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Mass Drugstores Offering High End Services, Cosmetics

Mass-market drugstores such as CVS Pharmacy, Wal-Mart and Duane Reade Stores are "glamming up" their makeup sections with features such as eyebrow bars, on-site facials and massages and makeovers from specially trained beauty advisers, Katherine Rosman reports.

They are also carrying more upscale, independent brands such as 'Tini Beauty and POP Beauty in addition to the standard Maybelline and CoverGirl lines. And Duane Reade has a perfume bar with scents such as Demeter's "Frozen Margarita" and "Green Tea" -- a brand that until recently was sold at Bloomingdale's.

Laura Geller, whose makeup line had been available mostly at Sephora and Macy's, was approached by CVS before it launched its Beauty 360 chain of boutiques that are mostly in California at present. "It took me time to be convinced that it was a separate concept from their drug store," she says. "I am a prestige brand." But she capitulated after seeing market research that showed women wanted to buy high-end makeup in retail outlets that were more convenient and inexpensive than department stores.

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