Shiseido Debuts On HSN, Rival To Leslie Blodgett’s Mineral Makeup

Ground-breaking Bare Escentuals is one of QVC’s most successful beauty lines, with Leslie Blodgett often on the air to tout its natural-looking makeup.

We find it amusing that the Japanese makeup giant that bought Blodgett’s company, Shiseido, debuted its makeup line on HSN today. But then, we’re easily amused.

QVC Queen And Bare Escentuals Founder Leslie Blodgett Graces Bloomie’s Friday

For fans of the Bare Escentuals QVC line, the brand’s creator Leslie Blodgett will be appearing at Bloomingdale’s Friday in Manhattan.

Blodgett, who sold her company (aka bareMinerals) to Shiseido, will be at the 59th Street store from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Bloomie’s ran a full-page ad in The New York Times about Blodgett’s visit on Wednesday. It said that she is on her first “Big Buffing Road Trip,” where she is “taking her beauty bus to six cities in eight days.”

Blodgett not only has retail outlets for her skincare products, she sells a wide variety of them on QVC.

QVC Host Lisa Robertson And Bare Escentuals Leslie Blodgett: Why Share A Hotel Room In L.A.?

We know money is tight all over, but we heard QVC host Lisa Robertson say last night that she was sharing a hotel room with Leslie Blodgett, the female mogul behind the Bare Escentuals cosmetics line, when they are in L.A. later this week to do Oscar-related shows in Tinseltown.

What? Why? Even at my old penny-pinching job, we never had to share a hotel room with a colleague when we traveled to cover a trade show. BFF or not, we want our own room.

And Blodgett just sold her company to Shiseido for $1.7 billion. She can afford her own room, too.

QVC is shooting its pre-Oscar shows at the ritzy Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills (we’ve stayed there, done that).

Here’s QVC’s descrption of part of its Oscar-related programming from the Left Coast later this week.

“It’s time to get red carpet-ready as we take you to L.A. the week of the big awards for The Buzz on the Red Carpet, live from our star-studded party at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills.

We’ll be joined by celebrities, designers, stylists and some of Tinseltown’s most popular names in fashion, beauty, accessories and jewelry as they share their favorite red carpet tales and their celebrity-tested secrets for looking great in the spotlight and out. Let QVC bring the excitement and glamour of Hollywood’s biggest week of the year into your home during The Buzz on the Red Carpet, live from L.A.”

Bare Escentuals Is Being Purchased By Shiseido For $1.7 Billion After QVC Made It Famous

Looks like Leslie Blodgett, CEO of Bare Escentuals, has landed quite a little pay day for her company: It’s being bought by Japanese cosmetics giant Shiseido for $1.7 billion. Leslie, can we be your friend?

Blodgett, a long-time QVC vendor whose line launched the mineral makeup trend in the U.S., is quoted Thursday in a Wall Street Journal story about the deal.

The story says that Bare Escentuals “shot to fame” after Blodgett “started appearing on infomercials on QVC, the television shopping channel.” Journal dumbbell reporters — those were not infomercials, that QVC’s programming! That’s what TV shopping is, you ink-stained wretches of Rupert Murdoch.

The Journal said that Blodgett has become “become something of a cosmetics superstar,” with customers flocking to her public appearances.

“I don’t think of myself of an icon in any way,” Blodgett told the Journal. “The fact that we grew so much is a big suprise…I went on TV because there was no one else to do it.”

She was interviewed at Shiseido’s Tokyo headquarters in Japan.

Blodgett will remain CEO of Bare Escentuals, still operating out of San Francisco.

The deal will give Shiseido more market power in the U.S., while Bare Escentuals gets to expand internationally.