Has fragrance licencing gone too far? I had to think a bit when I read the article on WWD. It is quite an odd but somewhat interesting spin. It also reminds me of fragrances like Adidas that are a little souless. Are the notes based on the author’s experience? Or on the interpretation of the words by Fresh? Is it an attempt to leverage Julia Roberts as the main character? In any case, the price point is low enough and the packaging similar enough to Fresh look and feel, that it may do well regardless of the unusual association. I am curious to see the online campaign and the actual scents!

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!!

Traditionally cosmetics are rarely discounted on major department stores and specialty stores.  Estee Lauder, Clinique and Lancome may offer free gifts with purchase but brands usually don’t leave additional money on the table. However, I was surprised to find several offers in the Bloomingdale’s catalog I received last week. One side of the catalog was dedicated to beauty and featured several brands with discounted sets. At Bloomingdales.com the bonus offers are even more prominent. Fragrance sets are offering the largest value. For example, Marc Jacobs’s Lola Holiday Gift Set is $70 ($105 value) and Prada L’eau Ambre Set is  $76 ($108 value). 

On the specialty end, similar values are available at both Sephora and Bliss. Sephora has even deeper value offers, with Tarte offering a Crown Jewels Lipgloss Multi-Gift Set for $39 ($165 value). By the way, almost every holiday gift reco comes with an offer. Bliss’ catalog announced "over $450 in savings on these pages" and their website is offering 15% off plus free shipping on all Bliss and Remede purchases (expires today 12/14). Despite the discounts, some gift offers may still be pricey for many shoppers, and therefore there is a risk of alienating them for other goods. Cell phones and other durable goods are priced at similar levels and may steal the beauty industry’s Christmas lunch. If this is proves to be another tough holiday season, many companies will need to rethink their product development, pricing and marketing strategies in order to stay relevant until the economy recovers.

Picture courtesy of Premium Beauty News

Insight by Andrea

Product developers are always asked to look at other industries for inspiration. Most products are a variation sur le même thème presented in stock packaging (mostly because tooling costs are prohibitive for most small and medium companies). So we have mostly relied in larger companies to lead the way in breaking the rules and it seems that L’Oreal is about to change the way foundation (and potentially other make up) will be applied by future generations. We have been painting houses with rollers forever, how didn’t anyone do it before? The new Roll’on Accord Parfait compact foundation is the latest innovation by L’Oreal and Alcan featuring a mini roller of 10 mm. According to Premiumbeautynews.com the roller "can just take the right amount of product and apply it in a perfectly uniform way, creating what specialists call a flawless effect with no overloading." Michel Limongi, creative director for Alcan Packaging Beauty, was the mastermind behind the custom made tool that is a perfect complement to the formula. Below is the ad created for the UK  market (seems to have launched there already) and the behind the scenes version with Eva Longoria and Evangeline Lilly. The product was launched is slated for a global launch but we were unableto locate dates for the US debut.

UK ad:

Behind the Scenes:

Insight by Andrea

Yon Woo is well known in the cosmetics industry for its airless packaging. This year they introduced a new concept of refillable packaging to HBA. Daniel Cha, explained that companies can now offer a high end packaging that can be easily refilled by replacing the inside of the container.  Bottles are easy to open and have a medical look and feel. This is a great option for skincare brands. One may think that high end and refill don’t go together, this is a great alternative for technology driven brands that want to avoid packaging waste.

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

There are lot of deals. But it looks like skincare is the favorite topic. By the way, why isn’t Shiseido making khols anymore?The new images for Maquillage are out. Someone is finding the products expensive. Have you searched for your brand on Twitter? If you don’t use Twitterdeck, just go to search.twitter.com and type any brand to get a feel for what is being said about it in real time. This is a good exercise to do on a regular basis. Even better is to designate someone in the organization to respond and engage with these customers.

• 
  tonyakb: @newspapergal What is a good eye cream? I’ve been using Hope in a Jar or Shiseido but the lines (& baggage) are STILL there, LOL!
  about 1 hour ago from TwitterBerry · Reply · View Tweet ·  Show Conversation

   

• 
  anti_wrinkle: shiseido anti wrinkle
  about 3 hours ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

   

• 
  dealdigs: Hot Deal: Macys Shiseido bonus offer – Free Benefiance Creamy Cleansing Foam Deluxe Sized 30ml sample w.. http://bit.ly/A8j1d (expand)
  about 3 hours ago from twitterfeed · Reply · View Tweet

   

• 
  dealsea: Macys Shiseido bonus offer – Free Benefiance Creamy Cleansing Foam Deluxe Sized 30ml sample with any $50 Shiseid.. http://bit.ly/j1qN4 (expand)
  about 4 hours ago from twitterfeed · Reply · View Tweet

   

• 
  Colonista:RT@/dealsea_fanYahoo::RSS::Type::DateTime=HASH(0xa21ae94)MacysShiseido bonus offer – Free Benefiance Creamy Cle.. http://bit.ly/R7dxX (expand)
  about 4 hours ago from twitterfeed · Reply · View Tweet

   

• 
  dealsea_fan: Macys Shiseido bonus offer – Free Benefiance Creamy Cleansing Foam Del http://bit.ly/ZQeTk (expand) #Beauty_Health
  about 4 hours ago from API · Reply · View Tweet

   

• 
  Hyena: @UNEARTHED btw what is your favorite khol? I used to have Shiseidobut they don’t do it anymore. Make up forever is actually nice
  about 8 hours ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet ·  Show Conversation

   

• 
  richiebella: OMG I live for this shiseido cream e/s GOLDLIGHTS u gtta try it its sooo pretty
  about 10 hours ago from twidroid · Reply · View Tweet

   

• 
  jenison: Shopping. New cloths … Restock on my Shiseido facial lotion. Then going to see district 9
  about 11 hours ago from Tweed · Reply · View Tweet

   

• 
  Click4Beauty: Looking for Shiseido day care products? We have a selection of 39 at www.Click4Beauty.net.
  about 11 hours ago from API · Reply · View Tweet

   

• 
  kamillerose: I really really really want this Shiseido skincare regimen, but I’m not spending $143 on that.
  about 13 hours ago from mobile web · Reply · View Tweet

   

• 
  fujii_itsuki: Juri-chan’s new Shiseido MAQUillAGE images are out! Sexy wet look certainly beats mushroom hair look… http://bit.ly/8g2mJ (expand)
  about 13 hours ago from TwitterFox · Reply · View Tweet

   

• 
  maureeeeen: @nazri610 W.H.Y. Shiseido sounds sexy eh.
  about 14 hours ago from web · Reply · View Tweet ·  Show Conversation

   

• 
  nazri610: Why does the brand ‘Shiseido‘ makes me sad?
  about 14 hours ago from Twitterrific · Reply · View Tweet

   

• 
  graffie_e: Sephora Shiseido Super Sun Set ($75 Value) Customer Ratings…
  about 15 hours ago from API · Reply · View Tweet
   

   

Insight by Andrea

Intrigued by what they called an “artistically and technically new concept” online,  I went to check the new Beiersdorf corporate site. To my surprise the content is amazing and really shows the that they are solid and serious company based on strong R&D and product development. However, I found the navigation challenging and the choice of a large background images very overpowering. They may work for the homepage, but not for the subpages where we are supposed to read the content.

They offer a wealth of information specially images and videos. It is really worth taking a look at their history. The company was founded in 1890 and in 1911 Nivea was born. It was the "first stable skin cream based on a water-in-oil emulsion", using the emulsifying agent Eucerit" (also basis for Eucerin).

The Beiersdorf Classics Cinema presents a great evolution of personal care ads throughout last century, starting in Germany 1920. In addition, their media library has 23 pages of print ads that are worth checking.

Given the incredible revival of brands, and the search for meaning, autenthicity and value, Beiersdorf has a great shot at further establishing itself as a household brand in the US for our generation, as it is already in many global markets.

Do you know what NIVEA means? Snow – derived from the Latin word "nix, nivis".

Excerpt from Happi:

Shared by Leah

As we all know, beauty purchases tend to be one of those "high involvement" categories for most women – it’s as important what you think as what other people are saying about the product.  Thus, the importance of product reviews for the beauty industry.  Bellasugar.com has a section of their website specifically dedicated to product reviews provided by their editors and, more importantly, by their readers.  Additionally, Bellasugar.com has even highlighted for site visitors who are the most active reviewers and who are the most trusted reviewers.  Further, the site has made it easy to search for either a specific product with easy to browse categories or the best and worst reviewed products, and even points out for readers a product review of the day (check out this one on Cetaphil Daily Cleanser).  All this incredible content begs the question – what is the beauty industry, and specifically the beauty companies, doing to engage these active reviewers and to connect with sites like Bellasugar.com?  These product review forums are the perfect venue for companies to engage their stakeholders, broaden a fan base, receive valuable insights (check out the people who slammed the L’Oreal Vive Pro Line, which unfortunately for L’Oreal now appears as one of the worst reviewed products) and get feedback before an expensive product launch.