Revitabrow Launches In Category Grown From Repurposed Eyelash Stimulants

RevitaLash marketer Athena Cosmetics is building upon its success in the eyelash enhancement market with the introduction of Revitabrow , adding to the small but growing category of eyebrow enhancers.

The product, which recently launched on the company's Web site, is also available in specialty boutiques, spas and salons, though in limited distribution. The product retails for $110.

Formulated with peptides and botanicals for strengthening, conditioning and nourishing brows, Revitabrow helps "revitalize eyebrows so they look thicker and fuller," says the Henderson, Nev.-based company.

The launch caters to women with sparse, damaged eyebrows as a result of years spent over-tweezing or waxing eyebrows, the company says. When applied daily, the product allows for "fuller, thicker-looking brows" within four to eight weeks, the firm claims.

The launch follows the introduction of RevitaLash, which received an "overwhelmingly positive response" from women around the world since its debut. The product is currently in more than 5,000 doctors' offices and retail doors globally.

Eyebrow enhancers have emerged with - but taken a back seat to - eyelash stimulants, with many companies using the same active ingredients, botanicals or vitamins in both eyebrow and eyelash formulas.

Though a small piece of the cosmetics market, sales of eyebrow enhancement products have grown "steadily" in the last decade, doubling in volume, NPD Beauty Analyst Karen Grant told "The Rose Sheet" in an email Feb. 17. "It could well be an area of [continued] growth, though we anticipate it may be relatively niche," she said.

Grant said that an early notable launch in the segment came in 2001 with the introduction of Parisian firm Talika's Eyebrow Lipocils, a product that is marketed in the U.S. in limited distribution.

The plant-extract-based gel "stimulates" growth of eyebrow hair, making eyebrows "thicker and healthier," the firm says. The product is the only one of its kind in the French market allowed to claim proven eyebrow hair growth, according to Talika.

In the U.S., a number of eyebrow enhancers have cropped up in recent years, most as extensions, or byproducts, of lash enhancers.

Scottsdale, Ariz-based Cosmetic Alchemy markets the LiBrow eyebrow stimulator, which it introduced following the success of its LiLash eyelash enhancer.

Both products contain similar vitamins, minerals, proteins and the same active ingredient technology, though the firm declined to reveal it. LiBrow retails on the company's Web site for $140 for a five-month supply.

Adonia Organics markets organic-positioned Brow Revive and Lash Alive products, containing organic thyme, ylang ylang and lavender, among other ingredients. The brow product retails for $89 online.

Jan Marini Skin Research sells a lash enhancer - Marini Lash Eyelash Conditioner - which is promoted as effective on eyebrows as well. The product retails for $160.

Some lash and brow enhancement marketers are differentiating their products with lower price points. Beauty Biosciences is one such company, launching Lash Allure MD , a product that enhances both lashes and brows, for $49.50.

Beauty Society followed up on the success of its Enormous Lash product with Brow Doctor, an eyebrow gel that makes eyebrows look thicker. The product retails at Nordstrom for $28.

Both Enormous Lash and Brow Doctor contain "patent-pending" lengthening and thickening ingredients. The lash product used to contain a prostaglandin, but was reformulated following FDA's crackdown on the use of bimatoprost and other prostaglandin analogs in the cosmetics sector (¹ (Also see "FDA Cites Latisse Web Site For Implying Eyelash Growth Drug Is A Cosmetic" - HBW Insight, 28 Sep, 2009.)).

The new formula is "just as powerful and effective" as the original product and contains "known hair restorative ingredients," the firm claims on its site.

- Eileen Francis