Shades of Innovation

Lipstick stains on coffee cups, long waits for nail polish to dry, runny mascara--the things women put up with to make ourselves look good.

Now a couple of small start-up companies are making their mark on the beauty industry by offering solutions to common cosmetics woes.

English Ideas in Irvine and Seche International in Rancho Santa Margarita have won industry accolades and coveted counter space in cosmetics departments and beauty salons by offering innovative products.

They’re facing off with cosmetic giants such as Revlon and Estee Lauder, which until recently had a virtual lock on the beauty business.

“Makeup artist lines like M.A.C. opened the doors for smaller entrepreneurs,” says Jane Scott of Bloomingdale’s in New York City. “Kids in L.A. like Drew Barrymore and Courtney Love were sick of [traditional] cosmetics.”

They turned to alternative lines such as Urban Decay and Hard Candy, which were mixing up odd colors.

“It still takes a fair amount of money to be in the business,” Scott says. “If you hit it, you have to have capital. And you can’t just be plunked in a store. You need testers and demonstrators, because no one will buy it without trying it out.”

Seche has had companies scrambling to duplicate its patented, quick-drying nail polish, a clear topcoat ($9) applied over wet lacquer that’s touchable after five minutes and dry down to the nail bed in 10. (As anyone who has botched a nail job knows, it usually takes at least 45 minutes to an hour for nails to dry completely.)

“With Seche, you can put polish on at night before bed and have no sheet or hair marks [on the nail] in the morning,” says Charles Martens, owner of Seche.

Martens started the company in 1991. “I was 25 and had $5,000 to my name. I bought the technology and created Seche” after acquiring the formula for the topcoat from a childhood friend.

Martens named the polish Seche Vite (pronounced “sesh veet”), a French slang term for “dry fast.”

“The idea was to create a cult thing about the name. No one knew what it meant or how to pronounce it,” he says.

They’re learning.

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Seche has become a multimillion-dollar company that sells the topcoat--plus base coat, lacquers and other products--to nail-care salons, where professionals use the products. “A woman who has her nails done every week wants this,” Martens says.

Clients spend less time in the salon, and the polish stays put two to three times longer than it would without a topcoat. Seche Vite also prevents lacquers from yellowing in the sun--or on tanning beds.

Other companies copied the Seche Vite formula, until Seche pursued them in court. Some have come up with quick-drying formulas of their own, but Martens maintains that those polishes quickly chip because they use more solvents and less resin.

“A lot of them make the same claims. Some say their polish will dry in 60 seconds. It’s ludicrous. The film would be a fraction of the thickness. It would be too brittle and have no gloss,” Martens says. “This has smoothing agents, so it’s flexible and high-gloss. No manufacturer can get near our technology.”

Beauty professionals have lauded the product. In Style magazine named Seche Vite the No. 1. topcoat in March. It’s been listed as one of the Editor’s Essentials in Elle and a top 10 nail product in Tattler. Marie Claire, Glamour and Allure have also touted the topcoat.

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Like Seche, English Ideas has used science to change the face of the beauty business. Five years ago, the company introduced Lip Last, a sealant that keeps lipstick from smearing. Since then Lip Last has been cited by almost every top fashion magazine.

Company CEO Russell Pflueger, a chemical engineer who designed angioplasty catheters and other high-tech devices before turning to cosmetics, concocted the first batch of Lip Last in a blender for his wife, Rebecca.

“He hated seeing lipstick stains on glasses. It was his pet peeve, so I said, ‘Make me something,’ ” recalls Rebecca, company president.

Applied over lipstick, Lip Last ($17.50) dries in about 30 seconds and keeps lipstick in place, even during coffee breaks. It’s designed to appeal to women who don’t have time to reapply makeup.

“I’m a person who puts on makeup once a day. I’m not a makeup junkie,” says Rebecca Pflueger, formerly an electronics engineer.

One challenge for English Ideas: teaching customers how to properly apply the product. At Stevens & Cross cosmetics studio in Newport Beach, which sold Lip Last for two years, reaction to the product was mixed, says Richard Stevens, president.

“Some really loved it, but for some it didn’t work at all. It could be that their choice of lipstick was too glossy,” Stevens says.

English Ideas recommends using a lip pencil if lipstick is too oily. Because Lip Last is designed to be removed only with oil-based cleaners, it may need to be reapplied after oily meals. Applying the sealant to wet lipstick can also cause the color to peel.

The sealant works best if lips are first blotted dry after applying lipstick; then it’s painted on in a thin coat. Licking the lips removes the sealant’s sticky feeling.

“We thought Lip Last was an incredible product,” says Bloomingdale’s Scott. “I’m vice president of cosmetics, and I can’t be walking around with my lipstick half off.”

Scott also wears English Ideas lipsticks: “They come in beautiful colors; they’re creamy, and they do stay put.”

Bloomingdale’s in Newport Beach was the first department store to carry English Ideas. Now the line sells at 120 stores nationally, including Saks Fifth Avenue in Costa Mesa, and Nordstrom in San Diego and San Francisco.

The Pfluegers recently introduced a new line of eye makeup, including Eye Solution, with a cooling agent to reduce puffiness; a brow lightener; Brow Last, which sets eyebrow pencil in place up to 12 hours, and an all-weather waterproof mascara unaffected by tears or perspiration that was named on a Fox television show as one of the must-haves for the Academy Awards--along with $2,000 limo rides.

English Ideas’ No. 2 seller is Lip Enhance, a pencil with pigment that automatically matches one’s natural lip color for outlining. The TV show “Hard Copy” featured the product as an alternative to collagen injections and cosmetic surgery.

English Ideas hopes to expand to 300 accounts this year and plans to continue developing products. Beauty technicians will be stationed at some stores to demonstrate the latest products.

“We always ask, ‘What could we do that’s different?’ ” Rebecca Pflueger says. “A lot of our products were developed because women ask for them. They’re designed to solve a problem.”

Seche Vite: (800) 937-3243. Web site: https://www.sechevite.com

English Ideas: (800) LIP-LAST. Web site: https://www.liplast.com