Dermatologist Review of Laura Geller Beauty

Laura Geller Make-Up, Inc. was launched in New York in 1993. The launch occurred in conjunction with the founding of Laura Geller Make-Up Studios on New York City’s posh Upper East Side. The eponymous Laura Geller had a substantial beauty career prior to founding her Studios. Laura started her beauty career early and, after graduating from beauty school, focused on improving her talents by performing professional make-up for Broadway stage actors. One thing led to another, as is often the case, and Laura ultimately found work at CBS, NBC, and HBO. As one might expect with successful make-up artists, one of Laura’s dreams was to have her own make-up line. Laura’s dream came true and her remarkable story appears to have really taken off in the mid to late 90’s with the launching of her own brand, Laura Geller Make-Up, on QVC. It was a home run. Laura’s success both then and now appears to be greatly linked to her mastery of marketing and social networking in multiple venues – brick and mortar, television and internet.

The success of Laura Geller Make-Up is a very interesting phenomenon as the marketing style and product presentation are very different from most other well known and highly regarded cosmetic brands. Perhaps the best way to describe this is to note that, generally speaking, the marketing and product packaging are geared toward consumption and seem to completely avoid being aspirational. With Laura Geller, everything is much more ‘down to earth’ without glamorous models, stage sets or packaging. When one watches Laura’s online videos, one sees a very different type of presentation than with virtually all other beauty products; the image is ‘homey’ and informal. This strategy, while seemingly counter-intuitive, has worked exceptionally well for the Laura Geller Make-Up line.

Laura Geller Make-Up is a full service product offering of over 200 distinct products. The range includes a targeted offering of liquid and powder foundations as well as a large assortment of lip, eye and cheek color options. The category offerings are, overall, rather standard for full-service make-up lines.

One of the unusual things about the Laura Geller offering is the interesting selection of product names. The line’s hero or flagship product, for example, is known as Spackle. As many carpenters know, Spackle is the trademarked name of a wall smoothing preparation - also, ironically, designed for use before painting - made by the Muralo Company (which, incidentally, was also founded in New York - in 1894). While Muralo still owns this trademark, the cosmetic product name Spackle has been allowed to continue. Spackle as a product name is in keeping with the somewhat folksy and non-aspirational spirit of this make-up offering. Laura Geller Spackle now comes in three variations – original, lip and eye. Of these, the lip and eye products are most popular and are applied under make-up color to minimize drying, creasing and feathering. Some of the other interesting Laura Geller product names associated with popular products include Welcome Matte (for shine control), Lip Strip (for lip exfoliation), Liquid Candlelight (for facial skin shimmer) and Lip Heal & Seal which contains two tubes within one to simultaneously provide optimized lubrication (from one tube) with a high shine gloss in the other.

Laura Geller products are, as is often the case, are derived from more than one manufacturerer but appear to be primarily produced by a well known manufacturer located in Long Island, New York. Laura’s well received bronzers including Bronze-N-Brighten, however, are made in Italy.

Laura Geller has simple and attractive branding. Her name in all capitals is the bulk of the company image and is separated by the words ‘beauty ingenuity’ or ‘make-up’ depending on the application – in smaller caps - by a cherry red lipstick lips graphic with a fine black line extending bilaterally. As is frequently the case with make-up, the dominant color of most of the packaging is black. The packaging demonstrates functional utility and is of acceptable quality. As with the brand concept generally, the marketing effort appears focused on making very popular products that are attainable; packaging quality is consistent with this concept but is not particularly memorable for creativity or quality.

Laura Geller Make-Up products are of competent overall quality and have legions of loyal fans. The product offering has been very well received on a worldwide basis in multiple marketing channels and venues. The company namesake, Laura Geller , has made her product line famous around the world utilizing product selection and naming styles that seem rather unique within the cosmetics industry. Her marketing and social networking presence is most interesting and she certainly seems entirely engaged in ensuring the success of the brand.

In summary, Laura Geller is a very popular and successful make-up company with a consumer oriented non-aspirational character. The company seems well positioned to continue to attract and retain satisfied consumers.