The big news today is the sale of Liz Earle to Avon.
Liz Earle described themselves as the biggest independent UK personal care company – a claim that might be disputed by some other companies but was nonetheless a well founded one. They currently develop their products at their site on the Isle of Wight, where I would imagine that they are a significant employer as they employ around 300 people.
There are a lot of blogs around on beauty products done by enthusiasts and lovers of stuff. They are great fun to read One of the best of them is British Beauty Blogger. This is updated regularly and I have to say it is my go to resource for what is being launched.
Colin’s Beauty Pages Podcast 2 Click to listen now. Right click and save to listen later. (Control and click on a Mac)
Regency Dandy (from Wikipedia)
If you want to advertise a product on television most countries have some kind of regulations in place about what you can and can’t say. Specific claims usually need some kind of justification. And rightly so – you shouldn’t be able to lie about what your stuff can do. But there is a lot you can say about a product that is not in any way specific and there aren’t any particular rules about this. Nor could there be. The professionals in advertising distinguish between what they call ‘the claims’ and other stuff intended to promote the product.
The other stuff is called puff.
Regular readers will have noticed that I haven’t been blogging that much lately. But I haven’t been inactive. I have for some time thought that what I do would lend itself well to being done in a podcast format rather than just text. Very good. Unfortunately, it turned out that I didn’t have any of the skills or knowledge to actually do any kind of a podcast, let alone a good one. I have, to some extent, rectified this now. I have now at least worked out how to get a podcast recorded and online. It has turned out to be a good deal more difficult than I at first imagined. But here is my first offering. I can’t promise that I will get another one up any time soon, but when I do I hope it will be the start of a steadily improving product.
Colin’s Beauty Pages Podcast Episode 1 Click to listen now. Right click and save to listen later. (Control and click on a Mac)
If you prefer to read it – here is the script
Steve Jobs – Lessons for the Cosmetic Industry?
About the same time that there was all the fuss about the launch of the iPad, over on the bit of LinkedIn where the cosmetic chemists hang out a Read the rest of this entry »
With profits of €1.8 billion, they aren’t exactly barely scraping by, but profits are down. L’Oréal are not performing as well as other big companies at the moment.
Not directly related to beauty, but a handy reminder that there are always people out there ready to separate you from your money and not too scrupulous about how they go about it.
Or read the transcript
Recent archeological research has turned up evidence that Neanderthals ground up shells to adorn their bodies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jan/11/caveman-neanderthal-makeup-spain
The kind of man that a woman finds attractive varies over her monthly cycle. During ovulation more masculine looking men are rated more highly. Also men with more dissimilar immune systems are more appealing. During the less fertile stages, less masculine and more similar men immunologically are the preference.
I am normally a bit of a news junkie but I have been traveling this week so I haven’t had my normal newspaper fix. As a result of this the first I heard about the rather gruesome story from Peru was from a briefing note from the cosmetic manufacturers trade association. The note was assuring people that cosmetics are made to high standards and are fully assessed for safety prior to release. It sort of assumed you had read the news story which I hadn’t, so I got the impression that there was some sort of Sweeney Todd type of arrangement going on where people were being processed into bars of soap or pots of cream.
It was quite a scary thought.
Now I have read the actual press coverage I am both horrified, like everyone else would be, but also rather baffled.
Places I think are worth a visit
I never miss this blog and neither should you. Best coverage of new product launches on the web.
There is always something new on this blog and something buzzing in the forum.
The London Beauty Review is a good place to find thorough and honest product reviews.
