Even makeup companies need the occasional facelift. Take Laura Geller Beauty. After more than 30 successful years in the business as a makeup artist and being instrumental in starting the baked and primer categories, the right time for a spruce up.

In December 2012, Laura partnered with Connecticut-based Tengram Capital Partners, a private equity firm that focuses on middle-market consumer and retail companies with the goal of building strong brands and management teams. The firm also invests in Nest Fragrances, Robert Graham and DevaCurl.

And so to keep up with competitors, Laura Geller will be releasing 147 new products. No longer are they just sold on QVC (the brand has been a fixture there for 12 years) as they can now be found at over 700 Ulta stores, their largest retail client, as well as a handful of Nordstrom department stores. Their web viewers have increased, as has customer awareness.

“Receiving the capital gave us the affordability to hire world class business, management and leadership teams and the ability to create product innovation, all of which has led us to expand the breadth of the brand,” said Alyce Cucurullo, the company’s CEO. “Aside from recruiting, it gave us an understanding of our consumer through massive consumer studies as we started to answer questions like ‘How do we transform the product innovation for the QVC consumer who is 55-plus and get it into the hands of the 25 and 35-year olds?’ and ‘How do we start building products to reach this younger consumer without alienating our older one?’”

Retail market expansion strategy, along with fresh raw materials, technology, products and innovations, have been the initiative for the past 16 months. With those changes also came creating younger brand awareness, paired with newer packaging and products.

“Brands that sell retail generally release three to four new launches a season. From January to June, we’ll be launching 40 to 50 items,” shared Linda Treska, the company’s product developer who joined Laura Geller Beauty in January of 2013. (Prior to that she was heading product innovation for Laura Mercier.) “Our biggest category is complexion, and so this is the first year we’ve added skin care to our list of products, which includes a face cream, serum and cleanser. We also have a new liquid foundation and baked powder foundation.”

The list of products is indeed comprehensive and so far includes Love Me Do Moisturizing Lip Crayons, Color Brilliance Luscious Lipsticks, Crease-Less Concealer Line Smoothing Pens, Baked Gelato Vivid Swirl Blushes, Color Optic’s Color Correcting Finishing Powders and Cool Lids Cream Eyeshadow, which has shades suspended in a 70% water-based formula that instantly cools lids upon contact.

“Our customer is thirsty for more and now that we are giving it to her, there’s a wake up moment where everyone is realizing the potential of the brand,” Linda said. “No one has time for complex products or application, and not everyone is a professional. We just want to look good, and we want the consumer to look good. With these new innovations and initiatives we are able to achieve that.”