By Samantha Critchell
The Associated Press

The beauty business is built on brand loyalty. More so than the fickle world of fashion, fragrance and cosmetics makers count on customers who buy the same product again and again.

Beauty, though, is about consistency and performance. Some of the most popular products have been around for decades because women like the way they smell or look, and a company doesn't tinker with a successful formula.

But all this wonderful dependency might put products at risk of being boring.

Enter the limited edition.

"Consumers and retailers like newness. Limited editions are an opportunity to show the creativity of our designers with original designs each year," says Emmanuel de Mareuil, vice president for YSL Beaute, overseeing fragrances from Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Ermenegildo Zegna.

"We see it with the designers' fashion collections each season. The designers produce their fashion collection each season, which is basically a limited edition as well. Once spring/summer is over, the pieces are pretty much sold out, too," de Mareuil adds.

This season, there are several limited edition fragrances; most are slightly tweaked versions of successful juices, lightened up and brightened up for the warm weather.

Sheer Stella, for instance, is described as the "on-the-rocks" version of the original rose-scented Stella, and Alexander McQueen's Kingdom Limited Edition Eau de Toilette has more citrus and white-flower notes than the Eau de Parfum.

Meanwhile, the fruity and floral In Love Again by Yves Saint Laurent, successful when it was launched in 1998, has been reintroduced.

Sometimes limited editions perform so well at retail that they become permanent additions.

That's what happened with Cargo Cosmetics' REM water-based eye shadow gel.

"We thought it was a spring item since it's sort of like eye jewelry ... but it sold out. And the demand for more was so great, we decided to keep it and launch new colors in the fall," says Cargo founder and president Hana Zalzal.