INNOBLOG

We wrote in December about the trend of dermatologists adding cosmetic procedures to their services as part of the larger trend of medical procedures moving from specialized to general practitioners. Continuing the trend even further, cosmetics companies are hard at work disrupting the dermatologists by launching products nipping (and tucking) away at some of the simpler medical procedures.

According to the American Academy of Plastic Surgeons, minimally invasive procedures like Botox, laser skin resurfacing and injectable soft tissue fillers are the largest and fastest growing area of cosmetic medicine. From 2000 to 2005, these procedures grew 53% to just under $8.5 million compared to a 5% slight decline in actual surgeries to under 1.8M.

Its not surprise then that one of the fastest growing of the minimally invasive procedures, lip augmentation, is squarely in the sights of the cosmetics industry.
Medical grade injectable fillers like Restylane cost between $500 and $1000 per injections and work for around six months before they are absorbed by the body. Beauty companies like DuWop and FusionBeauty, have launched "good enough topical varieties aimed at non-consumers that work for around six to 48 hours and cost less than $50. The topical products work in a variety of ways. Some, like DuWops aptly named Lip Venom, coat the lips with a mild irritant which reddens the skin and promotes blood flow to the area a little like the sting you get eating a hot pepper. More sophisticated formulations claim to affect collagen or hyaluronic acid, a compounds produced naturally by the body that keep lips and skin full and which decrease with age. (Both compounds are staples of doctor-performed injectable procedures.) One of the most popular products, LipFusion, which hit the market in 2005, claims to use hyaluronic acid and dehydrated "marine collagen microspheres which are absorbed by the lips and attract moisture. Yes, you are plumping your pucker with fish goo.

The sales figures for these projects are similarly fat. At beauty retailer Sephora, sales of plumping lip glosses rose from $1.7M in 2003 when DuWop hit the market to over $34M in 2005. During a Sephora holiday gift show on the Home Shopping Network in 2006, LipFusion products sold out in less than five minutes.

After

Posted by Alex Leichtman in Comments (1)