Designers create limited editions of newer versions of old favorites

Foundations and powders are the basic beauty products.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK -- The beauty business is built on brand loyalty. More so than the fickle world of fashion, fragrance and cosmetic makers count on customers who buy the same product again and again.
Fashion, after all, is about what's new, and collections vary widely each season; you might love one designer's offerings in the spring and prefer another designer in the fall.
Beauty, though, is about consistency and performance. Some of the most popular products have been around for decades because women like the way they smell or look, and a company doesn't tinker with a successful formula.
But all this wonderful dependency might put products at risk of being boring.
Enter the limited edition.
"Consumers and retailers like newness. Limited editions are an opportunity to show the creativity of our designers with original designs each year," says Emmanuel de Mareuil, vice president designer brands for YSL Beaute, overseeing fragrances from Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Ermenegildo Zegna.
"We see it with the designers' fashion collections each season. The designers produce their fashion collection each season, which is basically a limited edition as well. Once spring-summer is over, the pieces are pretty much sold out, too," de Mareuil adds.
In lighter vein
This season, there are several limited edition fragrances; most are slightly tweaked versions of successful juices, lightened up and brightened up for the warm weather.
Sheer Stella, for instance, is described as the "on-the-rocks" version of the original rose-scented Stella, and Alexander McQueen's Kingdom Limited Edition Eau de Toilette has more citrus and white-flower notes than the Eau de Parfum.
Meanwhile, the fruity and floral In Love Again by Yves Saint Laurent, so successful when it was launched in 1998, has been reintroduced for one year.
Sometimes limited editions perform so well at retail that they become permanent additions. That's what happened with Cargo Cosmetics' REM water-based eye shadow gel.
"We thought it was a spring item since it's sort of like 'eye jewelry' ... but it sold out, and the demand for more was so great, we decided to keep it and launch new colors in the fall," says Cargo founder and president Hana Zalzal.
Trend lives on
Generally Cargo's color cosmetics are trendy -- and, therefore, have a shorter life span -- since women use these products to update their looks, Zalzal explains, while the permanent products are the basics, such as foundations and powders, because once women find a shade that works for their skin tone, they stick with it.
"You don't want to keep adding and adding without editing the line because you'll end up overwhelming the consumer. You want customers to find what they need easily but you want them to feel like they have a choice, too," she says.
"It's like having a basic outfit that you update with new accessories."