New skin care at Walgreen's

My slogan at More Than a Pretty Face is "beauty is where you find it." At one level, that means I search out dollar stores, drug stores, beauty supply stores, mail order catalogues, department stores, specialty stores, and more to discover beauty products. Today I focus on new skin care products sold through Walgreen's.

Walgreen's is now discontinuing its European Beauty Collection of skin care brands, which means that people can now buy these products at discount.

At the same time, Walgreen's has entered into exclusive distribution agreements with Korea's The Face Shop and Italy's Equilibra.

The principal product from The Face Shop is a moist mask sheet that you lay over your face for 20 minutes. The mask sheets is available in a variety of different formulas, including botanical solutions.


Equilibra Perlabella Anti-Aging Retinol Face capsules

The principal product from Equilibra is Perlabella, "pearls" or capsules of face serum in different formulas. You may buy packages containing 28 capsules from walgreens.com or Amazon.com. Packets containing seven capsules may be purchased at Walgreen's stores.

Get it while it lasts

Here in the Washington, DC Metro area, where I live, the dominant drugstore chain is CVS. There is only a smattering of Walgreen's and Rite-Aid stores (including former Eckerd that became Rite-Aid stores after Canada's Jean Coutu Pharmacy sold Eckerd stores to Rite-Aid). Consequently, I go out of the way to shop at Walgreen's or Rite-Aid.

I went to Walgreen's yesterday, and I was startled to see all IsaDora cosmetics sold at 50% discount. I asked the beauty adviser-cum-salesperson if Walgreen's is no longer going to carry IsaDora, and she told me that IsaDora no longer wanted to ship products to the USA(!)

While I was not initially impressed by IsaDora, I reconsidered after reading Paula Begoun's glowing review of its eyeshadow quads. I now enjoy IsaDora eyeshadow quads in Antique Gold and Bronzing Plums - and picked up the eye shadow trio in Patina yesterday.

In short, get IsaDora products while you still can!

Walgreen's IsaDora, CVS's Lumene

Categories: Beauty, Cosmetics

I live in the Mid-Atlantic States, where the dominant drugstore chain is CVS. I visited Walgreen's while I was in St. Louis, and checked out the IsaDora cosmetics line, which is carried exclusively at Walgreen's. There's a growing trend for chain stores to carry lines exclusive to that chain. While IsaDora, a cosmetics line from Sweden, is exclusive to Walgreen's, Lumene, a cosmetics line from Finland, is exclusive to CVS. (Interestingly, I found eyeliner pencils from CVS's Essence of Beauty line at Big Lots!)

I found IsaDora unappealing and dated in its displays featuring overly made-up models and its packaging. Lumene, on the other hand, strives for an image of Nordic freshness and coolness through its use of cool blonde Nordic models and dark blue packaging (think Noxzema or Nivea).

The Style Page has tried Lumene's Vitamin+ Energy Cocktail serum, a two-phase formula that needs to be shaken for application, and it does impart a nice glow to the skin. It also likes Lumene's Delight Solo eyeshadow in Never Alone (a subdued pink) from its Skin Couture collection.