Giorgio Armani Beauty

Luminous silk ships in 40-plus shades of foundation. That is roughly double the industry average for prestige cosmetics, and the decision locks customers in for a decade. Armani Beauty sits inside L'Oreal Luxe as one of its top three fragrance and makeup licenses. Luminous Silk launched in 2004, engineered originally as a skin finish for runway models, so the product could photograph cleanly under high intensity stage lights. The formula lands somewhere between a tinted moisturizer and a full coverage base, which means a customer who has found her exact shade inside the 40-plus range has almost no reason to search elsewhere. Foundation has one of the highest customer churn rates in beauty because shade mismatches are common, and each mismatch sends the customer shopping again.