Usage

Gloss reads everything from standard CS-Cart data: categories, product features, product options, promotions and Block Manager blocks. This page shows which data feeds which part of the design.

Product features Gloss uses

Feature code	Type	Used for
BRAND	Select box (or your brand-type feature)	Brand line on cards and product pages (link to the brand page), Brands A-Z panel, brand grid, brand offer tiles
SHADE_GROUP	Select box or multiple choice, with a product filter	Shade strip on the homepage (variant image = the skin-tone dot; without an image the strip draws a fair-to-deep ramp)
CONCERN	Multiple choice, with a product filter	Shop by concern chips
SHADE	Multiple choice	Shades in stock: shades of the Shade option that are missing here are crossed out on cards and disabled on the product page
VOLUME_ML	Text (“30 ml”) or number	Unit price per ml; 15 ml or less = “Mini” badge
CLEAN	Yes/no	“Clean” badge
SKIN_TYPE, FINISH	Multiple choice / select box	Filters on category pages

The shade strip and the concern chips only show variants that have products in the category of the block and link to the store’s product filter of that feature, so create a filter for SHADE_GROUP and CONCERN (Products → Filters).

Shades

• Add an option named Shade (or Colour / Tone) with one variant per shade. The first variant is the default.
• The swatch colour comes from the shade name: names that contain a common shade word (Porcelain, Fair, Ivory, Sand, Honey, Caramel, Chestnut, Espresso, Nude, Rose, Rosewood, Berry, Plum, Coral, Cherry, Scarlet, Mauve and many more) get a matching colour. For other names, upload an image to the option variant (a swatch photo): it is used as the swatch.
• Product images in the order of the shades: the second image belongs to the second shade, and so on. Hovering a swatch on a card shows that image; choosing a shade on the product page scrolls the gallery to it.

Homepage blocks (Website → Themes → Layouts → Homepage)

Block	Template	What to set
Gloss campaign tile	static HTML	Headline, text and buttons of the large mosaic tile
Brand offers	Brand offer tiles (Gloss theme)	Four products, one per brand on offer; the discount and “Ends …” come from their catalog promotion
Find your shade	Shade strip or concern chips (Gloss theme)	Manual category list with the target category (e.g. Face); feature code SHADE_GROUP
New in	Product section (Gloss theme)	Rail with arrows
Top 10 heading + Makeup / Skincare / Fragrance	Top 10 chart (Gloss theme), user class kv-tabs	Bestsellers or a manual list in rank order; the rank numerals follow the list order
Shop by concern	Shade strip or concern chips (Gloss theme), style Chips	Target category (e.g. Skincare); feature code CONCERN
This week’s offers	Product section, style Offers band	Products of your current promotions; the band shows the earliest end date
Minis under $20	Product section, style Minis	Your travel sizes
Gift sets	Feature band (Gloss theme)	The first product is the large campaign product
Our brands	Brand grid (Gloss theme)	Any category list; shows up to 12 brands with logo or name
Beauty journal	Blog: recent posts	Your blog
Gloss club, trust row, SEO text	static HTML	Your texts

Countdowns and “Ends …” dates appear only for catalog promotions with an end date; Gloss never shows invented timers or numbers.

Menu bar

The menu bar is a categories block (Menu bar, template “Menu bar with Brands A-Z and mega panels”) before the main menu. It lists the top-level categories with their subcategories; the main menu stays as the phone menu. Brands A-Z can be turned off in the settings.

Multi-Vendor

Brand shops are vendors. Cards show “sold by” only when the vendor is not the brand itself; the vendor page shows the shop logo, city and description as a brand-shop header.