While mall staples and department stores continue to close their doors this year, one subset within the retail industry is enjoying higher sales and decent foot traffic: beauty products. But it’s not the traditional makeup counter inside your local department store that’s become a hot spot for customers, it’s the tech-heavy, try-before-you-buy beauty-specific stores like Sephora and Ulta. [More]
beauty
Why Is The Beauty Chain Ulta Growing While The Rest Of Retail Shrinks?
By 6.21.16
In the last few years, Ulta stores have sprouted in strip malls across the country. The chain plans to open 100 new stores this year. How are they expanding when brick-and-mortar retail in general seems doomed? The company credits its variety of price points, ability to quietly upsell customers to prestige brands, and its salon. [More]
Walgreens Wants To Lure Shoppers With A Makeover For The Makeup Aisle
By 6.11.15
For some, when it comes to buying makeup or beauty products the destination is always the department store, not the drug store. At department stores there are sales associates to help you find the right colors to complement your skin or offer high-end beauty brands. But Walgreens wants to change that, with a revamp of its beauty and cosmetics area. [More]
Is Sephora Really Banning Customers Who Spend Thousands Every Year?
By 12.3.13
It was news to us that beauty superstore Sephora recently debuted a new tier to its customer loyalty program. VIB Rouge is for customers who spend at least $1,000 per year at Sephora stores, because some people manage to do that. Some customers report that they were banned from online purchases for placing too many orders. This seems like a bad idea. [More]
Coffee Grounds Can Double As An Exfoliator
By 12.27.11
Those coffee beans you grind each morning can apparently perk up your skin as well as your eyes. You can use coffee grounds to make an exfoliator that could save you from having to buy expensive beauty products that do the same thing. [More]
Want Prettier Armpits? New Dove Deodorant Can Help
By 3.31.11
.Ladies of Consumerist, have you ever been concerned about how attractive your armpits are? Yeah, me either. But someone out there apparently does, and Unilever’s Dove brand now has a deodorant/antiperspirant for her. One that includes moisturizers that give you a “piticure,” and give women one more body part that apparently is never pretty enough. One ad for the product declares that “nearly 100% of women” find their underarms unattractive. [More]
Mattel Sells Overpriced Barbie Printer, Forgets To Make Overpriced Refill Cartridges
By 12.26.09
Mattel’s new “beautronics” device aimed at tween girls, the Barbie Nail Printer, is a glorified inkjet printer that customizes and prints designs on your fingernails. Neat idea in theory, though a bit pricey at $180. However, Mattel has apparently overlooked an essential part of the inkjet printer business model: selling new and overpriced cartridges. The problem, reader Richard writes, is that the company refuses to take orders for new cartridges, saying that they won’t be available until next year. But I want pink leopard print fingernails now! [More]
Brooke Shields Has Hypotrichosis
By 10.27.09
Oh no! Brooke Shields used to have stringy, stick-figure eyelashes! I figured this out after watching Consumer Reports’ video dissection of a new commercial for Latisse, the glaucoma medication that has been rebranded as an expensive, temporary eyelash enhancer with side effects.
Make Yourself Beautiful With Bird Poop, Bull Semen, And Gold
By 8.15.09
Sure, in the interest of eternal youth and beauty, you can inject your face with collagen or botulism toxins. Or you could try something really disgusting! Treehugger.com rounded up eight of the most disgusting “natural” beauty treatments out there. Mmm, placenta.
Testing Infomercial Beauty Products So You Don't Have To
By 8.6.09
Since Consumer Reports hasn’t yet stepped up and recruited big-hair aficionados and large-breasted side-sleepers to test infomercial beauty products such as Bumpits or the Kush Support, Lemondrop has stepped up to test these products, as well as beauty and weight loss products ranging from the PedEgg to Colonblow.
What's In Nair
By 1.18.08
Hey, do you know what’s in Nair, the creamy hair-removal product that smells like skunks? (Or used to—the current formulation is supposed to smell better.) Now, thanks to Wired’s “What’s Inside” article, you will! The active ingredient is potassium thioglycolate, a member of the thiol family, which not coincidentally is also responsible for the intense stink factor of skunk spray. Thiols “eat into keratin (a skin and hair protein), which is what makes actual skunk spray (and Nair) lock onto human flesh and fuzz.” Another chemical—calcium hydroxide—destroys the weakened hairs.
By 12.28.07
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Good News: The New York Times recommends “rethinking” any beauty product that costs more than $30. [NYT]
Smell Your Makeup!
By 8.12.07
Consumer Affairs says bad makeup can harbor nasty bacteria, and can lead to such unpleasant face decorations as conjuctivitis or peri-oral dermatitis (little red bumps that look like acne). They suggest you tattoo permanent eyeliner and lipstick so you don’t have to worry about makeup. No, wait, that’s what we suggest. They actually suggest throwing out your eye makeup and liquid foundations after three months, powders after a year, and application sponges after a week. Oh, and smell your makeup: “An unusual odor usually means that it contains bacteria.”
Aveda Secretly Pulls Environmentally Unfriendly Hair Product?
By 3.8.07
According to a company insider, Aveda recently pulled a hair product from their shelves because it contained too many or too high a concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can be nasty pollutants.
Don’t Put a Loser on Your Face
By 6.23.06
As with many things in life, we take our health and beauty advice from professional dominatrixes. That’s why we’ll be avoiding purchasing this facial cream, for while a rose may be a rose and so forth…
