Cosmetics line faces end of run

BY LINDA MILLER Comments 0
Published: September 27, 2009

Can you hear it? It’s the crying, moaning and even hollering as women around the world learn the Prescriptives brand is going to cosmetics heaven.

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Women are known to fuss and cuss when their favorite product or lipstick shade is discontinued. Imagine all the commotion that’s bound to come with the closing of an entire brand.

Prescriptives, one of many brands in the Estee Lauder stable, hasn’t been a shining star for a while. While beauty insiders expected the decision, Prescriptives faithful are in mourning. Retail distribution will end by Jan. 31, but products will continue to be sold on prescriptives .com while inventory lasts.

Launched in 1979, Prescriptives is the first major Estee Lauder-conceived and -built brand ever to be closed. The brand was sold in the United States, the U.K., Ireland and Australia, as well as on QVC.

At its height in the 1980s and early ’90s, Prescriptives ranked in the top five beauty brands in American department stores, a story in Women’s Wear Daily said. The brand intitially was marketed as a modern, natural skin-care line for smart, young career women. The brand then caught on as a cosmetics line for the Me Generation, the fashion-conscious consumer of the 1980s. It was the first brand to offer custom-blended foundation in department stores. Women couldn’t wait for the seasonal launches of trendy colors and textures.

As makeup artist brands grabbed attention in the mid-’90s, Prescriptives stumbled. MAC and Bobbi Brown became the beauty industry’s darlings. Then along came Sephora, and the beauty landscape changed even more.

"The birth of makeup artist brands in the ’90s was probably the first peg in the coffin for Prescriptives,” said Terry Darland, who spent 10 at the brand before moving to Dior in 2004. "Prescriptives always had edgy products — Colorprinting and custom-blended foundation, edgy color stories. When I joined the brand in 1987, it was the toast of Neiman Marcus.”

The company still owns the Prescriptives name, and the brand’s most popular fragrance, Calyx, is expected to be available through other Estee Lauder divisions.