I wasn’t expecting to do another of these so soon after the last one, but typically, loads of beauty related things happened straight after I published it, typically. So, a quick update…
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Some of you might have spotted that Sunday Riley has had a knuckle rapping from the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) for encouraging staff to skew reviews by writing positive ones on Sephora’s website (enough positive feedback and the negative ones disappear). The FTC investigation was instigated after an employee whistle blew on Reddit. The ‘settlement’ agreed doesn’t include any fines or financial redress (so far) so there’s no meaningful sanction for the brand other than the utter embarrassment of being caught red-handed engaging in sharp practice. The most positive thing to come from this public humiliation is that it might make other brands think twice about engaging in what is a common practice.
L’Oreal is buying (or already has, depending where you read) Mugler and Azzaro fragrances from Clarins – something of an industry bellweather that privately owned Clarins is offloading brands. And, small fact – Clarins used to be stakeholder in L’Occitane!
The Coty off-load has begun. It’s been apparent, since they bought several brands from P&G (i.e. Max Factor), that it’s been a struggle to make them successful. It looks like Wella, Clairol and OPI will be the first to be sold off. I wish they’d sell Bourjois so someone could give it the proper attention it deserves before they run that brand into the ground once and for all.
L’Oreal plans to launch paper based tubes for its cosmetics next year with a commitment to ensure that by 2025 all their packaging will be rechargeable, refillable, recyclable or compostable. A lot of credit should go to Albea, a cosmetic packaging company, for creating viable alternatives to plastic. Wet goods (shampoos, shower gels etc) are notoriously difficult to economically house in anything other than plastic so it’s a huge achievement. Industry change comes when the leaders lead, so it’s good to see that all the major players (including Unilever) carving out a sustainability path for others to follow.
The ASA has recently banned several celebrity Instagram ads for misleading their followers about weight loss gummies. While the posts from Katie Price and Lauren Goodger and were marked AD, the content was so questionable (some might say downright lies) that they were deemed irresponsible by the ASA. It’s key that being irresponsible is cited – if that’s now a legitimate category for banning posts, half of Instagram could go. I think we need a hard definition of irresponsible in a social media sense.
Johnson & Johnson (you know, the continually plagued by law suits baby powder manufacturer) has recalled thousands of powders after trace amounts of asbestos were found. There will be a CEO somewhere crashing their head against a wall.
L’Oreal owned Helena Rubenstein is making a UK comeback! It’s been gone for over 16 years so I’m excited to rediscover it.
Sources: bbc.co.uk, globalcosmeticsnews.com, wwd.com, dailymail.com, BoF.com.
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