The mass market cosmetics category is undergoing a major overhaul with manufacturers borrowing the best of the best from upscale companies. Major trends include compacts that bring together color stories in one product, minerals and natural items. There is also continued support behind retailers’ exclusive brands, such as Lumene at CVS, IsaDora at Walgreens, and Boots, which is sold in CVS and Target.
The mass market has always mirrored prestige beauty trends, but buyers noted that the time between a concept being launched in department stores and then showing up at mass is compressing.
Recently, many companies have created mass market cosmetics that channel the whimsical spirit of Stila, a department store brand that often introduces seasonal color palettes. For instance, Prestige Cosmetics will launch color stories called My Little Black Book and My Secrets. Consumers can put together an entire look from one product, which will retail for $9.95, explained Marc Orlinsky, vice president of sales at Prestige Cosmetics.
Beauty Innovations was one of the first mass beauty companies to offer beauty palettes, which it dubs Editor’s Picks. The company has expanded Editor’s Picks with new palettes for spring and fall.
Making it easier for consumers to put together a look isn’t the only trend borrowed from prestige. Mineral makeup, a trend carved out by QVC and Sephora stalwart Bare Escentuals, is expanding across the mass market.
Lisa Yarnell, president of Jane & Co., said many consumers have been waiting for prices to come down so they can afford mineral makeup. This spring, Jane plans to expand its Be Pure mineral line to eye products, said Yarnell. Buoyed by the success of its expansion into minerals, Jane has gained more footage in Walgreens, Duane Reade, Drug Fair and ShopKo doors.
Mass market mineral options are offered by L’Oréal, Neutrogena, Pantina, Milani and Physicians Formula. The competition in mineral makeup continues to intensify, but not all beauty brands are running to the trend. Karen Fondu, president of Maybelline New York-Garnier, a division of L’Oréal USA, said the Maybelline New York brand was taking a wait-and-see approach to mineral makeup.
Nevertheless, there’s been a flurry of recent activity in the segment. In January, Cover Girl introduced TruBlend Luminous Loose Powders, Bronzers and Blushes with minerals.
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Neutrogena launched Mineral Sheers Blush, an extension of the company’s Mineral Sheers collection that was launched last year.
“Building off of last year’s big hit, Mineral Sheers Foundation, the formulation provides women with pure, gentle and feather-light ingredients,” said Leela Petrakis, general manager of Neutrogena Cosmetics. Retailing for $12.99 per item, the new line includes five blushes in shades like Precious Pink, Rare Rose, Natural Apricot, Pure Plum and Silky Sable. The all-in-one brush with a dispenser is composed of a complex of vitamin E, vitamin C, vitamin B5 and pro-retinol, meant to condition and smooth skin tone.
Despite the rising tide of competitors, more companies plan to try their hand at minerals. Mirage Cosmetics recently introduced a line called Fresh Minerals. According to the company’s national sales manager, Stan Goldberg, Mirage Cosmetics is the only mass market brand with a full array of mineral cosmetics, ranging from eye shadows to foundations.
IsaDora, a cosmetics line sold exclusively at Walgreens in the U.S., is also extending into minerals, said Kathy Steirly, Walgreens’ vice president and general merchandise manager of beauty and fashion. The IsaDora mineral line is 100 percent minerals, according to Walgreens.
IsaDora is just one example of a host of exclusive beauty lines that drugstore chains are using to differentiate their offerings from competitors’. CVS, which until this month was the exclusive U.S. retailer of Lumene cosmetics, is adding more lines from Boots, U.K.’s number-one beauty brand, to its stable. CVS and Target were the first U.S. retailers to sell Boots’ brands, such as No. 7 cosmetics and Botanics. CVS now will roll out that program to more stores and add additional Boots lines, said Martin Waters, chief executive officer of Boots Retail USA. Target now carries Boots products chainwide, and will dispatch Boots-trained sales consultants to 260 stores.
In an interesting twist, this month Lumene will expand its distribution to Target (see Snippets). The presence of the brand, once found only in CVS, should help strengthen the Lumene brand name in the U.S. without head-to-head competition with another drugstore chain.
With consumers looking for more natural or homeopathic ingredients, CCA Industries has added green tea to its nail care formulas. Based on the initial success of the first green tea item, CCA Industries has expanded to six stockkeeping units with an advanced formula collection the company hopes will encourage shoppers to pay more. Although there are numerous natural cosmetics brands sold in health food stores, many retailers expect to see more natural and botanic color lines available in mass. Market reports indicated that L’Oréal plans to reveal a natural cosmetics line under the Garnier umbrella. Fondu of Maybelline New York-Garnier said that Garnier’s focus, however, is on hair care and its recently launched skin care line, Nutritioniste.
Many new lines are getting shelf space on crowded fixtures, thanks to the elimination of slow-moving lines, such as Revlon’s Vital Radiance brand. Retailers said they would no longer keep brands languishing beyond six months, especially since there are so many options available.
HIP, another 2006 launch that got mixed reviews at the start, has turned a corner. Carol Hamilton, president of the L’Oréal Paris division of L’Oréal USA, said it was now “a very strategic initiative for L’Oréal Paris and we are committed to supporting it going forward.” She added, “The HIP line targets a distinct and complementary consumer and brings a level of product performance and makeup artist professionalism” to the mass market. In the last half of 2006, Hamilton said the brand generated “increased momentum” and that retailers now see its value since it has been able to bring
“incremental users to the mass market.”
Vital Radiance may still be exiting some stores, but the company said it was expanding its core Revlon color collection and introducing a new Limited Edition collection, along with an Almay lipstick line. In January, Revlon began introducing a Limited Edition color collection comprised of 15 products for the lips, eyes, cheeks and nails. Available in major drugstore and mass retailers for various time periods through the year, the collection’s overall theme is “seduction.” Products retail from $4.95 to $14.95 each, and include lip items such as Sugar Sugar Lip Topping, Just Bitten Lip Stain, Midnight Swirl Lip Lustre and Crushed Velvet Lip Crème, and eye products such as Lash Jewels Eye Accents, Diamond Lust Sheer Shadow, Molten Metal Liquid Shadow and Bedroom Eyes Powder Liner.
Revlon’s core color collection also focuses on the eyes and lips with products such as Super Lustrous Shiny Sheers, Makeup Eraser Pen and additional colors in the ColorStay Lip Liner range. For the eyes, Revlon introduced six shades of Luxurious Color Eyeliner and four new eye shadow quads to the ColorStay 12-Hour Eye Shadow franchise.
Also in January, Almay launched Hydracolor Lipsticks, a 32-item lipstick line designed to condition lips with plant extracts and vitamin E. Retailing for $8.99 each, the colors range from neutrals and browns to reds, pinks and berries.
L’Oréal Paris’ new items include Pro Manicure, 45 salon-inspired shades that will sell for $4.99 each. For eyes, there’s L’Oréal Paris Telescopic Lengthening & Lash By Lash Separating Mascara and Telescopic Liquid Eyeliner, each of which will sell for $8.15. For lips, there’s Colour Riche Gloss, building on the success of Colour Riche Lipcolour, which will sell for $8.50. A new blush, Bare Naturale Gentle Mineral Blush, will complement last year’s Bare Naturale Mineral Makeup. The blush will sell for $15.25.
Maybelline New York has improved its formulas for Expert Wear Eye Shadow to keep color strong without fading. Singles, duos and quads have been created. The company has also created ShineSeduction, a range of 20 lip colors to retail for $7.99 each.
Markwins’ Black Radiance brand is launching Liquid Radiance, a liquid bronzer, for $4.99, as well as Mosaic Bronzer, also for $4.99. A new concealer has been developed for $6.99, with two shades in one compact to handle both dark circles and blackheads, which require different formulas. A new lip pencil, Lip Appeal, and gloss, Illusion Lip Gloss, will each sell for $2.99. Markwins’ Tropez brand targets the multicultural consumer with Exotic Eyes Mascara & Liquid Liner, a Pleasantly Plump Lip Plumper and precious Kisses Mini Lip Glosses — for beauty on the go.
New items from Cover Girl include Advanced Radiance Restorative Cream Foundation, VolumeExact Mascara and TruShine Lipcolor. Advanced Radiance Restorative Cream Foundation features Olay Definity’s glucosamine complex to enhance the natural production of collagen. TruShine Lipcolor looks has 24 shades arranged by fair, medium and deep skin tones.
Neutrogena introduced two products for lips and cheeks this year. With silver metal packaging, MoistureShine Soothing LipSheers, $8.99 each, are designed to provide deep moisturization, a sheer color and an SPF 20.
“A hybrid of lip color, it uniquely blends the benefits of a lip gloss, lipstick and balm into a lightweight, creamy and nourishing formula,” said Petrakis of Neutrogena. She added that the company had seen a trend to more sheer, glossy color with hydration in the lip category.
Designed to provide an instant soothing effect, the formula contains menthyl lactate, a cooling ingredient that gives the lipstick a peppermint flavor and the therapeutic benefits of a traditional balm. The LipSheers will be available in 10 shades, including Pink Splash, Sunny Berry, Peach Sorbet and Plum Kiss.
— With contributions from Andrea Nagel and Michelle Edgar
The eyes have it, and according to cosmetics executives, the windows to our soul will remain a focus for makeup users throughout 2007, resulting in what may be another year of lackluster sales of lip and nail products.
Scan data from Information Resources Inc. reveals women reached for mascara, eye shadow and eyeliner more often in 2006 than the prior year, as sales of eye makeup grew 6.4 percent to $922.1 million for the 52-week period ended Jan. 28. Eyeliner sales alone grew 12 percent to $226.9 million. Data reflects sales in food, drug and mass stores and excludes Wal-Mart.
Runway trends have been pointing to dramatic, smoky eyes as a focal point for several seasons, often paired with nude or glossy lips. IRI data showed lip sales slipped 1.6 percent to $605.3 million for the period, with lipstick and lip gloss sales each slipping 3.5 percent. Lip treatment products, however, grew 39.8 percent in the mass market, which helped buoy the category, despite the mere $30 million in sales it generated.
A flawless face remained important, too. Sales of face makeup, namely bronzers, blush, concealer, foundation and powder, grew 6.9 percent to $979.4 million. Bronzer sales grew 39.5 percent to $37.9 million, while concealer sales increased 11.7 percent to $88.6 million and foundation sales jumped 8.6 percent to $474.9 million.
Overall, sales of mass cosmetics exceeded $3.1 billion.
Given that 2006 was a good year for eye makeup sales, it made sense that Maybelline New York, a division of L’Oréal USA, had such a stellar year: The brand is the leader in mascara, eyeliner and eye shadow sales and has its heritage deeply rooted in the eye category.
Karen Fondu, president of Maybelline New York-Garnier, expects the clamoring for eye makeup to continue in 2007, particularly with eyeliner and shadow where “most of the innovation is taking place” such as with longer-lasting and improved formulas.
“That’s why you’re seeing the growth,” Fondu explained, adding that Maybelline outperformed the category. Industry sources said the company ended the year with a 19.1 percent dollar market share.
This year, Maybelline New York looks to keep up the momentum with an initiative that will “reinvent the way shoppers shop the eye category in totality.” Fondu would not provide further details of the effort, which will be revealed by the company later this month.
Eye makeup wasn’t the company’s only success in 2006. Despite the gravitation away from lip products, Maybelline New York realized ample success in lip, due mainly to their 2006 launch of Superstay.
“It was our entry into the long-wearing lipstick category. We were not the first to market [with this type of product], but we spent a long time evaluating the technology so we were able to bring out something with a point of difference, in terms of comfort and wear. We also came to the category with a color palette that was bar none,” Fondu said of Superstay, which ultimately ranked as the third best-selling brand in the category.
In 2006, the growth of eye shadow was driven by new players, Fondu said.
Carol Hamilton, president of L’Oréal Paris, a division of L’Oréal USA, said HIP products brought a new consumer to the wall and has been incremental to eye shadow’s base business. Hamilton expects an equally robust year in eye products for 2007.
“Even though the lip will be much more prominent, eyes never lose focus. Our most recent launch, Telescopic Mascara, has gotten off to a very strong start, reaching a 2.5 percent dollar share during the first period,” said Hamilton.
L’Oréal also did well in lip.
“We were able to outpace the category growth for several reasons. One of women’s biggest challenges in the lip market was finding that right shade of lipstick, and through our merchandising we have made it much easier for the consumer to shop,” Hamilton said.
Lip, Hamilton added, has lacked innovation from a formula and packaging perspective over the last several years. Additionally, the trend in the lip category has been a more neutral, glossy look. But she said lips for spring will take on a much more intense look, like with red, which is going to make a comeback.
Cover Girl also remains optimistic about eye in 2007, particularly because of VolumeExact, a new mascara it launched in January. VolumeExact follows the success of LashExact, the first mascara to use a moldtrusion brush versus the traditional wire brush, and is designed to use the moldtrusion brush with a high-volume formula.
In lip, Cover Girl introduced TruShine Lipcolor this year, designed to work with any skin tone to enhance lips with color. Pat McGrath, creative consultant for P&G Beauty, was instrumental in the product’s formulation.
— A.N.