1. Introduction
sephora bare minerals is a brand name I’ve used for years. I’m pretty proud of it and it has an iconic feel to it, but I’ve evolved from designing products that just do one thing well to products that have a real movement in them and can be used for more than one purpose.
It all started when my wife and I were talking about what she wanted me to make her for Christmas. She wanted something “beautiful,” simple, sophisticated and modern. She soon discovered that sephora bare minerals was perfect! It was the best gift she could have asked for because she wanted something elegant, sophisticated and modern but at the same time had a touch of luxury.
I also think sephora bare minerals is a great brand name because I still remember its roots as a product name on my high school homework board (and since then it’s been used quite often by people who are really into cosmetics). It has an iconic feel to it, conveying beauty without being too “girly” or over the top.
2. Bare Minerals Warmth
I absolutely love this brand and I have been a faithful customer for over 10 years. I bought two palettes before buying the new color. The original is too dark and the new one is too light. What the heck is going on?
A few weeks ago, sephora sent me a message to let me know that they had an offer for my friends out there: $5 off your order of $50 or more with code TOTW15
I immediately checked their site and found that any order over $50 would get you a freebie ($5 value) from sephora.com . My question to you is: why would anyone buy this deal?
You see, it does not offer any product at all. It’s about branding, not product. And as such, it is just another way of getting some free publicity for sephora, which has been in existence since 1999 and has apparently managed to go unchanged since then (though they are still willing to send you free samples). It’s also probably good PR for whoever runs sephora (their CEO used to be CEO of Nivea ).
If you want an honest review, I’m going to say that I don’t think it’s worth your time or money (at least while you wait for the freebies). But if you want good marketing and want something different than what we normally see from these companies, then perhaps it’s worth taking a look at their offer . If nothing else, it shows people can get something pretty nice even if they don’t have a lot of money to spend on things like makeup.
3. Bare Minerals Original Foundation
This is a beauty product, which is very hard to make a stand-out in. The reason: the formula.
The beauty industry has been moving away from basic foundations for some time now, and many brands have adopted this trend by adding ingredients like shea butter and mango butter, but in doing so they have lost the foundation effect that has been so popular since the early 2000s (when bare minerals was first popularized). As a result, foundation fans have been searching for other options for years. I’ve tried several foundations over the years and I often come back to bare minerals because it does what you want it to do — not only does it cover imperfections, it filters out excess pigment without looking cakey or caked on.
But that formula is tough to reproduce. This is particularly true of formulas that are designed for sensitive skin (like bare minerals) because your skin will react differently than if you had used a standard foundation with normal-to-dry texture. So there are two ways of trying to recreate it:
You can use ingredients like mango butter (which is awesome in its own right), but you’re going to need to remove hermetic ingredients like propylene glycol (which can be problematic on sensitive skin) or help them work better by incorporating emollients into your formula (like hyaluronic acid). If you decide to use any of these methods, please take care when adding them because they can make your foundation feel sticky and/or cakey if you aren’t careful with how much you apply.
And remember that this isn’t about creating “your perfect makeup”; it’s about creating a foundation that works well for most people who have problems with their skin texture or who simply prefer a lighter finish (which won’t work well for everyone).
One of the things I do when I hear commentary from friends about sephora being too “basic” is remind them that sephora isn’t really “basic at all. It works perfectly well for me as someone who has fair skin and needs something rich enough without having too much pigment in my makeup — that isn’t an issue at all with bare minerals warmth. And hey — come back whenever you want! You should probably give us more feedback on what works best for you! 🙂 “
4. Bare Cleanser
You might have heard of sephora, the cosmetics company that has a cult following among beauty bloggers and the famed makeup artist community. Clearly, they have a hard time keeping their products out of the hands of celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton. Their sephora bare minerals range is one of their more popular products — a cleansing oil whose very name is a play on the name of its target demographic: “sexy ladies” (or at least those who are in search of ‘sexy’).
If you’re into beauty products, then this might be your first introduction to sephora — or if you’re not into beauty products, then it might be your first introduction to sephora. You may have even used an exact shade or two in your day-to-day routine.
Not only does the brand promise to give you clean skin for light days and moisturized skin for oily ones, but it also promises to make your skin look youthful by removing excess oil and dead skin cells. Like many others with this kind of marketing, sephora has made some big claims about how their product is going to do wonders for you — both in terms of immediate results and long-term effects. In fact, they go as far as claiming that their product could potentially make you look 10 years younger than when you started using it!
This is definitely not true: no amount of time spent in front of a mirror will make you look ten years younger. And although some people swear by such products for any number of reasons including improving acne scarring or smoothing fine lines (though I wouldn’t recommend doing either), I think there are a couple reasons why this particular product doesn’t work for most people:
First off, people who use such products tend to use them chronically – meaning that they use them once or twice per day! This isn’t exactly ideal because many people already have fairly consistent hair care routines so that they don’t need special care every single day (a common reaction when trying something new) – which means they would most likely find that changes over time aren’t as dramatic as with some other facial cleansers (which are usually more targeted towards on-the-go users). Secondly, some people can be picky about what cleansers actually clean – which means they will stay away from anything that contains alcohols or oils. This isn’t really the
5. Bare Escentuals Line
Bare Escentuals is the newest entry in the beauty category and it’s a beauty business owned by Axe, the famous hair care brand.
Axe launched a new line of products called “bare minerals”, which are actually to be found in Janice Joyner’s closet. The brand is one of the companies I would recommend you check out, even if you aren’t into make-up.
The line consists of 10 products: moisturizing lotion, makeup remover wipe, skin cleanser and face mask, body moisturizer, body scrub and body wash – all for about $10 per bottle. It all seems like an awful lot of stuff for so little money. But let’s have a look at it:
1. Moisturizing Lotion
This is basically just a thick cream that smells nice (and actually works well) but lacks any significant moisturizing power. A strange ingredient list — oatmeal, jojoba oil etc. – suggests that this is some sort of cleanser or exfoliator but it isn’t giving me any sense that it removes anything except dead skin (which couldn’t be more irrelevant to most people). There are some other ingredients too but I couldn’t get any sense that they would help my skin absorb moisture better or reduce wrinkles (which could definitely happen with proper use). Just a strange thing to have in your product; and if you can call something like this “moisturizing cream” that should say something about your company: whatever name you give to these products probably sounds terrible!
2. Moisturizing Lotion for Face
If this was my face I would probably never touch anything else so I might as well give up on this one right now (I almost feel like giving Janice her money back!). The same thing goes for the other two products too; they don’t work very well at all and just leave me sticky and uncomfortably oily — no wonder Axe decided not to market them as moisturizers!
3. Moisturizing Lotion for Body
The kind of stuff that puts me off from regular soap is not allowed in their formulation and their body lotion has very strong chemicals which are not suitable for use by most people anyway — especially since we live in an age where many people seem to think it’s ok to slather themselves in toxic chemicals every time they shower!
6. Conclusion
With that said, let’s wrap up this series for now. I hope it has provided a good overview of the concepts, principles and techniques you should consider applying when launching your product. You should go over these things in detail with your team as well, but as a general rule of thumb, I’d recommend consulting each one at least once before starting to move forward. Most importantly: don’t forget to ask yourself if you are settling for “good enough.”
If you have any thoughts on what I have covered here then feel free to leave comments and share them with others. Also feel free to follow me on twitter @cfpapaz or visit my website www.c-f-p-a-z.com for more information (and a growing collection of press releases).