Tom’s of Maine has launched a new toothpaste, Simply White. To promote the toothpaste, Tom’s of Maine is partnering with Sheryl Crow’s 100 Miles from Memphis Concert beginning May 7^th.  The partnership will result in the greening of the concert tour, community beautification events in select cities, and a free song download for Sheryl Crow fans. Sheryl Crow was chosen by Tom’s of Maine for her passion for the environment and healthy living. Simply White toothpaste is proven to whiten teeth, but contains no bleaching ingredients. There are also no artificial flavors, preservatives, animal testing, or animal ingredients.

Salma Hayek has teamed up with CVS to launch her own cosmetics line – Nuance. She took off 3 years from her acting career to create the line which debuted with 100 pieces.

Although new products are always great, the value of customer service cannot be ignored. In a recent survey by American Express’s Global Customer Service Barometer, 7 out of 10 Americans were willing to pay an average of 13% more with companies that provide excellent customer service. Sixty percent of the survey respondents believed that companies hadn’t improved their customer service, and 26% believed that companies are paying less to their customer service. Seventy eight percent of the respondents said they would cancel a transaction or not make an intended purchase because of poor customer service.

Dove encourages women everywhere to commit to spending one hour on a self-esteem building activity with a girl in their lives during the Dove Self-Esteem Weekend (October 22-24). Women can show how amazing things can happen when we all come together by registering their weekend activities on the interactive Dove Self-Esteem Weekend Map on www.dovemovement.com, which will serve as a visual representation of support for this cause, and can also be used to locate activities open to the public.

Dove is also inviting women to kick off the movement by sharing their inspiring message with the next generation, and simply answering the question: What do you wish you had known at 13? Dove has gathered some of its consumers and the nation’s most influential women to answer this question, and is sharing these messages as a source of inspiration for women and girls everywhere in the weeks leading up to the Dove Self-Esteem Weekend.

One of the Nation’s Largest Black Art Expos, the Philadelphia International Art Expo, celebrated twenty four years this weekend at Temple University. The aisles were filled with people interested in buying, selling and enjoying works of African American art of all kinds. The Expo was more than just traditional art however; book fairs, writing workshops, live poetry and music, a job fair and even a comedy show were among the many events that took place at the Liacouras Center throughout the weekend (November 13-15). We were onsite Saturday afternoon and were able to greet many happy faces. The ladies receiving the gift bags were very excited about the samples enclosed and couldn’t wait to see if they were winners of one of the $100 gift cards being given away. It only took a few hours to distribute all 2,000 bags. This Expo served as the kickoff of the October Gallery’s 25th Anniversary Celebration taking place next year, which they hope we can also be a part of.

Radiant, healthy skin seems to always be ‘in’. But the dewy look went out of style in 2004. So those of us with oily skin must take extra steps so our makeup doesn’t dissolve mid-day into shiny patches. To set our foundation, we liked WetnWild Natural Wear Pressed Powder.  Our foundation looked wonderfully matte the whole day and it didn’t cake in certain areas like some powders tend to. And since it has vitamins and a multi-mineral complex, your skin is in better condition after wearing it. We found it was easier to apply using a big powder brush instead of the puff that’s provided. The bonus? It comes in eco-conscious paper packaging.

This article was written by Kristen Jason at Cosmetic Promotions. For more information on Cosmetic Promotions, please check out their website www.cosproagency.com or contact Kristen direct at kcopeland@cosmeticpromotions.com.

Retail stores are using more third-party companies to assist in sustaining and building their sales in today’s tough economic climate.  While budgets get cut and staff is reduced, sales can go into a tailspin as marketing efforts are reduced.  By hiring outside firms to bolster their scaled-back marketing teams, chains are finding great results with less investment.

Cosmetic Promotions, Inc. (CPI); a marketing and promotional company based in Winter Park, Florid,a is a prime example of such a company.  Working with the Beauty Category and Marketing Managers at chains such as Walgreens, Rite Aid, Winn Dixie, and Sears, they design and implement programs and specialty events that relieve the overworked marketing staff and bring in new sales for the chains.

At Walgreens, CPI handles their monthly Beauty Box program.  This program involves sending a monthly “red box” to every store’s Beauty Department. Walgreens has between one and six beauty advisors (BAs) in each of their 7000 stores – on average 3.2 BAs in each store.  The monthly box contains kits from the various beauty vendors such as Revlon, L’Oreal, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and Unilever. Inside each kit are marketing tools ranging from signs and customer samples to continuing education training. BAs are encouraged to read and use the materials by entering to win prizes if they send in a quiz postcard for each brand.  CPI grades the postcards and sends the prizes direct to the winners.

When Walgreens eliminated its Beauty Supervisor positions, CPI created a Red Book training program for the stores to help fill the gap. The Beauty Supervisors were responsible for arranging training seminars for their stores. Without this layer, training was becoming difficult to achieve.  The Red Book program provides a book on all the brands that are stocked in the department. Each BA who completes the 50-question Red Book Quiz receives a diploma. So far over 2000 diplomas have been sent out for 2009.

In May, CPI teamed with Coty Fragrances for a Mother’s day fragrance sampling event at 200 Walgreens stores.  More than 6,300 customers received a fragrance demo and 40,000 samples were distributed. In addition, over 750 pieces were sold that day.  Some 80% of the customers had never tried one or more of the fragrances, and 72% of the customers surveyed said they would purchase at a later time, which should result in future sales.

To attract more women to its stores this season, Sears launched its upscale cosmetic and fragrance presentations in 13 stores in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.  CPI assisted in their launch of full beauty departments by conducting makeovers for four brands: Yves Rocher, Iman, L’Oreal, and Maybelline.  Almost 800 makeovers were completed during the 2-day event, which resulted in over 1,000 pieces sold – an impressive 127% closure rate. The professional makeup artists helped consumers choose the right colors and products for them.  Some 77% of the customers had never tried Yves Rocher and 69% had never tried Iman before the event, providing massive exposure to these two exlusive brands.  L’Oreal had the highest sales, with almost 15 pieces per store during the event and 400 coupons distributed to stimulate future L’Oreal sales.  Each vendor had 8 hours of demonstration time in each of the 13 stores. Some 98% of those surveyed wanted more such free makeover events at the stores. A short video was produced of the event for Sears to use in their promotional materials. On December 5^th and 12^th, the same 13 stores will host a similar event featuring Iman, Rimmel, Milani and L’Oreal brands.

At Winn Dixie, Cosmetic Buyer Karen Lagarde engaged CPI to execute a special makeover/demonstration event in their top 25 stores – most in South Florida.  The stores had an event every Saturday during September and four vendors – L’Oreal, Procter & Gamble, Wet n’ Wild, and Pacific World – shared a professional makeup artist to entice consumers to sample beauty products while doing their food shopping.  Winn Dixie sent an email blast to their Customer Rewards Card members in these markets and had in-store signs publicizing the event in the weeks leading up to it.  More than 300 pieces were sold during the event.  To add value and excitement, CPI worked with six vendors to prepare a free beauty sample bag that was distributed during the event.  Winn Dixie is pleased with the sales lift and say they intends to replicate the event before the end of the year.

At Rite Aid, CPI assists their marketing team and beauty department with various community sampling programs. Their Glam Camp Teen Program has been very successful for more than 3 years.  Street teams hand out Glam Camp duffle bags filled with beauty samples at teen-oriented events such as concerts, beauty pagaents, cheerleading camps, and college campus events.  In addition, they bring the teens back to Rite Aid via their annual Back to School campaign, which involves a spread in Seventeen Magazine, Gift with Purchase program, Glam Camp web page, and in-store makeover event.  The Back to School makeovers were conducted at 200 top Rite Aid stores and featured professional makeovers or demonstrations on St Ives, Wet n Wild, Black Radiance, Veet and Clearasil products. More than 2200 pieces were sold during the event, over 3300 demonstrations performed and the website had over 32,000 hits during the August – October time period of the event.  Other sampling events target demographics such as African-American, Hispanic, and the new Men’s sampling program.

For more information on these and other events, contact Joann Tyson (joann@cosmeticpromotions.com or 888-644-9916)

On darker complexions, some blushes can look too pastel or ashy. Iman Sheer Finish Bronzing Powder in Afterglow has a high amount of pigment, perfect for women of color. The palette has 3 shades- brown, purple, and light pink hues. Combined they make a very pretty peach color. We liked to wear it by putting it on the apples of our cheeks and pairing it with similar shades on the eyes and lips.

This article was written by Kristen Jason at Cosmetic Promotions. For more information on Cosmetic Promotions, please check out their website www.cosproagency.com or contact Kristen direct at kcopeland@cosmeticpromotions.com.

Bright coats are considered to be a must have for the Fall 2009 (think colors like teal and amethyst). This is a welcome change from the usual neutral colors. CoverGirl is right on this trend with their Eye Enhancers 4-kit Shadow palette in Tropical Fusion 205. The colors are vivid and will go perfectly with the colors in style this season. Although the colors are very vivid in the palette, they don’t go on very heavy. If you want a more extreme look, try dampening the applicator before applying.

This article was written by Kristen Jason at Cosmetic Promotions. For more information on Cosmetic Promotions, please check out their website www.cosproagency.com or contact Kristen direct at kcopeland@cosmeticpromotions.com.

Bold lip color is making a comeback, and we have found the perfect shade of red in the MAX Factor Vivid Impact Lipcolor line- 80 Gilty Rose. We can see why this was a winner of Marie Claire Magazine’s 25 Best Beauty Products of the Year. The pigment in the lipstick is bold, but the texture is lightweight and moisturizing like a lip balm. Cakey red lipstick is horrific, and thanks to MAX Factor we can wear daring lip color without looking like we’re celebrating Halloween early.

This article was written by Kristen Jason at Cosmetic Promotions. For more information on Cosmetic Promotions, please check out their website www.cosproagency.com or contact Kristen direct at kcopeland@cosmeticpromotions.com.

Eyeshadows may last forever, but it’s important to always have  fresh mascara.  We really liked L’Oreals new Extra Volume Collagen Mascara. Although it didn’t do much lengthening, we got a lot of volume. This mascara works by plumping the lashes from the inside out with hydra collagen. The brush is designed to get even your smallest lashes as well. What we liked best about this mascara is that we could keep layering without having to worry about clumping.

This article was written by Kristen Jason at Cosmetic Promotions. For more information on Cosmetic Promotions, please check out their website www.cosproagency.com or contact Kristen direct at kcopeland@cosmeticpromotions.com.

Yet another reason that our feelings our hurt that Max Factor won’t be available in U.S. stores in 2010. Max Factor’s ColorGenius Foundation is what we’ve been looking for. It’s lightweight, but it provides full coverage. The formula is mineral enriched, and has a ‘patented smart pigment technology’. So what does that mean to you? Even if it’s not the perfect shade for your skin, after application the foundation will adjust to your color. Best of all, it’s designed for sensitive skin.

This article was written by Kristen Jason at Cosmetic Promotions. For more information on Cosmetic Promotions, please check out their website www.cosproagency.com or contact Kristen direct at kcopeland@cosmeticpromotions.com.