Advantage hair color utilizes new technology

Drug Store News,  Oct 19, 1998  

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A new hair colorant recently hit retailer shelves. But, this is not a liquid or a gel, and it is free of alcohol, ammonia and peroxide.

Effect of Nature, Advantage Cosmetics Inc.'s inaugural product, combines a hair coloring powder with warm tap water to produce a fluffy hair-coloring mousse.

The level-three hair colorant, which is available in variants for both men and women, works by using molecular polymerization, which means the colorant molecules penetrate deeply into the hair shaft, where they bond together. The user simply administers the odorless mousse and leaves it on for a specific time, depending on the desired effect (20-25 minutes to cover gray, five to seven minutes to blend gray hair with natural hair color).

Targeting baby boomers

Advantage Cosmetics, based in South Plainfield, N.J., was founded in 1993 by Sergei Fomenko. A former Russian tennis enthusiast, Fomenko turned his interest to beauty care to capitalize on the growing baby boomer demographic. He enlisted friend Michael Saakyants as the vice president of marketing, and by 1996 the two were shipping Effect of Nature internationally. The Middle East, Russia, Eastern Europe and South America served as test markets for the product, Saakyants said, "to ensure the company's marketing position of offering a hair color product that won't damage hair."

Saakyants said the company performed laboratory studies that found that the hair color was safe for hair, especially since the product doesn't contain ammonia, alcohol or peroxide. This point of difference .s what the company hopes will attract baby boomers, who traditionally use popular colorants, such as Revlon's ColorStay and Clairol's Revitalique.

Last month, Effect of Nature hit the United States.

The product is testing in Walgreens, Pharmhouse and Good Neighbor Pharmacy stores in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The company has dedicated $1 million to support the test market launch in these areas, with TV spots and print ads that appear in Women's Day, Family Circle, McCall's and Ladies Home Journal.

By next year, Advantage Cosmetics expects national distribution of the product, which is available in 21 shades for women and six shades for men. Premium-priced for middle-to-upper class baby boomers, Effect of Nature will retail for $9.99.

Each hair color kit includes hair color powder, an applicator bottle with top and shampoo.

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