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According to WWD, Burberry plans to get colorful come July.
"Luxury shame" is hindering the luxury market's recovery? The Cut explains.
She Is French discusses why all men aren't equal.Should you throw out your AHAs? Allure investigates.
Watch out Sephora, Duane Reade wants a piece of the pie.
A few cookies a day to keep the pounds away? The New York Times reports on a delicious new diet.
It's common knowledge that Condé Nast has been making considerable cutbacks to cope with the current economic climate, but today's announcement of the departure of iconic Vogue contributor Candy Pratts Price officially marks the end of an editorial era.
In addition to numerous layoffs at Glamour, the top tier is expected to reduce expenses by a whopping 25%. Which, for those of us who've worked there, seems like a daunting task... To say the least.
According to a recent University of California study, the future of cosmetics lies in a combination of iron oxide particles, microscopic polymer beads, and magnetic fields.
Confused? So was I. But it's actually quite simple.
Basically, a reaction caused in the first two elements by a switch in magnetic fields could soon allow us to turn colored pigments on and off at will.
So, for example, a universal shade of nail polish is one product that's likely to become a reality. Imagine a formulation that would transform, say, from a sheer white to a rich shade of navy in an instant. One manicure for day, another for night. All without a drop of remover. How brilliant would that be?
Beauty and fashion retailers have been hit hard this past year, and the major chains are no exception. As many cut back on costs and others pass out pink slips, some businesses are choosing to explore alternative survival strategies.
Henri Bendel, for instance, is doing away with clothes altogether. It's quite a surprising revelation from the famed NYC department store— especially as it follows a recent announcement of their plans to expand nationwide.
Bendel's focus is said to remain on niche luxury goods, limited now to beauty products and fashion accessories, with an emphasis placed on private label goods
(of course).
Newly appointed CEO Lynn Tilton let it slip/strategically mentioned that Stila plans to launch a sister brand, Simply Stila, at the recent Makeup Show in NYC.
A no-frills version of the original, this line hopes to reach a broader audience through lower price points and mass distribution.
The first time Stila changed hands was back in 1999, when founder Jeanine Lobell sold her then 5-year-old company to Estee Lauder. Then in 2006, the brand's assets were acquired by Sun Capital Partners (a private investment firm). Now, just three years later, Stila has been transferred again— this time to the portfolio of Patriarch Partners, a New York-based venture capitol firm.
So why is such a high profile brand being passed around like a hot potato?
Unlike previous periods of economic hardship, it seems that women are no longer turning to cosmetics for comfort. And when/if we do, we're polarizing towards classic beauty brands or affordable drugstore offerings. So niche companies like Stila are quickly becoming a liability to own... Sad, but true.
Click here to learn more about Stila's acquisition from WWD.
It was only a matter of time until Dolce & Gabbana joined their competitors in the prestige beauty business. Under the direction of legendary makeup artist Pat McGrath, the duo will be launching a full range of cosmetics for Spring '09.
“We see makeup as another thing for women, like a dress. We worked on the makeup line like we work on a clothing collection — you can change makeup like you can change your clothes, depending on your mood," says Stefano Gabbana.
As for the products, the packaging will be gold (a la YSL, Chanel...), the shades bold and bright, and the lipsticks scented with a hint of rose. “We wanted to create makeup with a scent. Domenico and I remember when we were children and opened our mother’s handbags — the scent of her lipstick trailed out. I observed that when women open makeup, they smell it first.”
Expect to see the premiere collection of D&G Cosmetics in stores as early as next month.
If the latest innovations in mascara and faux cils haven't satisfied your lash-lengthening needs, the FDA has just approved the first-ever medical growth treatment for at-home use.
"LATISSE fulfills a significant and previously unmet need in
the medical aesthetic marketplace with a product approved by the FDA
that increases the growth of eyelashes, making them longer, thicker and
darker," said Scott Whitcup, M.D., Allergan's Executive Vice President
of Research and Development. "As the global
leader in medical
aesthetics, LATISSE exemplifies our continuing commitment to
developing innovative treatments that are studied in well-controlled
clinical trials, manufactured to pharmaceutical standards, appropriately
labeled for use, and available to consumers as a prescription product."
Available only through a doctor, LATISSE is a once-daily prescription treatment applied to the base of the upper eyelashes with a sterile, single-use-per-eye disposable applicator. Users can expect to experience longer, fuller and darker eyelashes in as little as eight weeks, with full results in 16 weeks. To maintain effect, continued treatment with LATISSE is required. If use of LATISSE is discontinued, eyelashes will gradually return to where they were prior to treatment over a period of weeks to months (average eyelash hair cycle).
Based on their recent FDA approval, Allergan expects to launch the product nationwide in Spring 2009.
For additional information visit Latisse.com.
Exciting news!
A recent interview I'd done with Natasha Singer, a lovely editor at the NY Times, has been included in her latest piece entitled 'En Garde! The Great Mascara Duel'.
From today's Style Section:
CALL it the Battle of the Battery-Operated Mascaras.
On July 17, Estée Lauder introduced TurboLash, a mascara with a battery-operated vibrating brush, at Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The night before, the company’s Web site, esteelauder.com/turbolash, sold out of its stock of about 1,000 mascaras, said Elana Drell Szyfer, the senior vice president for marketing at Estée Lauder.
On July 31, Lancôme, which had been scheduled to trot out its own battery-powered wand in November, fired back with a one-day advance sale of the mascara, called Ôscillation, in a handful of stores nationwide.
By the end of the day, more than 5,000 mascaras had sold out at outlets like Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan, Neiman Marcus in Houston and sephora.com, said Kerry Diamond, the vice president for communications at Lancôme USA.
Both companies said the purpose of an electronic mascara wand is to better separate and more evenly coat lashes than a traditional brush would.
Estée Lauder said TurboLash, $30, produces 7,500 vibrations per minute.
Lancôme said Ôscillation, $34, produces 7,000 “micro-oscillations,” or pulses, per minute.
“It has been a question of who would get to market fastest,” said Karen Young, the chief executive of the Young Group, a beauty marketing firm in Manhattan, who has worked at both companies. “It is the mascara wars.”
The battle is so intense that manufacturers are borrowing the promotional weaponry of cellphone companies. They compete over technological iterations, stoke expectations by favoring certain bloggers with advance information, and tightly control initial distribution so that people who pride themselves as being early adopters can buy the product first. Beautymaverick.com, a blog written by a former cosmetics publicist, referred to the Lancôme mascara as “possibly the iPhone 3G of the beauty realm.”
“If you miss the boat, you are unable to be one of the people who have the It product, who are in the know,” Lily Nima, who started the blog 18 months ago, said last week in a phone interview.
“If a mass-market brand were to put a vibrating mascara on the shelf, it would look more like a novelty you would expect a drugstore to do,” she said. “The limited edition at the beginning makes it cooler, unattainable and more glamorous.”
A mass-market wand has been on the shelves at stores like Target and CVS since March. Called Spinlash (spinlash.com), the battery-powered gizmo costs about $14.99; more than 100,000 have been sold, a company spokeswoman said.
But, whatever the price, will women embrace a device that requires greater meticulousness to use than a manually operated mascara, and which emits a hum as annoying as a vibrating cellphone?
Beauty companies are positioning the power mascara and the power-free mascara as the difference between automatic and stick-shift.
But even beauty bloggers predict the electric mascara may find only a niche audience.
“An electric battery-operated mascara can be a tricky thing to apply in the back of a cab or on the go,” Ms. Nima said. “The beauty junkies may take to it, but the average beauty consumers may have a harder time with it.”
Still, Jennifer Nobriga of Woodbridge, Va., one of a pair of self-described average beauty consumers and stay-at-home moms behind the blog Beauty in Real Life (beautyinreallife.blogspot.com), said she had already tested Spinlash and was eager to try its higher-end competitors.
“Once we get our own hands on them,” she said, “we are going to be doing a comparison.”
TurboLash is available at Saks; Lauder is working seven days a week to produce more, Ms. Szyfer said. For those who must have Ôscillation, there’s a waiting list at Lancôme counters.
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