beauty

Lancome’s beauty Christmas crackers are back



It’s not just me who’s a sucker for miniature beauty products. Last year’s beauty Christmas crackers from Jo Malone, Lancome et al sold out in record time so this year the brands have repeated the exercise. Although I notice that Lancome’s prices have crept up. Is it related to the Euro-crisis? This year’s Lancome crackers are retailing for £50 at Selfridges (compared to £38 last year) but I have a feeling this won’t affect sales. For your £50 you get six miniature Lancome hero prdoucts: Hypnôse Mascara 2ml, Bi-Facil 30ml, Mini Juicy Tube – Fraise 17, Visionnaire 7ml, Génifique Youth Activating Concentrate 7ml, Mini L’Absolu Rouge ßx Lipstick 06. Such a genius marketing idea. Will you be buying?

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Fashion show secrets: gaffer tape hair spray



Here’s a little backstage beauty nugget I found out recently. See that backstage beauty station? See those hairspray-like cans wrapped in parcel tape? That’s a little known secret of fashion shows. When big beauty brands sponsor shows, they want their and only their branding in the backstage shots. So MAC doesn’t want a stray Lancome mascara wand in view at a MAC-sponsored show and Toni & Guy doesn’t want a can of Elnett upstaging its products if it’s paying for exclusive endorsement. All well and good, but it seems there’s an understanding that sometimes X product is the only one that will do for X star hairdresser. So the solution is to cover it in gaffer tape to disguise the branding. In fact, some say that Toni & Guy’s black-clad Label M product packaging was so designed to mimic the gaffer-tape look I just described. Who knew?

[Image: Grazia Daily/BaByLiss]



Why has Cocosa opened a physical store?



Flash sale websites are raising their game as competition between them increases. Which is good news for the consumer. Cocosa has already stepped up its offer with a beauty section (which is quite impressive with regular sales from some of my favourite brands including Cowshed, This Works,  and Super by Dr Perricone), and from today opens its first bricks-and-mortar store. The four-day pop-up shop will give customers up to 80% off international menswear and womenswear brands including Halston (above left), Issa (above right) and Missoni.

But why a pop-up and why now? “The pop-up shop experience is designed to raise the awareness of Cocosa to new audiences and enables both new and existing customers to experience Cocosa live, where they can browse and buy incredible designer brands at up to 80% off,” says Cocosa’s Head of Operations, Andrew Miles. And the timing is no coincidence. “The pop-up shop is centred in one of the most fashion forward cities of the world just as fashion weeks across the globe start to kick off,” says Miles. “It’s perfectly positioned to display our ethos to consumers and that’s simply handpicked designer fashion at incredible prices.” For all the hoopla about online shopping, it seems that a physical presence is still a plus when it comes to raising brand visibility.

Cocosa’s pop-up is at The Oui Rooms, 40 Eastecastle Street, W1 from 11-15th September.