On January 16, 2007, Pink Truth announced that Mary Kay was changing its entire color cosmetic line, to include lipsticks, compacts, eyeshadows, blushes, and eyeliners. Mary Kay Inc. intended to make the announcement in July 2007, and in fact the “official” announcement was made at seminar. Here’s what we told our loyal readers:

Are you ready for this?

According to my sources, Mary Kay Inc. is gearing up for massive changes in the product line. Remember several years ago when they made the change to the “platinum” packaging? Well Mary Kay is doing it even bigger this time!

Starting this summer, all of Mary Kay’s color cosmetics will be changing. The colors themselves are changing, and all the packaging is changing as well. This phase-in will reportedly take about 18 months total to complete. I am not sure if this change is meant to begin in June, or if this was to be the “big new product announcement” at seminar, but I’m guessing the latter.

The products themselves are changing, with the shadows and blushes in new colors and with more pigment than the current line. But the packaging isn’t just changing to a new color (from pink pans to platinum pans) like it did last time. This time all the shapes are changing too!!!

The compacts are being completely revamped. They will be have a shiny black finish, and they are intended to resemble Chanel’s compacts. They are going to be smaller than the current compacts, because Mary Kay believes that’s what women want for their purses and gym bags.

The current color palette will still be the largest compact, but will be scaled down to equal about 2 of the current custom compacts. All of the compacts will be slimmer and smaller. There are also going to be cloth slipcovers for the compacts. They will come in different colors and designs, and there will likely be promotions with limited edition patterns.

How does this affect Mary Kay consultants and sales directors? Most of us know that one of the ways Mary Kay Cosmetics keeps everyone ordering is with constant product changes. While some changes are necessary to keep up with other cosmetics companies, other changes seem to be done strictly for the purpose of generating more wholesale orders from independent beauty consultants.

Let’s beat them at their own game…

Stop ordering color cosmetics now!!! Do not replace any color products that you’re selling. If you later get an order for a color cosmetic that you don’t have, first look for a trade (so you can help someone else unload their soon-to-be discontinued items) and second, order just that item from Mary Kay.

When you’re placing a minimum $200 order, don’t order any color cosmetics to “finish” your order. Heck, don’t order ANYTHING to “finish” the order. Pair up with someone in your unit and take turns ordering so neither of you has any build-up of unwanted, outdated inventory.

Make sure that new recruits aren’t loaded up with any of the color cosmetics. Advise them to order only what they’ve already sold to customers. You don’t want them to get stuck with a bunch of products that are obsolete a couple of months later.

Pass this information on to everyone you know. Whether it’s your current unit or former unit… make sure that we get the word out to everyone. We can save consultants a lot of money and headaches. Who wants to have the old compacts, old eyeshadows, old blushes, and old liptsticks when only the NEW products will be featured in the beauty books and Look Books?

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Indeed… The lipsticks phase in on the December 2007 order form. Compacts change March 2008, and the actual color cosmetics in June 2008.

And pictures of the new products. (Click on the picture to view full size.)

New compacts:

The company’s August promotional piece for the products (click on it to see it full size):