Elisabeth King reports on Gwyneth Paltrow investing in Juice Beauty, Sarah Gadon appointed new face of Armani Beauty, an up and down ride for US glossies and the 2015 #beauty20 awards shortlist.
Gwyneth Paltrow invests in Juice Beauty
Beauty brands have long chased Gwyneth Paltrow as the face to launch a major campaign - from through to Hugo Boss and Max Factor. But endorsements aren't enough and the ageless blonde has signed on with Juice Beauty as a shareholder and creative director of makeup. Paltrow, who also recently invested in Blo Blow Dry Bar, already showcases the organic beauty brand on her lifestyle website, Goop.
Juice Beauty retails in over 1200 doors in the US, including Ulta and Wholefoods, and in a synergistic move has also invested in Goop. The five year renewal deal with Paltrow is aimed at leveraging the brand to multi-million dollar status by 2020 says founder Karen Behnke.
The first fruit of the union will be a 75 SKU makeup collection for eyes, lips, cheeks and face with products priced from US$24 to US$49. To be launched later this year, Paltrow will also be involved in packaging designs, the choice of colours and formulas. According to analysts, the range should pull in US$15 million within the first 12 months of launch. Also on the drawing board is a lineup of six skincare products slated for release in 2016.
Sarah Gadon appointed new face of Armani Beauty
The Canadian actress may not have high recognition beyond her fan base but the 27 year old Toronto-native is the new face of Armani Beauty. She first hit the big time in David Cronenburg's 2011 love triangle thriller A Dangerous Method about Freud and Jung, alongside Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley and Viggo Mortensen. But she has 20 feature films and 30 TV films under her belt.
There's plenty more in the movie pipeline, including the supernatural flick, The 9th Life of Louis Drax, with Jamie (50 Shades of Grey) Dornan and Aaron (Breaking Bad) Paul. She also underwent a dramatic change of hair colour to play the Queen as a young woman in the up-and-coming release, A Royal Night Out.
She follows in the footsteps of another brunette - Megan Fox - as the visage of the toney makeup brand. Says Giorgio Armani himself: "Sarah has the most delicate, classically beautiful facial features, with her blonde hair, clear complexion and crystalline eyes. For me, she is an example of contemporary beauty. I was struck by her clear, fresh eyes, as well as her natural elegance".
An up and down ride for US glossies
You win some; you lose some was the message for US magazines in 2014. The decline in newsstand sales slowed to 11% reports MagNet. But the fourth quarter pointed to a recovery, following a precipitous drop in the third quarter. Supermarkets continued to top the sales outlet rankings - 36.2% of the newsstand market - followed by supercenters (13.6%), drugstores (11.6%) and bookshops (10%).
There was plenty of good news, too. As the US magazine industry continues to focus on a multi-platform approach across print, digital, video and web, its audience grew 10.1% to 1.59 billion reports The Association of Magazine Media. Mobile consumption was a major driver, with usage rising to 18% from 11% a year earlier.
The top three magazine brands in terms of audience were: People (44 million), Better Homes and Gardens ( 39.4 million) and AARP The Magazine, a bi-monthly for retirees which has the largest print circulation in the US (35 million).
Cosmopolitan topped the women's fashion and beauty magazine sector for the second half of 2014 - 30 million - followed by Glamour (18.3 million), Vogue (15.4 million), Vanity Fair (13.9 million), O, The Oprah Magazine (13.2 million), InStyle (12.6 million), Seventeen (10.7 million), Allure (10.3 million), Elle (9.7 million), Harper's Bazaar (6.1 million), Marie Claire (6 million), Teen Vogue (5.6 million), Lucky (3.7 million), Town and Country (3.5 million) and W (1.6 million).
The 2015 #beauty20 awards shortlist
A panel of international beauty and marketing experts combed through 300 award entries across 10 categories to select finalists for the third annual innoCos #beauty 20 Awards. Recognising innovation in e-commerce and digital marketing in the beauty industry, the winners will be announced in London on April 29th.
- Best Twitter -, It Cosmetics, , OPI and Simple Skin
- Best Facebook - Bee Nature, Burt's Bees, Butter London, OPI and
- Best Pinterest - , Fresh, L'Oréal Paris, OPI and Rituals, a Dutch bath and body brand
- Best Instagram - Benefit, Caudalie, Ellis Faas (a Dutch makeup artist brand), Illamasqua and Make Up For Ever
- Best App - Clarins, L'Oreal Paris, , OPI and Sephora
- Best Online Video - , Dove Men+ Care, Kerastase, L'Oreal Paris and Body
- Best e-Commerce Website - Clarins, , Estée Lauder, Mary Kay and
- Best Beauty Brand Online - Benefit, , Elie Saab, Make Up For Ever and Sephora
Snippets from the wires
- Beauty sampling boxes have not done as well in Asia as they have in Europe, the US and Australia. Last year alone, the number of sampling companies in Southeast Asia dropped from 51 to less than twenty. Berlin-based Glossybox was nearly torpedoed after expanding in Asia, pulling out of Australia and Taiwan because the competition from market leaders such as Bellabox was too strong. Retreating back to its European home base, Glossybox has announced a 25% increase in its customer base and a return to profit, following a 33% cut in marketing costs.
- Joy Chen, the former CEO of Inc, was instrumental in the brand's US success. Set to repeat the same feat, she has been appointed President and CEO of H2O Plus. The US marine-based skincare brand was acquired in 2011 by the Japanese multinational Pola Orbis, also the owner of Jurlique.
- In a bid to create new revenue streams and monetise its digital content, Conde Nast has shuttered NowManifest. An online platform of name bloggers, including Susie Bubble, Anna Dello Russo, Derek Blasberg, BryanBoy and Fashion Toast, the portal was acquired by Conde Nast in 2012, following the acquisition of Fashion Networks by Fairchild Fashion Media. The publisher announced it would focus more efforts on Style.com and the bloggers will have to negotiate their own advertising through their individual sites without the help of Conde Nast.
- US department stores such as Neiman Marcus, Macy's and Bloomingdale's enjoy big online sales in Australia. Bergdorf Goodman's has followed suit with its new global e-commerce site - Border Free - offering shipping to 100 countries, including Australia.
- @cosme, Japan's largest beauty community website, attracts 6.2 million visitors a month to check reviews and buy products. Over 5% of users live in China and the site is trying to attract more with a Chinese language service on Tmall, the digital platform that boasts just under half of China's online sales - US$43.9 billion in 2014.
- Vale John Fairchild. The visionary who turned Women's Wear Daily from an earnest trade magazine to a powerful international presence, died on Friday - aged 87. Known as "The Great White Shark" because of his shock of snowy hair, he was responsible for turning designers such as Yves Saint Laurent and Oscar de la Renta into celebrities and coining some of the most enduring of nicknames - Jackie O for Jacqueline Kenndedy Onassis and Kaiser Karl for Karl Lagerfeld.
