NEW YORK — Cindy Crawford is comfortable in her skin and she wants TV viewers across the country to feel the same way.
The supermodel, in a partnership with infomercial behemoth Guthy-Renker, will begin pitching her skin care line, Meaningful Beauty, from TV stations this month.
Why go into skin care? Crawford explained that if she was going to put her name on something she “wanted it to be meaningful. I didn’t want to sell people more stuff they didn’t need.” Though it might seem makeup would be a natural step into beauty for a model, Crawford pointed out that she is “not a makeup artist” and that “there was no makeup product I was lacking. I like new stuff, it’s fun, but that’s not my passion. What I was interested in — I was 35 years old at the time — was my skin. As a model I always felt that my job was to keep my skin looking good, so when I sit down the makeup artist can do his job. ”
With her incredible access to experts — for example, her personal fitness trainer Radu, with whom she did a workout video — Crawford is privy to the best. She said Meaningful Beauty “is the skin care version of that” and her mission is to make it available to women across the U.S. “I always make everything I do so that my sisters will be able to afford or use it,” she added.
Crawford and cosmetic surgeon Dr. Jean-Louis Sebagh began collaboration on the line three years ago. “Cindy has been a patient of mine for 10 years,” said Sebagh. “I used to see her three to four times a year in my London and Paris offices, when she would come in for my vitamin cocktail injections. After her two children were born, she kept calling and saying ‘Can you please FedEx me some of your juice! Can’t you bottle it?’ So what became a joke of Cindy wanting me to bottle a version of her treatments has become a reality. Not only did she want it for herself, but she wanted to share it and me with her friends and family.”
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The pair then joined forces with Guthy-Renker.
Crawford noted she chooses projects depending on what’s important to her at that point in her life and emphasized her complete involvement in this one from start to finish. “I just wanted to be part of it more than anything at this point in my career,” she said. Crawford recalled telling her partners she always would insist on making decisions that would result in her being proud of the product, rather than “making more money.”
“I have certainly learned a lot about their business and I think they got something better than they would have if I’d said here just use my name,” she added.
Jonathan Flicker, executive vice president of marketing at Guthy-Renker in Los Angeles, concurs. “She is involved with the formulation, the marketing and the test results. She is really a shoulder-to-shoulder partner with us on this.”
Flicker added, “Clearly Cindy is very well known and well respected. She is a purposeful person and brings all of that with her — her business intelligence, acumen and direction. Guthy-Renker brings marketing, business ranking, success and a way to get it done. So, working together — it’s a powerful relationship.”
The infomercial began airing in test markets in January and will begin a rollout Nov. 13. Meaningful Beauty had been on QVC in July 2003 and Crawford said while it was a learning experience, it was a bit premature. “But we thought it would be out by then.”
Allen Burke, QVC director of beauty merchandising, said, “In the infomercial business they are very much focused on careful analysis of what the most compelling way is to describe and to present a product. I think we had been a little bit overzealous and anxious before they had done any of their testing and research and just wanted to get the product on the air. Guthy-Renker has always been a great partner to us, so they agreed to that. The conventional approach here would be to have the infomercials run for a while and in that process they get a lot of learning about the product.”
Burke added that while “there is not a specific time in place at this point, I would expect that you would see Cindy Crawford back on QVC.”
The Meaningful Beauty products were developed to work as a system and protect and renew the skin. The line consists of six stockkeeping units: Skin Softening Cleanser, Maintenance One Day Moisture, Maintenance Two Night Fluide, Eye Creme, Facial Masque and Decollete and Neck Creme. In a period of four weeks the line is said to smooth wrinkles, reduce skin redness, decrease roughness, improve moisture and reduce blotchiness.
Dr. Sebagh explained that the products “are incredibly active, containing anywhere from seven to 11 active ingredients. Our special ingredient is Super Oxide Dismutase, a patented melon extract loaded with a first-generation antioxidant. It helps shield collagen from free-radical attacks and supports natural collagen creation while pumping up skin’s resilience, rejuvenating damaged skin and reducing the visible signs of aging. It’s based on a new technology that took 20 years to perfect.”
When asked how you can bottle something intended as an injection, Crawford responded, “You can’t say it’s exactly the same thing as an injection — it’s just like Botox. A lot of people don’t want to use Botox but they’ll use the cream.
“As much as I am into homeopathic and naturalistic [products], I’m also a woman and if there’s something scientific that’s going to help me look better longer, younger longer — I want it. So this is not oatmeal bath, this is really a new technology with active ingredients.”
The kits are priced at $29.95 for a 30-day supply and $89.85 for the 90-day version. Crawford added, “For $1 a day you have a great regimen.”
“Jean-Louis didn’t really know about prices and [he] thought that because it was my product, it would be super expensive. In fact, that’s kind of the opposite of who I am and who I think my audience is,” noted Crawford. “The more mass the price points, the more volume you will do, and the price actually goes down. You can do a better product for a lower price, especially selling it through infomercials, which is why we decided to go that route. There’s no advertising budget and the other big plus of an infomercial [is that you have] 28 minutes to tell our story, and I feel like we have a really compelling story.”
She added, “I think our infomercial looks as good as 99 percent of any commercials that I have done. We shot it in Paris, Los Angeles, London and went to my hometown because we wanted to get that part of who am I and the journey that I’ve been on.”
None of the participants would comment, but sources estimate the line has the potential to become a $20 million to $30 million a year business in about three years.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, and neither Crawford nor Guthy-Renker executives would discuss financial particulars.
Meaningful Beauty also has plans to add a glowing serum, a foaming cleanser, a hand treatment, and possibly a spot treatment for pimples. Both Cindy Crawford and Guthy-Renker noted that Meaningful Beauty could also become a total lifestyle brand.