Beauty and Style Get Real at iVillage.com

Relaunched Beauty & Style Site Offers Peer Advice, Expert Tips, and Digital Makeover Tools – All Tailored To The Needs Of Real Women

Internet Beauty Sensation Lauren Luke Joins iVillage as Expert Makeup Contributor

Colgate Is Launch Advertiser

NEW YORK, May 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- iVillage today announced the relaunch of Beauty & Style, http://www.ivillage.com/beauty-style, the only site of its kind that moves beyond celebrity looks and provides practical options to help today's modern women look their best.  With its inviting social community atmosphere, women will be able to share useful ideas with peers, tap into digital makeover tools tailored for the everyday woman and receive expert advice best suited to their lifestyle.  Plus, women can conveniently save their personal beauty profile and purchase products directly from the site.

In conjunction with the launch, iVillage also announced that internet Beauty sensation, Lauren Luke, has joined as the site's digital expert makeup contributor.  Luke's online how-to beauty videos have been seen over 77 million times and her brand has grown to include a highly successful makeup line and bestselling book.  As iVillage's newest contributor, Luke will help even more women look and feel their best with some of her top videos, professional tips and advice and monthly virtual makeovers on the site.

Angela Matusik, iVillage Chief Content Executive, will help shape the site's editorial, drawing on her experience as one of the founding Editors of In Style magazine and key player in the launch of instyle.com as well as People magazine's stylewatch.com.

"iVillage Beauty & Style caters to a highly underserved audience of women who are seeking useful beauty and fashion tips as opposed to the latest news on celebrity looks and glamour trends," said Matusik. "It's not about what's on the runways, it's about what's in stores. We help women with ideas and product suggestions for what will be most flattering on them."

Colgate will be the launch sponsor of the site.  "We're excited to be partnering with iVillage on the relaunch of their newly designed Beauty & Style site since it enables us to reach our Colgate® ProClinical™ target audience in a fresh, new way," said Spencer Pingel, General Manager, U.S. Oral Care, Colgate-Palmolive.  "We know that women turn to iVillage for the latest beauty news and we feel that the new site is the perfect setting to introduce them to Colgate's first health and beauty oral care line."

Bringing expert insights and excitement directly to its community, iVillage, in partnership with NBC News' TODAY, will be hosting an Ambush Makeover contest at www.KLGandHoda.com, allowing women to nominate their friends for a makeover. The winner will be featured in the fourth hour of TODAY on "Ambush Makeover," where famed hair stylist Louis Licari and US Weekly and TODAY contributor Jill Martin will provide her with a modern, practical new look – perfect for her individual needs.

iVillage's new Beauty & Style site is based on insights from hundreds of beauty-themed message boards where community members actively discuss products, style ideas, makeup essentials to "wardrobe woes."  Over 9,000 beauty and style products are mentioned on the boards monthly.  

The site will also feature an array of interactive beauty and fashion tools allowing women to "virtually" sample looks, hair styles and make-up products that are most suited to them – and conveniently buy those products directly through the site.

For example, iVillage's Virtual Makeover brings the department store makeup counter online, allowing users to "try before they buy" a broad range of cosmetic products from the hottest make-up manufacturers.  Additionally, the Skin Solver tool helps create a customized skin care regimen and the Figure Flatterer is a unique, fail-proof clothing finder for all body types.  The site's interactive, online beauty toolkit allows women to save their results and recommendations for access anytime.

The site also includes news and commentary from leading industry experts including style expert and author of the Chic Simple series of style books, Kim Johnson Gross, world renowned hair colorist Louis Licari and celebrity make-up artist Mally Roncal.  

The relaunch of Beauty & Style is part of a comprehensive site-wide redesign and joins the growing number of newly relaunched sites at iVillage including Entertainment, Food, Health and Pregnancy & Parenting, which also debuts today (see separate release).  Later this summer, iVillage will unveil a new community platform as well as iVillage Home.

About iVillage

With approximately 34 million unique visitors per month (comScore April 2010), iVillage is the largest content-driven community for women on the web, where they can find the most meaningful content, real-life conversations and the tools they need for their busy lives. The site focuses on categories that best serve women's needs, including Food, Health, Entertainment, Family, Beauty & Style. Additional businesses and brand extensions within iVillage Networks include iVillage UK, NBC Digital Health Network, Astrology.com and GardenWeb. In addition, iVillage enjoys a strategic partnership with BlogHer, the leading participatory news, entertainment and information network for women online. iVillage Inc., acquired by NBC Universal, Inc. in May 2006, is based in New York City, and is part of the NBC Universal Women & Lifestyle Entertainment Networks Group.  Join iVillage's Facebook group at www.facebook.com/ivillage and follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ivillage.

SOURCE iVillage