Jobs

Account executive: Responsible for visiting all counter sales and doors. They explain new products and "gifts with purchase" (free items given out upon purchase of a certain cosmetics item that costs more than a set amount).
Cosmetician: Provides facial and body treatments for clients.
Counter sales: Sells cosmetics to the general public.
Freelance makeup artist: Provides clients with beauty advice and cosmetics assistance -- usually paid by the cosmetic company by the hour.
Marketing: Manages research focus groups, and provides other marketing services (sales forecasting, allocation to different retailers, etc.).
Product development: Creates and refines cosmetics. Some positions that fall under this category include chemists, quality assurance and packaging people.

The Scoop

Jobs in the cosmetics industry include cosmetics counter help in department stores, direct sales (i.e., Mary Kay or Avon), makeup artists and executive positions at large companies like Est??e Lauder, to name a few. There are more to managerial jobs in cosmetics than powder puffs and lip gloss. In fact, top salespeople can make six figures at a multi-level marketing company like Avon. While most jobs in the cosmetics industry are on the retail end -- either selling makeup, applying makeup or managing makeup counters -- there are also ample jobs in corporations for marketers, cosmetics manufacturers and others.

In the cosmetics industry, most new companies have entrepreneurial roots. First there was Hard Candy, the nail polish company Dineh Mohajer started in her bathroom, mixing odd-colored nail polishes in 1995. Mohajer started out with pastel and flashy colors and names like Sky, Sunshine, Gold Digger, Porno and Trailer Trash. Los Angeles starlets flocked to the unusual shades. Within a year, Hard Candy was on the shelves of high-end department stores and elite boutiques everywhere. In 1999, the luxury brand LVMH (Mo??t Hennessy -- Louis Vuitton) purchased Hard Candy and expanded the brand's focus. Motorola and LVMH's Hard Candy have collaborated on a co-branded cell phone. The wireless phone will be sold in Hard Candy's nail polish colors with the Hard Candy Logo, to appeal to Hard Candy's generation Y customers. The phones will come in color sets including Chump, Galaxy, Pussy Cat, Static and Space Boy. Buyers can coordinate the color of their cell phones with their nail polish.

Australia-born Poppy King caused quite a stir with her production of 1940s-inspired matte cosmetics. She continues to do business in her native country, as well as in London and Singapore. In the U.S., working mom Bobbi Brown made herself rich on a line of makeup designed for women who don't like to wear makeup -- the foundations are yellow-based, for easier blending, and all her lipsticks, even her reds, are heavily muted with natural brown tones. These relative youngsters don't stay independent for long. Estee Lauder acquired Bobbi Brown Professional Cosmetics; it also acquired equity interest in trendy upstart M.A.C. (Make-up Art Cosmetics).