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  Since most of you have shown preference for my Brazilian nail polish info, here is one of the spring collections release down here. On these nail fashion related posts, I will be mentioning mainly 3 Brazilian brands: Colorama, Risqué and Impala. These are the oldest and more traditional brands.

Here is a spring collection for Colorama called Respeitável Público (something like Respectable Public) which is somehow circus themed. I think some of the colors seems a bit winter-y (too dark) but you can see coral and bright dark pinks as well, which are much more spring-y.

For full disclosure purpose, the wide range of nail polish colors is a relatively new phenomenon in Brazil, about 5-10 years ago it would be near impossible to find such range among Brazilian brands (some analytists blame Channel´s release of Blue Satin mail polish as the culprit for such change here.

The Brazilian nail polish market has also grown exponentially in the past 5-10 years, which I will explain in my next post…stay tuned.

Recently, I’ve had many friends ask me, “how do you make money with your blog?”  Having a background in internet marketing before I was ever able to make it as a fashion blogger, it had never occurred to me the the concept of affiliate marketing isn’t so easy for everyone to understand.  So, for a change, I thought I’d take a short break from the fashion world to share some thoughts on my other passion: Internet Marketing.

Affiliate marketing is basically a souped-up term for putting advertisements on your website.  My site, Fashionperpetrator.com, is an “affiliate site” of Amazon.com, Chickdowntown.com, Shopstyle, and the other advertisers that have products I want to share with my readers.  I could be an affiliate of Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, or any other advertiser with an affiliate program if they had a style or products I felt my audience would benefit from.

So where do I get all these ads you ask?  Well, from an “Affiliate Network” of course! There are many out there, but I use FlexOffers.com for various reasons. Mainly, I’ve found that FlexOffers works well to save me time.  They basically have a lot of the fashion merchants, that I would otherwise have to find in several other separate affiliate networks, all in one easy to use interface. So, instead of having to log into 3 different accounts every day, and get paid by several different networks, I just log into Flexoffers and make my changes, track my clicks and sales, and get news on upcoming promotions I might want to share with my audience – all under one paycheck.

As an overall review, my high marks would have to go to their customer service, or “affiliate managers” as they’re known in this industry.  While I was confident in my review writing, linking, and general blog posting, most of the best advice I’ve received came from my affiliate manager at FlexOffers. Reviewing my blog and audience, they helped me choose the appropriate advertisers to monetize my website properly for maximum conversions. In non-marketing terms, that means “cashing in the sales”!

Fashion blogging isn’t about being an island. I’ve had a lot of help along the way, from fellow fashion bloggers to affiliate program reviews and marketing blogs.  For those of you who are inspired by The Fashion Perpetrator and feel you would like to make money, then I suggest you look into affiliate marketing further. FlexOffers.com is worth a look, and a simple call or application might just head you on your way to some very stylish commissions!

Here is a look from the Colorama nail polish Summer 2010 – 2011 collection (this is a Brazilian brand that was purchased by Mabeline).

Needless to say, I am no hand model…This is a military trend inspired green hue that is very up-to-date with the global military fashion trend. Accirding to fellow bloggers (and fellow Brazilian from Loucas por Esmalte – or Crazy For Nail Polish- blog), the Militar maybe inspired  by Chanel’s Khaki Vert (which is not yet available in the Brazilian market).

Image courtesy of Loucas por Esmalte

Colorama is a Brazilian born nail polish company that has been around since I was little. They were recently bought by Us based cosmetic giant Mabelline, although I could not find more info on this online.

Colorama has great market share in Brazil, both on beauty salons as well as on retail. Their nail polish collections are hits amongst Brazilian women, so the Summer 2010/2011 collection is posed for success as well.

The collection brings 7 new colors that closely follow fashion international trend. It also has a more varied palette when compared to other nail polish collection from other major competitors, which are very much based on pinks and red hues.

Colors:
Militar (Military) – green hue based on the military trend on international runaways;
Jeans – deep blue hue that borrows from the denim
Hippie Chic – light blue hue
Tapete Vermelho (Red Carpet) – deep red hue
Clubber – vibrant pink hue
Rock – black with slight glittery effect
Clássico (Classic) – smooth and minimalistic whitish hue

Colorama also has a low retail price (like most of its large competitors like Risque): R$ 2,15 or U$1,15.

Recently the weekly magazine Veja (a Brazilian Time Magazine wannabe that belongs to the largest local publishing company), had and article explaining a new measure of economic growth for the country: the Louis Vuitton bag indicator (I kid you not!).

This is howthe mag did it: they measured the steep growth of LV bag being sold and and looked closely at who is buying them now. The magazine claims that this is a sign not only of Brazil’s economic prosperity but also of its economic stability. Most buyers are middle class, working women that until very recently in Brazilian history would not be able to afford such purchases.

Similar to what Dana Thomas reported about chinese working women in her book “Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster“, Brazilians LV bag owners are all about showing off that they are moving on up, the most coveted bags are the ones covered with monograms, so its owners can easily show them off.

Another important reason for the growth in LV bag sales is that they allow its Brazilian buyers to pay in installments (which is very common here). It works like a lay-away of sorts but customers do take the bags with them immediately and pay the monthly installments via their credit cards. One of the women mentioned is the owner of a beauty salon in the countryside of Sao Paulo state, who has purchased no less than 7 LV bags in the last 2 years (chances are she spent 24 months paying for all of them).  Also, interestingly enough, these women mentioned that they had already purchased cheaper knock-offs before being able to afford the real thing.

Also curious is that LV has been the brand of choice for these emerging customers, while of ther logo-covered options lag behind (Gucci, for instance). It either means that LVMH has been doing an amazing branding job on these markets, or the other companies are doing a rather poor one.