The Estee Lauder Companies, Inc. (EL) makes premium makeup, skin care, fragrances and hair care products and sells them through high end department stores, perfumeries, pharmacies, prestige salons and spas. Estee Lauder competes with other leading cosmetics companies such as L'Oreal, Revlon and Avon with its portfolio of well known brands like Aramis, Clinique, Aveda, La Mer and its flagship Estee Lauder brand.

The stock of Avon Products (AVP), first discussed here on May 6, 2009, at a price of $23.12, has meandered for the past three months at/near $29, and it might warrant a stand-aside view, for now.

Concerning Avon's fundamentals, Avon should post an impressive 2010 revenue increase of 6% to 9% led by emerging market sales gain, including Central/Eastern Europe and Latin America. Counter-intuitively, AVP's China market will likely underperform. Avon should also post a 3% to 5% revenue increase in 2011.

Drug manufacturer Allergan, Inc. (AGN) will be reporting its second quarter results on Monday, with analysts expecting to see an 8% earnings increase from the same period last year.

Analysts have forecast earnings of $0.81 for the quarter, versus $0.75 during the same period last year.

Allergan has managed to outpace analyst estimates for each of the past six quarters, and has not failed to at least match estimates since the first quarter of 2007.

Avon Products (AVP), which I first wrote about on May 6, 2009, at a price of $23.12, has pulled-back with the market's retreat, but I still like the company and the stock. Here's why:

Avon remains the world leader in direct-marketed cosmetics, toiletries, fashion jewelry, and fragrances, with ample growth opportunities in Latin America, China, and Central/Eastern Europe.

Experience is rewarded ... but only if you can't see it.

A poll of 1,000 women this month revealed that 63% in the 18-34 age range and 73% in the 35-49 age range are perfectly fine with medical procedures intended to hide their ages.

Economy be damned, it seems, if you have dark circles under your eyes or a bit of extra flab built up around your chin.

Elizabeth Arden's (NASDAQ: RDEN) stock has been shellacked in the last couple of days, continuing a decline that began shortly after it reached a 52-week high of $21.79 in September 2008. RDEN has reached a nine-year low in price at $5.95.

The recent action in the stock should come as no surprise. With retail sales continuing to sour and mall traffic becoming more like Sunday services attendance on a beautiful summer day, it could hardly come as news that Elizabeth Arden would issue a negative earnings alert ahead of the company's second-quarter release of financial results scheduled for Friday.

Cosmetics and fragrances are some of the most discretionary of purchases with the widest range of price points. Consumers have the option of purchasing a less expensive brand or delaying the purchase until a better time. As a result, cosmetic products have reached a historically peak inventory level.

For Elizabeth Arden, those inventory numbers are further evidence of the earnings stress facing the company.

This post is part of a series featuring bargain stocks that are worth a look now. See more Cheap Stocks.

In addition to being a crackerjack equities analyst, I'm also something of a makeup aficionado. Credit my upbringing for this; my mother grew up in the '50s, and even today, she is loathe to so much as check the mail without a full application of liquid eyeliner. So, as you might imagine, I'm quite familiar with Estee Lauder Companies (NYSE: EL).

While it's technically a consumer-goods company, you might have a perception of Estee Lauder as a peddler of upscale cosmetics -- in today's economy, high-priced eyeshadow is unarguably a discretionary expense worth cutting. However, EL's reach is probably broader than you realize. For example, the company owns MAC, a line that caters specifically to professional makeup artists and amateur makeup fetishists. No matter the economic climates, these two constituencies can be counted on to keep shelling out for blush.

Estee Lauder also boasts the lower-priced Clinique line, a staple of many women's' skin-care and cosmetics routines for decades. On the high end, the company sells fragrances by the likes of Tom Ford and Michael Kors -- two names favored by the kind of consumers who do still have disposable income to spare. Plus, its Bumble and bumble brand name is a favorite of professional hair stylists.