1. Intro
So the question is: what do you think your customers want?
If you’re like me, a lot of the time, you spend your time thinking about what people don’t want. You spend hours researching what they haven’t even asked for or thought of themselves and that is a waste of time, but it is also very valuable time.
As I write this blog post I am looking at my audience and I am trying to figure out if they are interested in this product. It was a short-term research exercise and it took about an hour for me to get up to speed on the subject matter (what does this product do? How does it differ from other products on the market?).
But there were two things that stood out from my brief study. The first was that there were two clear categories of people who are not interested in makeup – women who don’t want to wear makeup and men who don’t wear makeup. The second was that men are much more likely to be interested in something that looks nice than women are (see what I mean about them being more visual?).
2. becca cosmetics champagne glow palette
In this post I’d like to address some of the comments from the previous post “Becca’s first big monthly release is just around the corner!”. There have been some interesting points since then – I think it’s worth addressing them all!
1. What did you do in Q4, 2018?
2. Is there anything we can do to help?
3. What are your goals for Q1 2019?
4. Has any of this raised any red flag bells with you?
5. Would you like us to be supportive?
3. swatches of this product
It’s no secret that I am a big, big fan of becca cosmetics (though I don’t usually wear much makeup), so when I saw this palette on QVC and thought, “I wonder what it looks like?” and, “How much does it cost? Is it real?” I had to have it.
I was thrilled to see that this palette is $35.98 on QVC and has 4 colors in the palette; each color costs $49.99 directly from becca cosmetics. The colors are called champagne glow, shimmering pearl, shimmering pearl bronze, shimmering pearl gold (which is a very dark green shade). The palette is sculpted in such a way that you can use the smaller eyeshadow as well as the larger one (the larger one has more pigmented color but still looks natural when swatched).
The product description says that the colors will provide “years of glowing beauty!” and that:
In the center of its face sits our first legend: Becca Champagne Glow. Becca Champagne Glow is a lavender-colored champagne blush with hints of champagne gold sparkle for an effortless bronzed glow. In the outer corners sit our second legend: Becca Sundae Bronze which features buttery-smooth bronze sparkle with hints of champagne gold for a warm bronze look. To finish off your look we also have Becca Shimmering Pearl which features sheer to medium shimmer for a luminous glow all over your face!
So what does my swatch look like? Well… Let me tell you: It looks really nice on me; while not perfect, it is very close to my expectations — except for how dark it is compared to how light my skin appears naturally — and very wearable without looking too harsh or too shiny or too glittery or even too orange or too yellow or whatever. ?
The only downside with becca cosmetics products is….well…your packaging! That’s right — they are not sold in stores and they are not available online so if you want one you need to buy one direct from becca cosmetics yourself! They also do not offer different sizes so if you want multiple palettes their website doesn’t let you choose colors separately — unless you pay extra for shipping on multiple palettes! But yeah — don’t worry about those things: just buy them from becca cosmetics themselves
4. tips to apply this product
I’ve had this palette for nearly two years now, and I’m writing this as a result of my experience with it. This palette is not for everyone, but if you’re into high-end makeup and are willing to spend a few dollars on something to enhance your look, then I highly suggest you give it a try.
The thing that impresses me most about the palette is how well it complements other products from both the becca cosmetics and champagne collection. The product itself is very lightweight and portable; it doesn’t take up a lot of space. It also comes in many colors: becca cosmetics colors, champagne colors, and neutral colors (which I chose because they are less dramatic). And the pigmentation is fantastic; all of the colors are easy to work with, but also have enough shine that they keep your makeup from looking flat.
I have been using this product since its launch in late 2015; in fact, when I first bought it I was working on an entirely different project at the time (when reviewing other types of beauty products), so I didn’t use this palette right away. However, I did decide to try out one of the champagne colors — Paris — just to see what would happen when I swatched them together. As soon as my face was covered in glitter and sparkle for an extended period of time (in combination with some other goodies), my cheeks became flushed and looked great!
I would definitely recommend this product for people who love good quality makeup every day. The pigmentation is very good; it doesn’t look unnatural or fake. My only regret about the palette is that the brush included isn’t anything special – it only swatches well onto bare skin (and not at all onto powder). That being said, my trip to Sephora this summer led me to get a new brush specifically designed for these palettes… as soon as I got home from my trip though they were sold out!
5. pros and cons of this product
The beauty industry (just like any other industry) has been flooded with products and technologies that promise to make everything better. And many of these have a good chance of being better than what we have, but it’s hard to tell if they will be the best.
These days, it’s not just cosmetics that are in flux, but everything from photo editing software to stocks trading algorithms. With no clear winner on the horizon — as anyone who has tried to sell a product knows — it is worth studying the pros and cons of each type of product before you decide which one you want to invest in. One bad trend is that companies forget about the broader ecosystem around their products. Historically, the way most marketing campaigns have worked has been based on tying-up with a key influencer or creating a community around an idea (think Facebook events and Twitter hashtags). But while we may need these kinds of tactics today, taking them out of context can leave you vulnerable when things change.
So, let me start by saying I don’t think spending $10k on lipstick is a good idea — just because someone else spent $10k on lipstick doesn’t mean your lipstick will do as good a job as theirs did!
The most important thing here is creating an understanding about what this product does for your brand. For example:
• Does it make your face look better? If so, then why? What about the other users? How does that help you grow or maintain your user base? Does this product make your company stronger or weaker in any way? Does it make you more or less appealing to potential customers? The answer to these questions can be found by surveying people who already use this model across multiple platforms and comparing how much time and money they spend on each platform: is there a correlation between how well this model works for others and how much time and money they spend on yours? You could also ask people who aren’t using this model but who love it: do they feel like they get value out of it? In my opinion, this test should be done before you invest in anything — not after! Otherwise, you may end up wasting years developing some new feature without realizing the value its presence would bring to customers who didn’t know about your brand yet.
• Is there something different here that makes me feel like I got something I couldn’t get anywhere else (ie: cross-
6. conclusion
I’ve been using becca cosmetics champagne glow palette for 10 days.
The palette is full of bright, shimmery colors, and except for the palette’s packaging, the only thing that distinguishes it from a regular beauty product is its price.
I think the main reason I love it so much is that it looks like a good-looking sample of makeup (even if it doesn’t give you any of the best performance or color payoff of real makeup).
The packaging is pretty minimalistic but functional: big enough to tell people what you can do with your palette and not too small to look cheap or forgettable.
And while I think I would have liked things to look prettier, I’m still quite happy with how the palette looks. Even if it doesn’t work better than my old cream shadow palettes and doesn’t give me what I want in terms of color payoff, there are still many things to like about this one.