It’s nearly Halloween, which means costumes, candy, parties, pumpkins, and — again — candy. But just because you’re all jacked up on a sugar high — or by the mere thought of your eventual sugar high — doesn’t mean you and your family can’t be safe this Halloween. [More]
makeup
Is The FDA Doing Enough To Keep Problematic Personal Care Products Off Shelves?
By 6.26.17
When you slather that trendy beauty lip balm on or try a new shampoo for the first time, perhaps you’re under the impression that the federal government has a process in place that ensures that cosmetic or personal care product is safe before it touches your body. But the reality is that cosmetics manufacturers don’t have to obtain premarket approval before selling most new products — and whether or not they report adverse events related to those items is pretty much up to them. Some in the industry think it’s time for this to change. [More]
JCPenney Pretties Up, Adds More In-Store Sephora Locations
By 4.24.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
In a move to boost foot traffic (and hopefully sales) while getting some help with the rent, JCPenney and Sephora are expanding their partnership, adding and enlarging dozens more store-within-the-store locations of the beauty products retailer. [More]
This Woman’s Job: Smearing Makeup Globs Just Right For Photos
By 10.25.16
When you see a photo in an ad or on a website of a cosmetics product that’s been artfully smashed, smeared, or scattered on a surface, that’s a special kind of advertising art that requires special tools. What’s it like to smear lipstick around for a living, smash eyeshadows, and build towers of perfume bottles with a hot glue gun? [More]
Beauty Box Julep Must Donate Toiletries To Settle Lawsuit Over Shady Negative-Option Marketing
By 9.6.16
Negative-option subscriptions aren’t anything new: just ask any former member of Columbia House. Subscribers sign up for a service, and then receive something every month unless they specifically opt out. It’s become a popular model in fashion recently, and that includes the cosmetics subscription box from Julep, a company probably best known for its nail polishes. Today, the state of Washington announced that the company settled charges that its negative-option marketing for cosmetics boxes was deceptive. [More]
L’Oreal Expands Makeup Portfolio With $1.2B Purchase Of IT Cosmetics
By 7.22.16
Cosmetics biggie L’Oreal just got a bit bigger, adding some 300 skincare and makeup products with its $1.2 billion acquisition of infomercial fave IT Cosmetics.
[More]
Revlon Decides To Change Up Its Beauty Routine, Buys Elizabeth Arden For $870M
By 6.20.16
What’s a global beauty brand to do when it’s time to get a new look? Revlon decided to go shopping for something to change up its routine, picking up fellow cosmetics company Elizabeth Arden in a deal worth $870 million. [More]
Women Uninterested In New Clothes Or Gadgets, Buying Lots Of High-End Makeup
By 3.30.16
America’s female shoppers just aren’t as interested as they used to be in most of the stuff available in malls: spending on almost everything is down. There’s one area of retail that’s growing that you might not have expected, though: sales of high-end cosmetics are climbing, which include makeup and skin care. Why is that? Blame YouTube. [More]
Makeup Companies Are Developing Products With Your Selfie Camera In Mind
By 9.22.15
For most people, our social media lives haven’t overtaken our real lives yet, but there is one industry where selfie reality is as important as actual reality. That’s the cosmetics industry, where a popular Instagram post can make a new product, and where snapping a selfie of a new product on your face or arm is a review. That’s why new cosmetic products are now selfie-optimized. [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]
Crayola: Don’t Use Our Colored Pencils On Your Face
By 5.18.15
In another example of why it’s not a good idea to believe every viral thing you come across on the Internet, Crayola is warning customers not to use its colored pencils as makeup after some beauty bloggers posted tutorials on how to soften the drawing tools and use them as eyeliner. [More]
Which Items Get Returned To Sephora Most Often?
By 5.13.15
Sephora is a magical playground filled with very expensive substances that grown-ups can slather on themselves. Yet what if that $29 mascara or $45 foundation just doesn’t look right on you? The cosmetics retailer has a famously generous return policy, even for items that have been opened and used, and there are certain items that end up returned more often than others. Which are they? [More]
Florida Movie Theater Apologizes For Playing “Suggestive” Ad Before Family Flick
By 4.14.15
A Florida movie theater has apologized and pulled a makeup ad that ran before a PG-rated movie after a mother complained and said that the scenes of people putting on lipstick and kissing each other are images better suited to a screening of 50 Shades of Grey. [More]
Why Do Makeup Brands Keep Naming Red Lipsticks ‘Underage’?
By 3.16.15
The controversy over the name of a red lipstick started yesterday when writer Parker Molloy went to Sephora and noticed some odd product names. We sympathize with the people in charge of naming makeup colors, but maybe it’s a little inappropriate to call a bright red lipstick “Underage.” [More]
Customers Accuse Sephora Of Banning Shoppers With Asian Surnames
By 11.7.14
Would Sephora really ban customers who spend thousands of dollars every year with them? Last year, frequent customers say they had their ability to place online orders taken away for buying too much stuff. This year, frequent customers report having their accounts shut down or their ability to place orders restricted. Funny, thing though: all of these customers have e-mail addresses based in China, or Chinese surnames. [More]
Macy’s Doesn’t Want You Stockpiling Lip Gloss, Cuts You Off At Six
By 5.8.13
“Your activity on our site indicates that you are trying to circumvent our restrictions by submitting multiple orders,” said the letter that Macy’s sent to reader Janet. What was she doing? Buying up loss leaders to resell? Taking advantage of a pricing error for her own profit? No…her crime was placing two separate orders for lip gloss from their website. [More]
Suing Lancôme Because Makeup Lacks Magic Powers Takes Serious Chutzpah
By 5.3.13
All one observant Jewish mom wanted was to look pretty for the day of her son’s bar mitzvah, during the sabbath when she isn’t allowed to apply or touch up her makeup between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday. She bought a bottle of Lancôme makeup online that boasted 24-hour coverage…but also expected the promises the product’s ad made to be literally true. We posted this story when it broke earlier this week, but got hold of some new information that makes the whole situation even more stupid. [More]
Newsflash: ’24-Hour’ Makeup Is Not A Guarantee
By 5.1.13
Most women in their thirties have been playing with makeup for at least half their lives. For them, it would not be a newsflash that “24-hour foundation” does not, in fact, stay on your face unmarred for 24 hours. [More]
