NEW YORK — Sally Hansen wants to mean more to women than well-groomed, lacquered fingernails.
Early next year, the brand will introduce a bevy of new items aimed at other body parts, including lips and legs.
There’s even an entry for men called Hansen for Men. Sally Hansen’s move to target the whole body follows the brand’s successful extension into products for feet last year.
The timing couldn’t be better for Del Laboratories’ Sally Hansen division to strike out into other categories. With the demise of a handful of cosmetics initiatives last year, retailers have wiggle room within beauty to try new items.
“Just Feet increased our business substantially,” said Harvey Alstodt, president of Del Cosmetics. “We are building market baskets for retailers and we are doing it profitably with turns that promise a good GMROI [gross margin return on investment].”
Alstodt thinks it is the year of the lips, and Sally Hansen is plumping up that category on the heels of its successful introduction of Lip Inflation. The lip color category could use the boost. Category sales declined 2.4 percent to $563.1 million in food, drug and discount stores, excluding Wal-Mart, for the 52-week period ended Nov. 4, according to ACNielsen.
The brand’s lip lineup includes Gentle Peel for Rough Lips, Peptide Lip Line Treatment, Full and Radiant Lip Definer, Healing Butter for Lips and Line Smoothing Mineral Lip Treatment. The mineral entry takes the current mass market demand for mineral formulations into the lip category.
Two star items in the lip range include Smile Brightening Lip Treatment and Line Freeze for Lips. The brightening product features a formula with color-correcting pigments, blue botanicals and brightening pearls designed to create a whiter look for teeth. With Americans spending millions on teeth whitening, the lipstick is another way to enhance pearly whites. As an added benefit, there is a breath freshener in the product. The suggested retail is $6.95, which is less expensive than over-the-counter teeth whiteners.
Another item expected to stand out among the lip products is Line Freeze for Lips. The product instantly tightens and smooths out lip lines and wrinkles via a powerful GABA complex, or gamma-aminobutyric acid. This item will help ratchet up drugstore cash register rings with a price point of $9.95.
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Beyond lips, Sally Hansen is also extending its smash hit Airbrush Legs with Airbrush Shimmer. This adds an ultrafine gold pearl shimmer to legs for a sexy glow. Available in four shades, it retails for $12.95 each. Also for legs, the company has a revolutionary depilatory that is simply sprayed on and showered off.
With mass marketers expanding men’s selections, Sally Hansen executives deemed it a good time to offer men’s grooming tools. Rather than enter the crowded toiletries arena, the company created manicure and hair removal products. The lineup includes Medicated 8 Hour Chapped Lip Repair, Hand Cleanser With Pumice, Medicated Cracked Hand Repair, Medical Strength 2-in-1 Foot & Fungus Cream, Severe Dry Foot Repair Cream, Clean Cut nail clipper with catcher, file and cleaner, Clean Cut toenail clipper, Moustache & Beach Groomer, hair remover lotion for men and maximum strength Hair Remover strips for men. To create the line, the company asked men about their specific needs.
Despite the push into new areas, Sally Hansen remains committed to building nail care, too. Among the new products is a Salon Nail Lacquer collection, No Chip 10 Day Nail Color, a four-in-one nail treatment and Natural Shine Instant Nail Finish. The latter provides fortification to dull, weak nails while “brushing” on a healthy shine. The four-in-one product acts as a base coat, a strengthener, a growth treatment and a top coat in one product.
Sally Hansen has tapped a new advertising agency, Averett Free and Ginsberg, to help introduce the total Sally Hansen lineup to consumers through new print advertising. All products bear the Sally Hansen Cares logo to reinforce that formulas are safe and don’t contain toluene and the chemical dibutyl phthalate, or DBP. “We really want to be the company that cares for you from head to toe with innovative, problem-solving products,” said Bill Boraczek, Sally Hansen’s senior vice president of marketing.
CORRECTION: Lisa Yarnell, president of Jane & Company was incorrectly quoted in last Friday’s Critical Mass. Her reference to cosmetics gross margins should have read the margins are 40 percent.