Beauty companies ramp up the pace to keep up with faster trends

When reality TV star Kylie Jenner introduced her first cosmetics products to the internet in late 2015, the Kylie Lip Kits - matte liquid lipstick and lip liner combos - sold out in minutes.

Competing brands quickly started promoting their own matte lipsticks as duplicates of the Jenner hues, hoping to win customers desperate to jump on the trend but unable get their hands on the sold-out Jenner products.

How quickly Jenner's lipstick and look-alikes became a must-have demonstrates the impact of social media on yet another industry. Beauty consumers are discovering new looks online, and to keep up with demand for the next must-have, some beauty companies are taking a page from the fast-fashion playbook and moving quickly.

'We used to deal in trends that lasted five to 10 years,” said Karen Grant, beauty industry analyst at market researcher NPD Group. 'Now, we think it's a long trend if it lasts 24 months.”

One of cosmetics-maker e.l.f. Beauty's tactics is a fast-fashion-like approach to testing new items. Most products are first sold only at e.l.f.'s retail shops and online store. If they catch on - measured by sales, reviews and social media feedback - e.l.f. quickly can ramp up production and begin distributing to national retail customers, said Tarang Amin, e.l.f.'s CEO.

'Staying close to the consumer helps us know what trends and new products resonate with her. We believe this also provides us a much higher success rate compared to other brands when we expand distribution,” he said.

At any given time, e.l.f. has more than 200 ideas in the works and emphasizes 'first to mass” items - products that either are entirely new, or versions of products sold by only higher-priced brands, such as a mineral-infused face primer inspired by prestige brands, Amin said. It takes about 27 weeks to turn an idea into a product on sale at e.l.f.'s website and stores, but can be done in as little as 20 weeks.

Bigger companies may not be as naturally nimble, but 'they're all trying to be part of the game,” Grant said.

Ulta Beauty requires suppliers to deliver some products in more trend-driven categories in no more than nine months, said Julie Tomasi, Ulta's senior vice president of merchandising. That might not sound speedy, but it's a sprint compared with the 18 months it took Ulta two years ago. 'In today's environment, that's a lifetime,” Tomasi said.