Smackages is giving away free Beauty Alert! label packs to lucky winners. You simply take a survey to see how old your make-up is, and you are registered to win! Smackages does lots of great cosmetic promotions, so this is a great site to hook up with.
Beauty Alert! was in a great MSNBC article on germs in cosmetics and make-up hoarding. As a former hoarder myself, I was in good company when Tracy Turnure, Miss Washington, also fessed up to being a person who keeps things for years on end.
(photo: Carissa Ray/msnbc.com)
A few weeks back, I met the founder of a new golf magazine for women, Shi Shi Putter. Her name is Elizabeth Noblitt, and her concept is to put all the attire, accessories, and cool places in a magazine for women who like to golf….and look cute, too. Here is a link to her latest article, focusing on how sunscreen expires. Elizabeth had worked in the salon business, so she has some great tips on what products to buy. Meeting her kind of makes me want to take up golf!
I heard once that Americans don’t like words they can’t pronounce. Whether it be personal names or business names, keep away from anything that isn’t easy to say or spell. Uh oh. My name is Stacya, pronounced Sta-sha. And this company I like Odacite…..I am not sure how to pronounce it, yet anyway. The company president has this terrific French accent, and I am ashamed to ask him how to say it at this point! I will ask one of my French friends. Odacite is a fresh skin care company that makes creams and cleansers in small batches, and with no preservatives. It is a perfect reason to download the new Beauty Alert! app which can remind you when you should toss out your expired product and get a fresh replacement. It takes me about 2 months to go through a 1.7 ounce jar of cream, so this company should be perfect for me!
I have a beautiful sample kit of the Gentle Rejuvenating Cleanser, Refreshing Toner Mist, Night Time Repair Serum, Day Moisturizer, Deep Hydrating Mask, Jojoba Beads Exfoliant, and their Ultra-Effective Eye Cream. It came with printed cards that list the ingredients, which have no parabens, petrochemicals or fragrances. The beauty part is, they stamp a “fresh date” or what they call a Freshiency System (trademark…yay!) so that customers know these products haven’t been sitting around in some warehouse for months or years. I am on my 2nd day of using my little, elegant sample kit. Tonight I will do the mask! So far, so fresh.
The Beauty Alert! Facebook fan page just got this tip, Mark Di Vincenzo has a new book called Buy Ketchup in May and Fly at Noon. On page 50, he lists when to toss out cosmetics. It is just a half pages of suggestions, but loaded with good information and guidelines. The book also includes lots of other things I have always wanted listed somewhere, like when to buy fruit and other produce when it is at it’s best. Beauty Alert! “likes” Buy Ketchup in May and Fly at Noon.
I love Today.com! This is one of the most compelling articles yet on why we should toss out old cosmetics. Here is the link to read about Miss Washington’s giant collection of old make-up from days gone by. Our Beauty Alert! labeling system is listed, and the writer mentions my gross out bath tub experience with an oat meal bath soak….and mealy worms. So yucky. Read up! And hoarders, keep coming forward.
*Technology Like This Keeps Business Fun and Exciting*
“In 2007, my business partner, Alissa Schoenfeld, had this idea that women should have a way to know how old their make-up is, since cosmetics do eventually expire and have to be replaced. Having been a make-up artist for over 20 years, I knew that if there was a way to make it fun and easy, we could educate the public about how long each cosmetic item lasts once you open it up and start using it. Back then I thought that mascara was good for up to six months. After doing our research, we found it is actually at levels of bacteria (33%) at 3 months. When we first got started, we created physical stickers consumers could adhere to each item, and write the date once opened. We found the best writable, waterproof materials, a factory (in the USA), and a great local artist, John Engerman. We chose the name Beauty Alert!, designed our logo, started the process to become a registered trademark (we are) and in the process we became a Washington State Certified all women owned business. We made our label package, which are waterproof, writable, color coded labels that help consumers be aware of the guidelines on when a product should be tossed out.”
“The end result was fantastic, but the hardest part was getting distribution, and getting the word out. Having such a low cost item meant that we could not afford to advertise, and would have to slowly build our brand and our concept. Last year, we had this idea we should take our concept for keeping track of cosmetics and make an app for iphone. Electronic labels! I felt lucky that I had lived in Seattle for so long that I knew many people at the top of the technology world. With the help of the technical founder of a large company here, Shel Kaphan, and project manager Ericka Lock, we story boarded the concept out. We used the same artist for the electronic labels as we did for the stickers sold it the pack, and he designed some new icons for us as well.”
“We tried different ways to alert the customer that the product had expired, and decided on an alarm. We also made the app able to keep track of each item, so women could know the color and brand they like, and when the alarm goes off, the customer can repurchase that same cosmetic online. The Beauty Alert! app makes us able to continually tinker with the concept, to make it better. With our actual stickers, we must pay re-tooling costs at the factory if we want to make even the tiniest change.”
“The app also helped our company with branding, and can reach people in other countries. I think technology like this keeps business fun and exciting, and has allowed us to collaborate with people we might not have crossed paths with in the beauty industry. We love seeing the evolution of Beauty Alert,” said Stacya Silverman of Beauty Alert.
Visit www.beautyalert.biz for more information, and download the app here http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/beauty-alert/id385957049?mt=8
Vivian Lee is a mineral based cosmetic line, created by a Seattle salon owner and beautician. The Sheer lip glosses have some amazing colors, with great names like seduce, princess and starlet. The Vivian Lee line has brow pencils that go on like a powder, gel eyeliners in the perfect amount (since we have to toss those out sooner than we think), mascara, cream blush, brow fix, vitamin C lip treatments and the whole line of mineral make-up for great coverage. The line feels higher end, and feels a little more like Chanel rather than something you can pick up at a beauty supply. Here is her webpage http://www.vivianleecosmetics.com/home
to view the whole line of brushes, make up for eyes, lips, cheeks and complexion.
A few weeks back, I met the founder of a new golf magazine for women, Shi Shi Putter. Her name is Elizabeth Noblitt, and her concept is to put all the attire, accessories, and cool places in a magazine for women who like to golf….and look cute, too. Here is a link to her latest article, focusing on how sunscreen expires. Elizabeth had worked in the salon business, so she has some great tips on what products to buy. Meeting her kind of makes me want to take up golf!
Why do so many actors have their stage make-up from 20 years back? I just hooked up with my college teacher on Facebook, Gail Holbrook. She taught acting, directed shows, but for me she will always be my stage make-up teacher. I ended up being paid to be a make-up artist for the theater, dance and opera department, so I was well acquainted with the stash of Ben Nye and Max Factor. Well, it turns out Gail is retiring, and we she found out about Beauty Alert! she confided in me that when she went to clean out the make-up room, it was loaded with old, spooky, gross foundations, shadows, rouges…things that should have been tossed years prior. Like maybe 20 years prior…
As a reformed hoarder of cosmetics, lotions and potions, a part of me gets it. You are on a budget, and feel wasteful. A part of the thought is it will be useful “someday” and you will regret tossing it. Especially theater artists, who often don’t make a lot of money. if you could only see the bacteria breeding in those petri dishes you call foundation #3.
