When DuWop co-founders Laura DeLuisa and Cristina Bartolucci were still working in the film industry doing hair and makeup respectively, they couldn’t help but notice that actors, fresh from a love scene, would return to the trailer with lips supple and sensuous from all that kissing. The two set out to recreate that same look and, in the process, launched one of the hottest products in cosmetics today lip plumper. DuWop’s Lip Venom, first introduced in 1999, well before plumping became the must-have accessory it is today, has won accolades from beauty magazines, stores and trade groups, and it built the company from a home kitchen operation to a business with $8 million in sales and some 32 employees. But as it turns out, that may have been the easy part. Now, with nearly every major brand and many unknowns introducing their own lip plumping products, DuWop will have to leverage its early success into a larger cosmetics line with different kinds of products. “Lip Venom has helped build this company,” said DeLuisa, who is CEO of the Van Nuys-based company. “We’re ready to be a full color brand.” DeLuisa and Bartolucci, who is chief creative officer, met while on a commercial shoot in 1991 and became colleagues, calling on one another when either had an assignment. “We were sitting on a set one day and we said, ‘we are two smart women. What are we doing sitting on a set, working 16-hour days in a trailer?'” DeLuisa recalled. Between them, the duo knew every makeup line on the market, and they had amassed a bag of tricks to use for products that didn’t exist (ice-water-soaked cotton for puffy eyes, for example). Realizing the commercial opportunity in, as the company’s slogan says, “what is missing from your makeup bag,” the two started working nights and weekends concocting products in DeLuisa’s kitchen sink. They took the first, an eye gel to reduce puffiness made with botanical extracts, to a chemist to be certain it would be safe, and with the green light, promptly got placement for igels at Nordstrom. “We ended up doing some pretty decent sales so we thought we’re onto something,” said DeLuisa. On the set Although they formed the company in 1998, they didn’t give up their day jobs for several years. With all the down time on film and television shoots, they found they could busy themselves packing up orders while waiting on the set, and they even found willing helpers in the bored crew members they worked with. But by 2002, the two decided to take the plunge on a full time business. “We got offered a couple of movies that would take us out of state,” DeLuisa recalled, “and we said, ‘we can’t leave.’ If we’re gone for three months, DuWop won’t exist.” DuWop, which comes from the Italian word due, meaning two, and what both women were surprised to learn some years later can sometimes be a disparaging slur for those of Italian descent, moved out of DeLuisa’s kitchen and into a 2,000-square-foot space. The name “fits our personality,” DeLuisa said. “We’re really proud to be Italian, and we come from a generation where it wasn’t made fun of.” Within a year, they moved again into a 4,000-square-foot building and another year later into a 10,000-square-foot facility. Last month, they made their most recent move, expanding into a 23,000-square-foot space in Van Nuys. Slowly, they expanded the line as well. DuWop added shimmers and gloss colors to Lip Venom. It introduced makeup infused with moisturizer for the body and face; and lip and eye liners engineered to soften lines and keep lipstick and eyeliner fresh and free of creasing or wrinkling. In all, DuWop now encompasses about 85 SKUs, a retail term that refers to a stockkeeping unit. Getting exposure Thanks in part to their continued relationships with makeup artists in the industry, many of their inventions grace the faces of celebrities and, as a result get prime coverage on the pages of the most prominent beauty and fashion magazines, giving even more exposure to their growing distribution in Nordstrom, day spas and boutiques and specialty stores like Sephora. But with the popularity of lip plumping came imitators, and now, with similar products available from any number of manufacturers, many with national brand names, DuWop must look elsewhere for its growth. Developing a larger line that includes color will take DuWop into territory now dominated by national brands with huge advertising budgets. But experts say that is not necessarily a limitation. “It’s a challenge, but it’s also an opportunity,” said Jeryl E. Spear, executive editor of Beauty Launchpad magazine, one of the Creative Age publications. “Small companies can spin on a dime, and the same technology that’s available to the larger companies is available to smaller companies. Sometimes it’s a matter of having a little vision and seizing on the opportunity.” With the growth of Internet shopping and consumption trends that emphasize individualism, niche products have more opportunity than ever to capture shoppers’ attention, Spear said. “In many cases, cottage brands are eating the big boys’ lunch. There are so many cottage stores opening, and these boutiques, they don’t want Lancome in there even if they could get it. Those are the places I tend to shop now because I want something different. All of those things are where the smaller companies in many ways have the edge, and I love them.” Just as it did in its earlier years, DuWop is now developing new products that don’t compete directly with existing lines. “We’re partnering with a company to make a gloss, but it’s more of a beverage company,” said DeLuisa, careful not to divulge too much about the products in development. “We’re also coming up with a mascara that no one has done.” But when it comes to the color category, DeLuisa concedes that some things will necessarily compete directly with the likes of M.A.C. and other big names. There, DeLuisa said, DuWop hopes to set itself apart with the way its products are packaged and marketed. “As we grow there will be some items that have to be the norm, but these will be few and far between,” DeLuisa said. SPOTLIGHT: DuWop Year Founded: 1998 Employees in 2001: 3 Employees in 2006: 32 Revenues in 2001: $500,000 Revenue in 2006: $8 million Driving Force: The relentless demand for new and different cosmetic products. Goal: To become a major player in the industry with Stila and Laura Mercier and M.A.C.
