“You should look however you want to look,” Marci Robin, executive editor of xoVain, told the FIT students gathered for the Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing program’s Full Spectrum Beauty panel discussion featuring five Time, Inc. beauty editors on April 5. “It’s a matter of freedom for the individual.” Robin was answering a question from a student in the audience about transformational makeup.
The full conversation ― which, in addition to Robin, included Angelique Serrano, Beauty Director, InStyle; Deanne Kaczerski, editorial director, MIMI; Holly Carter, beauty director, StyleWatch; and Pamela Edwards Christiani, beauty and style director, ESSENCE ― explored a range of prepared questions from five students who acted as moderators, followed by a general Q&A, about everything from innovation in the industry and social media to diversity and gender migration.
The panel discussed the new role that bloggers, vloggers, and social media upstarts are having on the beauty landscape. “I think vloggers and bloggers are very important,” Serrano said. “We’re part journalists, part editors, and we’re more aspirational. Bloggers are more inspirational. Both are relevant and they’re part of the influencer landscape.”
To a question about whether brands should act on principle or profit when addressing diversity, Carter said she recently read that women of color spend 80% more, so there are definite advantages to opening up the market.
When asked about innovations in beauty, the panel had answers as varied as using DMAE, an anti-aging component; jumping on the coconut oil bandwagon; and using a ceramic flatiron rather than a traditional one.
One student asked the group how they earned their credibility, to which Kaczerski replied that she had gone to college to study medicine before realizing it was the wrong choice for her and started working with html code and moving on to AOL. Carter said she went to Wharton Business School, then found her way into publishing. Robin recalled how New Beauty took a chance on her once she realized she wanted to be in the beauty space, adding: “I can’t braid my own hair, but I can tell you what the ingredients [in beauty products] mean.”