.  We give consumers the ability to have a say in the new products that will be coming out and brands can use their feedback to make better products.

8. How can brands be part of Beauty Stat? Will they send you products for review? Brands can also sponsor product giveaways.  My expert beauty team reviews these products first and then we send them to our members to get their feedback.

9. You already got a nice following (in how many days did you get to over 500 fans)? We are really excited about the response since we just launched this week. 

10. Additional coverage:

Celebrity Hairstylist – Sally Hershberger, launching Luxe Layers exclusive on HSN

Insight by Andrea

Sally Hershberger, is not only an ubber celebrity hairstylist known for creating the famous Meg Ryan’s signature shag in 1995, co-creating John Frieda’s Sheer Blonde product collection and charging $800 for a haircut. Besides a talent for shaggy, natural hair with movement, she actually has a great personality, is very low-key and most importantly offers professional grade products at affordable prices, very in-line with what old masters have done (Vidal Sasson, Charles Worthington, and John Frieda) And great for times when people are watching their wallet. Products are available at Walgreens, Target, ULTA Beauty, Shopper’s Drugmart. On September 8th, Sally’s range will debut at HSN with the Luxe Layers Blow Out Gel, "for an everyday, salon-perfect blow dry at home".

Sally demo the product to a group of beauty bloggers at an exclusive blogger event at her stylish Downtown New York salon yesterday. Sally and her team talked about products and she even styled a few lucky bloggers and showed how to create a great within a few minutes (I even got my hair snipped by her to finish the look – very cool!). 

Besides doing celebrity hair, she has launched the Shagg denim line, been a judge at Shear Genius, launched a haircare line, started Tweeting, reaching out to bloggers, Facebook fans and  the community (Girl Scouts), and next week she will be touching millions on HSN. What is next for Sally? If she continues to innovate and engage with her audience I believe she will become one of the first female household names in the haircare industry. 

Insight by Andrea

I really enjoyed watching The September Issue. It is a great documentary. Well written, shot and edited. Anna Wintour is featured as much more human than I expected. Plus it really makes a hero out of Grace Coddington, the creative director who started her career at American Vogue at the same time as Anna Wintour (about 20 years ago). The movie clearly features the passion and obsession for fashion that drives Vogue, but I was surprised to see how little interest Anna showed at the beauty editor’s story for the most important issue of the year. It was probably a few seconds of the movie and it seemed totally disconnected from the rest of the stories. Granted the hair/make up/nail statements are made automatically through the photo shoots, but my feeling is that from an editorial standpoint it is included as a by the way, to perhaps please advertisers, but not to feature products in the same way as fashion pieces. Most brands spend thousands in PR agencies to be featured in Vogue, so they can tell their retailers about it. I suggest that this money is repurposed into better products and more innovative campaigns that truly engage with customers instead of focusing on a little mention lost in a thick glossy that will probably be missed by most readers.  

Insight by Leah

Lancome is again releasing The Pout a Porter lipstick – the brand has in the past teamed up with rising designers to create a lipstick that reflects their own personal style signature.  In the past, Lancome has teamed up with Behnaz Sarafpour, Proenza Schouler, Peter Som and Thakoon, much to the delight of both the brand’s and designer’s fans.  Lancome is now working with Chris Benz on a new lipstick that will be featured on all the models in his September 2009 runway show – but this time, the beauty brand reached out to consumers to help name the lipstick.  The contest was open to anyone, and Lancome and Chris Benz accepted submissions on the Chris Benz Facebook page and received over 1,000 entries.  This is an excellent example (and initial first step for Lancome) of engaging stakeholders – no doubt both Lancome fans and Chris Benz fans will feel a connection to the lipstick, and Lancome is banking on this collaboration with its consumers to drive sales of the latest Pout a Porter release.  As well, using the Facebook fan page provides an easy venue for Lancome to communicate with a younger, diverse audience than may typically purchase some its products.  All in all, a great first step for Lancome in opening up the process.  It will be interesting to see if more companies (and Lancome) continue to engage consumers in additional product development steps – brand stakeholders (and that includes everyone from company employees to consumers) are invaluable resources for feedback on everything from packaging to ingredients to advertisements, and more companies would be wise to engage them before product releases.

Excerpt from Second City Style Blog:

Big news! The Pout a Porter lipstick series by Lancome is back! The skincare and cosmetics brand has already teamed up four times with some of the most influential emerging designers to create a lipstick that embodies their particular style. The previous four lipsticks in this collection were collaborations with designers Behnaz Sarafpour, Proenza Schouler, Peter Som, and Thakoon. So far the limited edition lipsticks have been a huge success with all four selling out quickly once they hit stores. One Proenza Pink lipstick even sold for $122 on eBay!

Link to blog post

Link to Chris Benz Facebook Fan Page

Shared by Leah

For those of you who live and breathe make-up and social media as we do here at TheNhuch.com, Lauren Luke is dream-come-true success story.  A little background on Luke – she first began selling make-up brushes, eyeshadows and more on eBay, and soon found that she was bombarded with questions about use and application tips from her customers.  Since make-up is one of those "easier to show you than tell you" products, Luke began creating make-up tutorials on YouTube, and soon became an overnight sensation.  Luke’s video tutorial on singer Leona Lewis’ green, heavily lined cat eyes from Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” video is considered Luke’s breakthrough video – it alone has almost 3 million views.  As well, she has launched her own make-up line, By Lauren Luke, that is available on her own website, and will soon be available through Sephora.com and in Sephora’s new flagship store in Times Square.  Affirming how important social media has been for her, Luke admits that she was initially contacted by her make-up line partners through Facebook.  Perhaps most importantly, Luke continually interacts with her stakeholders – fans, consumers, and business partners – by responding to comments, emails, inquiries and feedback.  As she states "That’s the good thing about it (YouTube) — people can tell me what they want and I’ll see if it’s doable."  For Lauren Luke, having these interactions is her way of giving back.  For us at TheNhuch.com, it’s a perfect, winning example of mass collaboration.

Lauren Luke YouTube Channel

Lauren Luke Facebook page

Lauren Luke on Twitter

Shared by Andrea

In light of potential regulation by the FTC on bloggers, Total Beauty Media CEO Emrah Kovacoglu wrote an article that was distributed on their June newsletter called: “Beauty brands should not be working with bloggers…directly, anyway”.  The article created a massive reaction in the beauty blogging community as he made some strong statements about bloggers receiving incentives from companies, not following journalistic standards, and their fear of producing bad reviews. After carefully reading it twice my take was that he was mainly using the FTC news to make a case for the Total Beauty Sneak Peek program in which they act as a middle man playing a buffering role in the community. The beauty of the very dynamic blogging community is their freedom to pick and choose what they want to review and how they want to review it. Readers are savvy and the best blogs will be the most successful. It is not the role of Total Beauty Media to determine what standards they should follow and help enforce it. There is space for beauty blog directories and aggregation online, but not for creating a force that will help ‘control’ them…glossies operate in controlled environments, not blogs.

Reaction from Bloggers (First published on Bionic-Beauty.com):

• Bionic Beauty – Total Beauty’s Blog Blunder
• Robyn from Purely Cosmetics – Blogger Product Review Uproar
• Carleen from Beauty and Fashion Tech – Responding to Total Beauty’s Suggestion that PR Should Not Work Directly With Bloggers
• Beauty Junkie London – TB Gate: Beauty Blogging Uproar
• British Beauty Blogger – Say What, Mr. CEO?
• Gloss Menagerie – Total Beauty’s Drama Llama Extravaganza
• Casual Lavish – TotalBeauty.com CEO Knocks Down Bloggers
• The Nail Phile – Total Beauty Media’s CEO Turns On Us
• Beauty School – Brands Should Not Be Working with Bloggers
• Beauty in the Bag – Blogola Schmogola
• Advice Sisters – Bloggers Under Attack

Response from Total Beauty Media CEO: Emrah Kovacoglu – CEO Total Beauty Media posted a 8.27 minute video responding to what he called a: “dialog generated from the CEO’s Outlook in the June issue of Total Beauty Insider”. The video was seen 252 times and no comments were posted.

Insight by Leah

A recent interview with Stila’s new CEO, Lynn Tilton, revealed some interesting plans to broaden the appeal of the brand.  Tilton mentioned that she plans to reduce the brand’s dependence on "middlemen" and reach out to consumers directly through channels including HSN, QVC, infomercials and online.  As well, Tilton revealed that she plans to launch a "a new mass line, called Simply Stila," and that this line will retail for $7.99.  These are big plans and big changes for Stila, which had previously enjoyed a unique cult following, particularly among make-up artists.  However, as with many brands in this economy, Stila had recently suffered poor sales and declining market share prior to the private equity bailout by Tilton’s firm, Patriarch.  Tilton is taking an interesting and increasingly popular approach by focusing on channels like HSN and QVC, and by combining TV spots and infomercials with online awareness.  This novel approach will allow Stila to become more accessible to customers that previously may not have bought Stila products either due to limited purchasing outlets and/or price points   As well, Tilton mentioned that Stila would be working with some well-known make-up artists to further build both professional and consumer appeal for the brand. There is definitely  an opportunity for Stila to leverage its cult following similar to how Harley Davidson did in the 1980’s, and expand to a larger consumer base. It will be interesting to see how Stila’s foray into mass retail and various sales channels play out.

Read the complete interview here on Butterfly Diary blog.