I've have long wondered why Amazon, which has long been buying against high-end beauty brands on Google, didn't carry those brands itself. Today, I got my answer: The company was working on it.
Amazon unveiled a new section within its giant catalog on Thursday, a Luxury Beauty Store. There, shoppers can find products from 24 prestige brands, including Nars, Burberry and nail polish queen Deborah Lippman.
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The store carries luxury brands, but it doesn't look like luxury — it looks exactly like the rest of Amazon's product catalog, though thumbnail images are larger. Editorial content from Amazon's beauty editors and others from the brands themselves sweeten the deal.

Beauty brands, like fashion brands, have been hesitant to board the Amazon train. Amazon threatens to cut into their own ecommerce businesses and, should the company gain the same monopoly as it did in the book industry, price control. While some of the sellers, such as Nars, are offering a wide array of products (95 in Nars' case), others are offering only a small selection. Burberry, for example, is only selling its fragrances. And of course there are many, many brands that have not yet signed on, like Chanel, Lancome, Estée Lauder and Laura Mercier, which already sell — with the exception of Estée Lauder — on sites like Sephora and Net-a-Porter.
Still, Amazon is poised to do very well in this space. According to a 2012 Forrester survey, 30% of online buyers begin researching their last online purchase at Amazon, double that of Google.
Amazon also has more attractive shipping policies than existing competitors, including Sephora.com and Beauty.com, which charge shipping on orders less than $50 and $35, respectively. Amazon offers free shipping on orders over $25, which can contain more than just beauty products, and free two-day shipping for members of its Prime subscription program. For shoppers who just want an item or two, Amazon will look like the better option — assuming Amazon has it.
Image: Gabriela Maj/Stringer/Getty Images and Amazon