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With increasing usage of the Web by women, everyone has been rushing to sell beauty-related products online. You'll find all the major manufacturers (such as Avon, Revlon, Mary Kay, etc.), as well as traditional brick and mortar stores (Wal-Mart, Macy's), and hundreds of online-only stores some of which specialize in beauty-related products and some of which sell just about everything known to man.
My daughter (Heather) recommends Beauty Jungle www.beautyjungle.com which carries both designer and drug-store brands ("Very clever -- considering some women buy department store lipstick, but drugstore mascara"), Beauty.com www.beauty.com, Eve.com www.eve.com and Beauty Scene www.beautyscene.com. Among the brick-and-mortar stores that have online shops as well, she prefers Sephora.com www.sephora.com. But their site doesn't carry everything that you can find in their stores and they don't always show the color make-up. "Sometimes they'll only list the name, like 'Trash' - but what color is that?" she asks.
Basically, everything is for sale on the Web, but in what cases and in what ways does the Web experience add value?
For instance, one major category of beauty products -- perfume/fragrance -- does not seem like a good fit for the Web. Would you buy perfume from a mail order catalogue or an 800 number ordering service? If not, then why should you buy perfume online? What value can a Web site add to your perfume shopping experience? Pictures of perfume bottles aren't particularly helpful. So why buy such a thing online rather than at the mall?
If you buy the same product over and over again, you might get a better price from an online store operating with lower overhead, and you might save time, avoiding the hassles of physical traffic and physical stores. In this case, you aren't really "shopping" -- you're just placing orders. You might also buy perfume online if you are already buying other products at the same site and you might as well throw these into the shopping cart too.
You might also want to use the Web to break away from the same old set of brand-name products that you see advertised everywhere and that every related store -- both online and offline -- has for sale. Many small, obscure, and unique manufacturers, whose products are hard to find in physical stores, are easy to find on the Web. (My daughter Heather's favorite for cosmetics is Lush www.lushcanada.com).
Web-wise, cosmetics seem far more promising than perfume. Taking advantage of sharp graphics, large databases, rapid computation, and personalization, online stores could:
-- Show you colors of lipsticks, etc. side-by-side so you could compare brands and make sense of the confusing terminology
-- Analyze your skin color and then show what particular cosmetics would look like on you
-- Let you select from a menu of facial features to construct an online mannequin that resembles you, then show what the products would look like on you.
-- Allow you to use a digital photo of yourself instead of a mannequin face
-- Store images as well as information about your looks and preferences for quick future reference.
No one seems to be doing that yet, but with intense competition, you can expect these kinds of services to appear soon. We see some first halting steps in this direction at such sites as Beauty.com and Gloss.com.
Beauty.com www.beauty.com features "This month's romantic makeover". This is a step-by-step case history, with before and after pictures, and even pictures at every step of the way. with detailed instructions and hints to help you do the same kind of thing yourself. While this looks potentially very useful, it is relatively new, which means they have very few of these archived. If they had hundreds -- so you could pick a before that resembles you today and an after that you would like -- then this could be an extremely valuable resource.
Gloss.com www.gloss.com boasts a "Virtual Makeover." First, you select a model (face), but they only give you five choices. The odds that one of them looks anything like you are slim. Then you can "create a look" or choose a recommended look. For creating, you can add or remove makeup for the eyes, cheeks, or lips. But in each case they only provide you with 2-5 choices of what to add. And they only have four recommended looks -- natural, day, and two for evening. Considering the potential of the Web in terms of graphics and personalization, this application is very primitive.
The Lipstick Page www.thelipstickpage.com is also interesting for what it doesn't do -- yet. They have a section "Lipsticks of the Stars" where they list models, actresses, and singers and the brands of lipstick they use. Some, but not all, also include the name of color of their favorite lipstick. But there are no photos at all of the stars, much less before and after photos. And they don't even show the color of the lipstick. So what might have been informative and useful ends up as just amusing trivia.
The power of words
One manufacturer, AFE Cosmetics and Skincare www.afe-skincare.com adds value with clear common-sense words and helpful questionnaires. In their Skincare Salon, they provide step-by-step advice for daily skincare routines. They explain "...it's easier to maintain your skin than it is to repair damaged skin, but don't assume it's too late... We DO NOT believe in doing any more than you have to. Many people benefit from Advanced Care Products, but frequently just a good basic skincare routine will help." They offer a skin type test, a cosmetic questionnaire, and a haircare questionnaire. Rather than treat you as a statistic and provide canned advice, the staff sends you recommendations by email. This is low-tech, high-touch approach is potentially very helpful.
Beauty.com offers an open chat line with beauty advisors, and other sites have various ways for you to get answers to questions.
Best along this line are two related sites that aren't in the business of selling beauty products. About.com (formerly known as The Mining Company) has a section focused on Beauty beauty.about.com/style/beauty/mbody.htm, with S. P. Bragg as the resident expert. As with all the sections at About.com, the expert writes articles, assembles article from other sources, and puts together useful lists of links. In addition, the audience can interact with one another through chats and forums; and, when stumped, can ask the expert directly by email. Here you see the whole subject organized for you by someone who understands the field and is interested in it, rather than by a single retailer.
About.com recently purchased another related site -- expertcentral www.expertcentral.com. Here "beauty" appears under "personal and family." They have 28 experts signed up. You can read the descriptions of their interests and credentials, then submit your question to the one you want. Most of these experts respond very quickly, and for free.
PS -- Scary hairy thoughts
At Total Beauty Supply www.totalbeautysupply.com I found the following description in their selection of hair pieces, "This highest quality hair that made only from teenager hair cut it whole one-person hair ..." 14 inches long for $60.
I can't help but wonder about those teenage girls. How long would it take to grow 14 inches of hair? A year or more? And how much of that $60 might go to her -- perhaps $10?
I'm reminded of the O. Henry story "The Gift of the Magi." Only here the sale is not for a gift of love.
Beauty and cosmetics --
retailers specializing in beauty-related products
More thoughts about exercise and its relation
to weight loss: Just Can't Weight?
Online shopping advice
The Online Shopping Directory
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