Missed out on the fun and innovation featured at CosmoProf Vegas this year? Here are the top 4 trends our agency took note of when walking the trade show floor and speaking with reps at various booths.
- Natural/botanical formulas –Natural, herbal and botanical ingredients were heavily featured in skincare and hair care products in several sections including “Discover Beauty,” “Discover Green,” “Tones of Beauty,” and “Professional Beauty”. Among the many natural ingredients, several standouts included the use of white tea, aloe, jojoba, almond, beeswax, and of course the highly trending hemp and CBD. Among these products, a few featured brands stood out with their displays of the raw material with the product including:
- CosmeTea – a skincare brand launching in the U.S. on Amazon.com with their Mint Tea themed “tightening” skincare collection.
- Global Extracts – this CBD infused skincare line with headquarters in Arizona is launching nutrient-rich creams, lotions and sheet masks with 150-200 mg CBD. They shared their top selling hero product – a Broad Spectrum CBD Balm with high potency (2000 mg of Cannabidiol) with the claim that their “Phythocannabinoid-Rich Hemp Oil Balm is created with beeswax and medium chain triglycerides as well as lavender and eucalyptus essential oils… to relieve muscle aches and pains, penetrating deep beyond the dermis to calm inflammation at the source.”
- FOAMIE – the German-based company that brought the U.S. the trend-setting InvisiBobble showcased the millennial-friendly new product launches in shower care. Their Foamie Shampoo Bar is plastic-free and features a ribbon that loops through the shampoo bar for easy shower storage. Their Foamie Sponge is a body scrubber that has soap capsules built into the middle of the sponge for maximum foam and ease of wash (simply wet the sponge and the product will lather as you scrub, the soap is built-in). Both products feature popular key ingredients including coconut or aloe.
- DOORI – a Korean-Beauty hair care brand retailing in Costco, utilizes unique blends of up to 30 medicinal herbs in their shampoo and conditioner formulas.
- Sustainability in Packaging – An amazing section to visit this year was the “CosmoPack” area. The #1 Predicted Trend for 2019 was the increase of sustainability. With beauty brands uniting to reduce the impact of plastic pollution, more packaging suppliers are providing thoughtful packaging strategies. Among these, a few suppliers stood out with insights on the latest in sustainability:
- Nice Packaging USA shared innovation in the use of paper for color cosmetic palettes. We’ve noticed the rise of paper palettes in trend-forward brands including ColourPop, BH Cosmetics, Sugar, and TheBalm Cosmetics. This eco-friendly approach to compacts and palettes is highly customizable for brands to have creative freedom with printed graphics and it is cost effective.
- FUSION Packaging presented a sustainability counter (featuring their own green icon) displaying components including skincare jars, fragrance bottles, and lip gloss tubes. Their sales rep shared an emphasis on jars made from Post Consumer Resin with various pellets inside showcasing what the jar was made of in its past life.
- Roberts Beauty displayed a sustainability shelf (featuring their own green icon) and spoke to their approach to providing solutions that reduce plastics, encourage reuse and are easily recycled. Roberts featured packaging components that utilize “sliding” capabilities, using less excess material as the challenge with common plastic compacts is that they use metal springs or feature mirrors inside, thus are harder to recycle. They shared refillable tube brush applicators as the challenge with lip gloss tubes is when consumers recycle them after use, the caps are often a different material than the tube itself and require someone to separate the set. Their booth placed heavy emphasis in Sustainability and Innovation shelves featuring their stackable and refillable, cosmetic components.
3.”Discover Green” Brands Promoting Clean Formulas–What’s new in beauty? The green carpet in the “Discover Green” section seemed to have expanded this year. Several brands shared product launches and line expansions with an emphasis in “good for you” ingredients:
- Passport to Organics – a Finalist in 2019’s CosmoProf North America Awards, this cruelty-free, founder-led brand has launched into spas and Amazon.com and continues to expand with their turmeric-inspired skincare product assortment. This brand boasts natural and science-based formulas for efficacy and adheres to their Never-List lovingly referred to as “Passport Denied,” where their formulas exclude added sulfates, synthetic fragrances and colors, GMOs, parabens, and sodium lauryl sulfites.
- SkinBuzz – a founder-led organic skincare brand utilizing beeswax in their formulas. This brand has a philanthropic mission to “give back” and donates a percentage of profits to the Planet Bee Foundation. Their Esthetician-founder created an ingredient story featuring propolis, a natural antiseptic and anti-inflammatory substance used by honeybees to strengthen their hives. With their blend natural ingredients including white willow, aloe vera, and cucumber, their Clean•Bee Cleanser promotes the marketing claims that it “naturally heals and soothes skin while preventing breakouts.”
- PiggyPaint – a Texas-based, founder-owned nail polish brand for kids is water-based, non-toxic and odorless. Their nail polishes feature kid-friendly colors and are advertised as “Natural as Mud”.
- Sur Origen – a personal care brand based in Chile featured their product line of lotions, bath salts and oil blends filled with delicious aromas and recipes from their ancestral indigenous culture. Their handmade Native Aromatherapy collection is chemical-free and cruelty-free. Their formulas utilize “superfood” ingredients including maqui, murtilla and rosehip.
- The HAIR Category –
Hair Tools have been highly competitive with the launches of the trend-forward BeachWaver and Dyson’s ground breaking hair dryer. In the competitive landscape, brands are providing light weight products featuring innovative technology designed in fun colors and patterns to meet their consumer’s personal style.
- SUTRA featured travel-sized hair dryers in trend-forward colors including a marbled pattern as well as a CORDLESS hair straightener complete with sleek charging dock.
- AMIKA – the New York-based, founder led hair brand featured millennial-friendly uniquely branded styling tools in their one-of-a-kind booth staged as a subway car, speaking to their brand DNA.
- T3 Micro showcased their latest launches including one hair dryer that utilizes weight distribution technology that automatically turns the dryer off when set on the counter, solving the challenge of constantly fiddling with the dryer to turn it on and off while pausing to part your hair.
Hair Color is not fading (pun intended). Several booths including Punky Colour and Manic Panic featured bold, eye-catching hair colors in neon and pastel shades.
Alternative Hair expands in the industry with D2C and B2B (salon) products including clip-in bangs, pony tail tie-ins to lengthen the look of your locks, and a faux “bun” to adhere over your own tied up locks for an easy styled and voluminous look.
Facial Hair/Men’s Beard Oils – with the men’s grooming category on the rise, several booths featured blends of beard oils with trending ingredient stories including tea tree, jojoba, and chia seed.
*BONUS Trend: Floral Booths!
A booth is all well and good, but how do you draw people in? A trend at the 2019 tradeshow was the Instagram-able flower wall!
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