Friday, June 10, 2005

What's New in Beauty: June 10, 2005 - Mary Kay, Estee Lauder, reflect.com, Sephora, Maybelline

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Mary Kay vetoes ads on Desparate Housewives - A Christian group successfully lobbies Mary Kay to pull ads for ABC's Desparate Housewives. May we expect TV ads featuring Nicolette Sheridan (NuGlow), Eva Longoria (signed with L'Oreal), and Teri Hatcher (who has a deal of her own) to pepper Desparate Housewives? Talk about cross-promotion!

Gwyneth Paltrow signs with Estee Lauder - The favorite of celebrity magazines, who named her daughter Apple, has signed a contract to appear in ads for Estee Lauder cosmetics and fragrances. As with the signing of Tom Ford, this appears to be another effort on the part of Estee Lauder Companies to boost sales of its flagship brand as consumer buying trends change.

P&G to close reflect.com - The master marketers (and innovators) at Proctor & Gamble haven't always been successful when it comes to cosmetics. P&G had a big rollout of Olay color cosmetics in supermarkets, drugstores, and other mass merchandisers, only to discontinue the line a couple of years later. Now comes news that P&G will close reflect.com, the customized cosmetics web site. Last day for order is Monday, June 13, so hurry!

reflect developed a color palette called the California Beauty Kit for Chico's, the women's clothing and accessories chain. This warm color palette features matte eyeshadows for day and shimmer eyeshadows for evening, along with a blusher, bronzer, and two lip colors. The price was cut from $55 to $29. While not available through Chico's web site, you might yet be able to find it in stores.

Seasonal2_180x150Sephora announces the winners of its 2005 Best of Sephora vote. 87,000 fans voted. Winners includes Nars blush in Orgasm, DuWop Lip Venom, Stila Lip Glaze, and more. Go to Sephora.com to shop the winners.

Maybelline goes upscale with signing of Kevyn Aucoin protege - I still have a problem calling Maybelline "Maybelline New York," as its corporate parent L'Oreal would have us call it. No doubt it has to do with the fact that I remember Maybelline as a child putzing around Kresge's dime store (and the reference to Kresge's alone betrays my age!), but the name "Maybelline" also conjures up Chuck Berry's song of the same name and Mother Maybelline Carter of country music's pioneering Carter Family - not exactly the image of urban sophistication that L'Oreal would like to convey. Still Volum'Express is my favorite mascara and I like its Dream Mousse Matte Foundation.

In another effort to go upscale, Maybelline has signed Troy Surratt, protege of the late, great makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin, as its star makeup artist and has already rolled out a new ad campaign featuring him. Previously, Surratt succeeded his mentor as beauty advisor at Beauty.com.

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