Category: Beauty

Australian Beauty

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After our articles on Asian beauty and Canadian Beauty, here’s an article from The Age (Australia) about Australian niche beauty brands, including Aesop, Bloom, Natio, Mecca Cosmetica, Li’Tya, Mor, Glamourflage, and Red Tea Natural Skin Therapy:

Lifting the lidThere’s a lot more to make-up than meets the eye, writes Melinda Houston.

The article also mentions that Poppy King, who had the eponymous lip color line Poppy and later joined Prescriptives, has a new venture Lipstick Queen.

And let’s not forget about Becca, Sue Devitt Studio, and Di Kennedy Studio Colour! Are there any that I missed?

Ojon Restorative Hair Treatment

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Ojon says that its Restorative Hair Treatment can be used leave-in conditioner, shine enhancer, and moisturizer. I like to use to get rid of flyaways and to groom my eyebrows (I then apply a dark eyeshadow like Sonia Kashuk’s eyeshadow in Night or ModelCo ColourBox Eye Shadow Ibiza 13 on my brows).

You can feel good about using Ojon, because Ojon has created thousands of jobs for indigenous people who harvest palm nut oil from the Ojon tree, which grows only in Central America. As it’s made of palm oil (one of nature’s most saturated oils), it congeals. The fragrance reminds me of pipe tobacco, but I happen to like it.

You can find Ojon Restorative Hair Treatment 5 oz at Sephora.

Revlon to discontinue Vital Radiance brand

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After my two previous articles that dealt with Vital Radiance (Update on mass-market brands, Vital Radiance UPDATED 2006-02-22), it was only right to complete the story and inform readers that Revlon has faced the inevitable and is going to discontinue the Vital Radiance line. Poor sales have lead major retailers to drastically cut back on the number of stores selling the brand.

I provided some possible explanations on why Vital Radiance failed in my article Update on mass-market brands. For more about Revlon and its dropping Vital Radiance as part of its restructuring plan, read Revlon cuts 250 jobs, dumps cosmetics line in restructuring plan.

Susan McGraw for Vital Radiance

I’m going to miss Vital Radiance model Susan McGraw, however. She’s cute, and I love her salt’n’pepper hair.

$160.00 for Compact Foundation????

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This has got to be the priciest makeup I have ever seen: it’s even pricier than Shiseido’s luxe Cle de Peau makeup line. This is from the signature line of Serge Lutens, the makeup artist who had previously created the dramatic looks for Shiseido’s print advertising and displays. Serge Lutens makeup is available from Barneys.

Would you pay $160.00 for foundation??? Yes, you read that correctly: one hundred sixty dollars. What is the price you are willing to spend on makeup?

2006-09-21 UPDATE: apparently, Serge Lutens has nothing on H. Couture Beauty, which retails its mascara for $589.00 and its lipstick for $150.00 – found via The Weekend Read, from Elke von Freudenberg’s The Beauty Newsletter. The cheek to call this “H. Couture Beauty”!

ColorBar: for our readers in India

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After the U.S. and Canada, the next highest percentage of our readers come from India. A number of our Indian readers have inquired about ColorBar Cosmetics from the K.K. Modi Group. ColorBar is a relatively late entrant into the increasingly crowded cosmetics market in India and seeks to compete with Chambor, Lakme, and overseas brands such as Revlon and L’Oreal.

ColorBar has launched its own website at www.colorbarworld.com. ColorBar has also retained a creative company to study the brand’s performance in the Indian market (see agencyfaqs! > news & features > ColorBar Cosmetics moves to Law & Kenneth).

Currently, ColorBar is available only in select northern states in India. However, managing director Samir Modi has announced that ColorBar will expand into western India.

Special offers on cosmetics

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IsaDora Lip Treat Color
IsaDora Lip Treat Color

I have an assortment of IsaDora cosmetics to give away:

  • Bronzing Powder in Dark Tan
  • Eye Shadow Quartet in Gold
  • Light & Shade Eye Shadow in Lime Rose
  • 2 Brush-on Gloss (one in Glacier, the other in Sorbet)
  • 2 Lip Treat Color (one in Apple Blossom, the other in Sheer Apricot)
  • 2 Express Star Gloss (one in Reflecting Oyster, the other in Reflecting Peach)
  • 2 Sun Protecting Pearly Gloss (one in Pearly Nougat, the other in Bubble Gum)

Please submit your name and postal address to me at thestylepage@yahoo.com, and I will mail the products to you. U.S. and Canadian residents only. Again, I request that you write a review of products for posting on this blog.

Be assured that The Style Page will not share your address with anyone and will not subscribe you to my lists or blog.

Bonne Bell VitaGloss2O® Moisture Stick

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For many girls, Bonne Bell is their first cosmetic. Years ago, my friend invited me to a makeup application from Bonne Bell at Stix Baer & Fuller, a department store in St. Louis that was later bought out by Dillard’s. I can still remember how the salesgirl applied a triangle of dots of cheek tint on my cheekbone (just below the temples) and stroked it on my cheeks. As it happened, I didn’t wear makeup during my teens (despite my mother’s urging for me to wear lipcolor), as I thought that makeup would detract from the intellectual, serious side (!) that I was so desparately trying to cultivate. I didn’t start wearing makeup seriously until I was 27, and clearly had a lot of catch-up to do. You can be sure that I wasn’t looking at Bonne Bell at that time.

I’m like a kid, however, when it comes to lip balm. I like fruity flavors (in lip balm, that is) and Bonne Bell’s new VitaGloss2O Flavored Moisture Stick Lip Gloss fits the bill nicely. This is a clear, twist-up stick, much like Chapstick: remove the black cap and twist the stick up at the other end. While Bonne Bell compares it to sponge-on liquid gloss, I like this better. It also is formulated with Vitamin E, which is great as an emollient. And of course, it comes in the fruity flavors that girls (and the kid inside grown women) like: watermelon, strawberry, raspberry, mango, pineapple, and kiwi.

BTW There was a real Bonne Bell. She died in November 2005, at the age of 82.

shu uemura eye shadow

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Eye ♥ shadow – just read my recent posts on IsaDora Eye Shadow Quartets and Stila Fall in Love Eye Shadow Trios. During my recent layover at Heathrow Airport (before the current terrorist threat), I visited the shu uemura counter, and was captivated by the selection of eye shadows.

These eye shadows have a silky texture and are identified by color family (Pink, Gold, Green, Blue, Purple, Beige, Brown, White, Grey, and Black) and finish (matte, pearl, metallic, or irridescent), rather than by meaningless attributes such as Tempting, Coy, Shy, Audacious (add your own). It’s a practice I’d like to see other makeup brands emulate.

After Shiseido, shu uemura is probably the best known makeup brand to come out of Japan, although it’s now owned by L’Oreal Group. U.S. customers may shop the U.S. site shuuemura-usa.com.

Update on mass-market brands: 2007

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This past spring brought several new launches of mass market brands. The Max Factor (owned by P&G) and Almay (owned by Revlon) cosmetics lines were completed revamped, while L’Oreal launched its HIP line and Revlon launched its Vital Radiance line for women over 50. The Style Page wondered how supermarkets, drugstores, and “big box” retailers (Wal-Mart, KMart, Target) were going to accomodate these new brands.

See The Beauty Newsletter for a critique of Almay’s dated eyeshadow concept.

HIP appears to have been a success – L’Oreal has recently expanded the line with two new products: Pure Pigment Shadow Stick and Shocking Shadow Pigments, in addition to new colors for its eye shadow duos(another indicator is that searches on “L’Oreal HIP” are a major driver of traffic to this blog).

Max Factor, however, has been a disappointment: many of the main drugstore chains (CVS, Walgreen’s, Rite-Aid) do not carry the line, and it is found only at Wal-Mart and KMart. Maybe the problem was the ads that featured Carmen Electra wearing scary makeup.

Revlon’s much-hyped launch of Vital Radiance has been a disappointment. Due to lackluster sales of the brand, Wal-Mart, Target, and CVS plan to cut back drastically on the number of stores carrying the brand, while Revlon believes that consumers need more time to know the brand better.

According to WWD, “Market reports indicate that Wal-Mart will trim the line [Vital Radiance] from 2,500 doors to 500, while Target will cut it from 1,500 to 500.”

My take is that consumers were turned off by the prices of Vital Radiance products, which are higher than those for other mass-market brands. Vital Radiance’s target audience of women over 50 are probably value-conscious and rejected the higher prices.

I am not the only one who thinks this way – see comments on my post Vital Radiance UPDATED 2006-02-22.

Revlon should have priced Vital Radiance lower, or issued discount coupons to entice first-time buyers. Then there’s always the dicey proposition of marketing to older women without making them feel … old. An introduction of skin care products planned for 2007 might change Vital Radiance’s fortunes.

Revlon sees a $40 million loss from Vital Radiance. Things haven’t been so great on the personal front either: Revlon Chairman Ron Perelman’s marriage to actress Ellen Barkin ended in February 2006, after five years of marriage.