NEW YORK — Small beauty companies manage to steal their piece of the retail pie with niche products that appeal to both consumers’ whimsical sides and retailers’ desires to offer a unique beauty assortment.
Saledo, a Milan-based beauty company, entered the U.S. retail scene for the first time this winter with colorful makeup kits targeting the kid inside mature beauty queens. The U.S. collection, distributed by Blush Cosmetics based in Louisville, Ky., will enter 45 Nordstrom stores in February, and began selling in Von Maur stores this month. Monica Masini, the Italian designer and owner of Saledo, has created kits that revolve around a concept of love and sweetness, meant to “remind you of your childhood at a sensuous level,” said Blush Cosmetics president Diva Lauren. Saledo, a company that generates 50 million euros, or $65 million at current exchange, in annual sales in Europe, expects first-year U.S. sales to approach $10 million.
Of the new items, there is the Sweet Lips kit, which resembles a chocolate box and is filled with 12 cocoa-scented lip glosses. There are also kits in the form of jewelry cases, packaged in boxes of bright plastic with translucent covers. They unfold to reveal lip glosses that double as allover creams; three eye shadows; black mascara and eyeliner, and a large mirror. The cases are sold in three collections and are distinguishable by the shape of the lip glosses.
There’s the I Love You (hearts) kit, the Margaritas (flowers) kit and the Besame Mucho (pouty lips) kit. Each kit retails for $25.
Saledo is also launching Crazy Temptation (Folli Tentazioni), a bath and body collection available in seven lines and eight scents. Products, packaged in old school milk bottles and Tupperware containers, will retail between $18 and $25 and are expected to roll out to Henri Bendel in February.
The company is in distribution talks with Sephora, Bloomingdale’s, Lord & Taylor and boutiques and spas across the country, said Lauren. Next year, Blush is collaborating with retailers Claire’s and Kohl’s to develop lower-priced private label lines.
The Saledo kits follow a long-running trend of fanciful, “something new” beauty products by small, privately owned companies. There’s Mixed Emotions, for example, a collection of food-scented body care aimed at evoking a woman’s many whims, and Cake, a line of bakery-inspired lotions. Mixed Emotions retails for $20 to $25 and Cake items sell for between $14 and $36. Both brands are launching products at Lord & Taylor this year. Cake, based in Ontario, is owned by entrepreneur Heather Reier. Mixed Emotions is a family business based in Dallas.
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Aside from cute-type items, sex appeal still seems to sell, as Kiss Me, Mixed Emotions’ crème brûlée-scented line, remains a bestseller, and provocative names, such as Dessert’s On Me, by Cake, are used to attract consumers. Then there’s Lip Lingerie by Diane Brill, which plays with the food and flirtation combo with Panties in Bunch — six naughtily named lip glosses in a chocolate box for $39.