The New Beauty Exper-tease

The fashion makeup brand has arrived and, with it, a whole new creative opportunity for the beauty category.

Written by Jonathan Ford, Pearlfisher

Who actually are today’s beauty experts? Just a couple of years ago, we bowed in the direction of the beauty brand leader’s quarterly collections. Today, with new brands, beauty bibles, blogs, apps, dedicated retailers…the choice is boundless and has both opened up and diluted our quest for a definitive source of expertise. But I think the “high street” could once again become a strong contender as it teases us back with new offers and a very exciting, evolving and inspirational new aesthetic. The fashion makeup brand has arrived and, with it, a whole new creative opportunity for the beauty category.

Doctor’s Orders

The beauty giants are still omnipresent. But, recently—and particularly when it comes to skin care innovation—we have perhaps paid more attention to the advent of the modern day experts: the Dr. brands. These brands have, by and large, given us a clinical but modern and efficacious product and packaging offer. But apart from adding new products, the overall look and feel of these brands has not necessarily changed—until recently. Now, they are starting to embrace a more colorful and visual language as they aim to keep up with the world and embrace and meet new trends. Dr. Nicholas Perricone—founder of the hugely successful Perricone MD—has relegated his name for the launch of his new “Superfood” skin collection called Super. The clinical efficacy message is still present, but reinforced through the use of a first aid cross as part of the logo rather than relying on the Dr. credentials. And color—using the luscious and bright superfood color palette—is the key visual tool and signifier for the products in the range. It’s a brave and bold move design-wise, and wholeheartedly embraces a trend (fashion/food)—a much more difficult proposition for skin care as opposed to cosmetics, but one that’s perhaps necessary as we look to what is happening around us.

Supermarket Sweep

The “supermarket sweep” phenomenon—where we buy fashion, food and cosmetics from one of our leading multiples—is nothing new. But this all-in-one retail experience is becoming an even better prospect as these retailers align with celebrity chefs, launch boutique clothes ranges and up the ante when it comes to premium ingredients and premium looking skin care.

Budget UK supermarket Aldi recently launched Renovage with the phytocell ingredient said to be in many of the celebrities’ creams of choice—and which cost 28 times more. We may hear more about the brand leaders but if the expertise is distilled and made accessible to us from a retailer we already know and trust, then the question of choice seems a no brainer. And Aldi, while perhaps imitating a product, has not just played copycat, but has employed a simple yet premium design using metallic finishes and focusing on the embossed symbol of the apple from which phytocell is extracted. It’s not necessarily about being or looking cheap, but rather recognizing that people have higher hopes and expectations of the high street now and expect a very close comparison between products offered by boutique and dedicated beauty retailers. And in this wireless world of instant buying gratification, it’s the high street’s chance to offer a new quick-turnaround beauty which is not just bang on trend, but leading the trends, when it comes to color, ingredients, naming and—most important—design.

The High Street Honeys

Monsoon sister store, Accessorize, has a new makeup range featuring over 150 products. This new brand is not only targeting its key—and captive—demographic, but has the potential to capture a new audience. For example, the glitzy, chunky Eye Crayons will surely appeal to the young and girly customers while the exquisitely packaged pastel nail polishes in gold-capped bottles with a gold, filigree butterfly motif will also probably catch the eye of an older consumer.

In general, we are looking at basic and mass production in terms of shape and structure. But, it’s not about a backward step or dumbing-down for design. Rather, the opposite is true. These new high street brands have a very different—and actually totally new—design strategy from the beauty brand leaders.
The design challenge for these brands is threefold. They need to find the best way to replicate—and innovate—the parent brand style; devise the right look for a new brand extension; and also ensure that this look works for entry into a new but symmetrical category with enough design differentiation to stand out.

Loving That Lifestyle

Probably the most feted and significant launch to-date in design terms comes from Topshop’s Heavy Duty makeup range. In a line-up with Chanel or Dior, Topshop’s packaging looks no less creative or premium, but has the advantage of being able to offer up a trend (in this case, “industrial”) more quickly and cost effectively than these previously revered style setters. And, probably more significantly, retailers such as Topshop are now offering a more holistic branded lifestyle experience and, with it, fostering a new and different sense of loyalty and longevity.

Obviously recognizing the need to provide a more holistic offer and not be left behind, designer shoe/fashion brand Jimmy Choo has launched its debut fragrance. Nothing encapsulates modern glamour like Jimmy Choo shoes and handbags, and the new fragrance is positioned as “your fast track to the confident, sensual Jimmy Choo lifestyle…” It is, of course, beautifully designed with an exquisite, faceted glass bottle resembling snakeskin and housed in a snakeskin box. The bottle and packaging design equals the quality and detailing of the parent product, but positioned as “the fragrance to match your shoes” may be taking it a literal step too far.

Fashion beauty brands evolve as a direct extension of the parent brand with consumers buying into the brand first and the product colors second. This contrasts with the brands that have evolved to have a heritage in their own right and become classic beauty institutions (YSL, Chanel, Dior, lately Giorgio Armani), attracting through long-founded expertise and kudos via simple, iconic branding and marques and classic color palettes.

Sell Out? Or Sub-it?

A lot depends on your starting point. And we could even add an option to the mix. Maybe it is easier for those brands already visible on and straddling the high street market to truly take advantage of the new opportunity and get it right? Fake Bake is an interesting case in point with its New Look sub-brand.
The range is New Look rather than Fake Bake branded. The product has less of the chemical that tans, a more affordable price point and a cool but pretty pink and gold colorway with a cute and charming naming strategy: Bland to Tanned Sun Kissed and Pasty to Tasty Wash Off Instant.

This strategy may not work for everybody, but splits the targeting through very different, but still credible, creative routes without losing integrity.

Don’t Rule It Out

It’s not necessarily about beauty breaking the rules—there no longer are any rules. But it is about taking a more fluid approach, and the high street brands already have the right infrastructure to support this.

I think we will probably continue to see a mixing and matching of designer and high street style when it comes to fashion. And now, the future or ideal scenario for beauty seems to be a hybrid of professional beauty versus fashion-led beauty. Core products will continue to drive loyalty while fashion and limited edition (done to perfection by Chanel and its coveted nail varnishes) drive increased footfall and build brand image.

We have to admire these high street makeup brands for facing a complex strategy head on, for not over- or under-designing and for not being afraid to literally clock the trends by offering new products and design with greater frequency. Above all, they are providing a new “exper-tease” and laying down a creative direction and challenge that will surely impact the whole sector as it continues to gather momentum.

About the Author
Jonathan Ford is a designer and creative partner of Pearlfisher – www.pearlfisher.com