February 3, 2011 – Leading Beauty Company, Oriflame Cosmetics, yesterday unveiled a new beauty helpline for women (and men) who are looking for solutions to their beauty questions. This makes it the first local beauty company to do so.

The Oriflame Beauty Helpline, SMS 4408, allows customers to send text messages on a wide range of issues including beauty advice, information on skin care, product availability and product purchase, among others. Upon receipt of the text message, the sender gets to be called back, for free, by Oriflame’s dedicated beauty team.

Oriflame East Africa CEO, Fred Andersson, said the introduction of the helpline would help customers deal with beauty concerns in a timely and professional manner hence avoiding the pitfalls of trial and error or having to get information from unreliable sources.

“Knowing ones skin type and what product is good for that type of skin is a crucial first step in ensuring longer term beauty and avoiding future skin care problems,” said Andersson.

Mr. Andersson said Oriflame provides free skin test and beauty advice at all its beauty centres. He cautioned the public against picking skin care products off the shelves without first determining if it suits their skin type.

Andersson made the announcement when he launched a new product catalogue at the company’s Yaya Centre branch. The new catalogue has 32 new products, mostly in the skin care range, which are being introduced in the local market following a survey of the beauty needs of clients across East Africa. Among the newly introduced products is Pure Skin, which is suited for teenage skin. Also introduced are alternatives to bleaches made from natural ingredients.

The company has more than 400 products in the local market making it the biggest cosmetics brand in the region by product range.

The product catalogue, which showcases the entire product range, is a key marketing tool for Oriflame considering that it does not stock its products in retail chains but uses direct selling. This sales model shortens the value chain for the benefit of the consumer and relies on Independent Sales Consultants, who are the link between the company and the consumer.

Some consultants take up the business as a side hustle while others have it as a full time engagement. More than 50,000 people have joined the East African operation as Independent Sales Consultants since it launched in Nairobi in 2008. There are more than 4 million independent sales consultants worldwide.

Andersson said the needs in Uganda and Tanzania had forced it to come with new products to meet the unique needs in the two markets.

“We constantly work at developing new products and reworking existing ones or introducing new dimensions for greater efficacy,” he said.