Eight International Beauty Trends Spotted At IBE London 2019
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1. Sustainability Stars
The United Kingdom has stronger environmental laws than the United States, and the pressure on companies to be green has led to production and supply chain innovation that can be used as a blueprint for their counterparts across the pond aiming to reduce carbon footprints. Waterless formulations, zero-waste initiatives and ECOCERT certifications were prominent at IBE London 2019.
Faith in Nature: Faith In Nature has been churning out accessibly-priced shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and body lotion since 1974. The personal care brand manufactures locally with naturally-derived, cruelty-free and vegan ingredients. Like most companies in the shampoo and shower gel business, Faith in Nature’s was previously dependent on plastic bottles, a dependency in opposition to its environmental commitment. The brand tackled its plastic problem by eschewing virgin plastic and turning to bottles made from RPET or 100% recycled polyethylene terephthalate. Hannah Whittaker, head of marketing for Faith in Nature, says other beauty companies haven’t gone the RPET route because, unlike virgin plastic bottles, RPET bottles have a slightly grey hue. “That’s because they are made from plastics like yogurt cups, but our customers don’t mind,” she says. Faith In Nature’s Brave Botanical line relies on bottles made from at least 96% sugarcane. The brand also offers refillable 5-liter versions of select popular products, including hand wash, shampoo, shower gel and laundry liquid. It’s set up hundreds of retail locations across the U.K. Faith In Nature is carried at health food, specialty beauty and natural grocers like Holland & Barrett, Boots, Superdrug, Sainsbury and more.
Georganics: Founded by Alessandro Rocchi in 2014, Georganics has gone from selling at farmer’s markets to becoming one of Europe’s most trusted natural oral care brands. Sustainability is core to its enterprise. “Our customers can send back any used Georganics products and components that cannot be composted or recycled at home like our sonic and beechwood toothbrush heads as well as our sonic toothbrush handles,” says Tasmin Humphrey, digital media manager for the brand. “On our beechwood toothbrush heads, we have clearly marked a line indicating where customers can snap off the heads to send back to us once they have collected a minimum of 10 heads. The postage for this scheme is completely free of charge as we wish to decrease the amount of waste ending up in landfill.” The decision to make its toothbrushes out of beechwood and not the more popular bamboo is rooted in Georganics’ commitment to sustainability. Humphrey explains, “We chose to make our toothbrushes from beech so that we could source our materials locally and minimize the impact transport emissions has on our planet. Our beechwood is FSC-approved. For every tree cut down, another is replanted and any excess material is used to heat up the factory.” Georganics is stocked internationally in stores and online, including at large retailers such as Whole Foods, Selfridges, and John Bell & Croyden.
Eco Stardust: Glitter has gotten some bad press in recent years. Due to the use of child labor in Indian mica mines, the substance that gives glitter its playful shimmer, to increased awareness that the shiny stuff is little chips of plastic that will sit on the ocean floor for eternity, the glitter backlash has been in full swing. Nevertheless, Coachella goers aren’t backing away from body sparkle. To make them green and sheen, environmentally-minded companies have come up with biodegradable solutions. Regular festival attendee Kate Senior founded EcoStardust two years ago after she realized she was covering herself—and the English countryside—in plastic when she attended shows. Today, her brand’s biodegradable glitter is stocked by Asos, Pretty Little Thing, and other specialty retailers and boutiques across the globe. “All our glitter is made in Germany from plant cellulose derived from eucalyptus trees in Portugal,” says Senior. At IBE London, Senior and her team adorned visitors with EcoStardust’s Shine, which biodegrades in five weeks, and Pure, a newer formula that biodegrades in four weeks.
2. PLAIN AND SIMPLE
Austerity was on display at IBE London as many exhibitors chose to forgo packaging flourishes and creative colors for black and white logo-less labels that let the formulations speak for themselves.
Nature Organic Beauty: Nature Organic Beauty, which hasn’t yet been on the market for a year, is the culmination of 15 years of private-label manufacturing. “New partners bought part of the company last year and decided to found the new line,” says Maddalena Salerno, founder Bla studio, a communication agency that designed Nature Organic Beauty’s packaging. “We decided to follow the indie beauty minimal trend [with] no specific gender orientation to talk to both female and male audiences. The simplicity of the [branding] reflects our pure ingredients and philosophy. Simple cardboard boxes that come out of our laboratory and are delivered to our clients.” The brand is handcrafted in its lab in Rome using organic and wild-harvested ingredients. Its assortment of skin care, body care and haircare is priced from 28 to 88 euros or roughly $31 to $79.50 at the current exchange rate.
Heinrich Barth: Heinrich Barth’s namesake was a 19th century explorer and scholar who, according to the Berlin brand’s managing director Vladimir Trisic, was “certainly not interested in luxury, and this is reflected in the design of the product.” Launched in 2017, it offers a range of clean skincare, hair care, and body and sun care, mostly in travel-friendly sizes. The products are made in Italy, deliberately unisex and priced under 30 euros or $33. “We decided that the packaging had to be neutral, simple and forgettable,” says Trisic. “The bottle we use is called Boston and is an old design from the late 19th century. Of course, it was made in glass.” The font Heinrich Barth uses was designed for the Berlin Underground by painter Arno Drescher late 1920. The ascetic aesthetic has resonated with concept stores in Europe and as far away as Asia and New Zealand. The brand’s stockists include Andreas Murkudis, Suprette and Wolf & Badger.
Herbal Dynamics Beauty: Fast-growing American brand Herbal Dynamics Beauty returned to IBE London as it plots its course for international distribution. The brand, which launched on Amazon in the summer of 2017 before premiering its own e-commerce website later that year, has colorful products like its bestselling bright blush Rosewater Toner that’s encased in a clear bottle with simple black and white lettering. “We chose the simple white packaging to keep a clean aesthetic so our focus can remain on the standout natural botanicals within each product,” says Herbal Dynamics CEO Moe Kittaneh. “We feature innovative formulas designed to pair the finest botanical ingredients with cutting-edge science. HDB believes in simple natural ingredients, and we feel that, with simple packaging, this encourages consumers to take a look at what ingredients we put inside each product instead of focusing on the packaging it is held in.” Next year, the brand plans to inject pops of color into its black and white packaging, though. Kittaneh elaborates, “We’ll be keeping our simple white and black packaging, but adding colors for each product line so that HDB products will be easy to spot. The packaging will highlight key ingredients of each product.”
3. The Look Of Luxury
While some brands took a pared-down approach to their packaging and products, the other end of the spectrum was jazzing up the expo floor, too. High price points and pretty shiny things abound at IBE London, proving that not everyone yearns for the simple life.
Mittee: Most beauty brands maintain their products work best when used together, but allow consumers to buy only the products from their lines that they want. Not Mitte. Founder Yashica Keswani only offers her four-product spa range for purchase in its entirety. The gold-lined box containing Mittee’s cleanser, exfoliating mask, serum and night cream comes complete with a price tag of $450.
Eloise: Founder and beauty industry veteran Risi Osogba was underwhelmed by the premium makeup brush options on the market and decided to take matters into her own hands by launching Eloise Beauty in 2017. The company’s luxe brushes feature high-shine metallic handles shaped into stiletto spikes and tear drops with dense, yet soft bristles to ensure flawless application. The U.K.-based mom and entrepreneur’s creations quickly resonated with consumers and top-tier influencers. The two-year-old brand boast 157,000 Instagram followers and has been used by beauty gurus Bunny Meyer, aka Grav3yardgirl, Huda Kattan and Tati Westbrook. Since its launch, the brand has expanded to a full range of color cosmetics, including lip gloss, highlighters and eyeshadow.
By Dariia Day: While most women over 30-years-old are still scratching our heads at the resurgence of the scrunchie, the revived trend has swiftly metastasized. There’s now a luxury version of the padded ponytail holder that’s crafted out of silk. Makeup artist and beauty expert Dariia Day has run with the high-end accessory trend by launching an eponymous line of 100% natural mulberry silk pillowcases retailing for 69 euros or $76, sleep masks for 59 euros or $65 and, yes, scrunchies, for 25 euros or $28
4. Lab Coat Beauty
Indie beauty brands are known for clean formulations that tout natural, organic and wild-harvested ingredients. Their sophistication is being taken up a notch with products powered by cutting-edge science developed by doctors and scientists to deliver dramatic results.
Remescar: The effects of gravity on the face are a main aging concern, and that pull can be prominently seen in a loss of firmness along the jawline. Belgian cosmeceutical range Remescar developed its Instant Facelift V-shape ampoules as single-serve concentrates of active ingredients to lift skin and create definition. The technology behind the product is based on natural sponge microneedling, which allows therapeutic punctures that stimulate collagen and elastin synthesis in the skin. To boost the effects, the natural sponge microneedling technology is blended with three cosmetic therapeutic ingredients: deep ocean microalgae, peptides and wheat proteins. Instant Facelift V-shape ampoules are the only one of Remescar’s 13 stockkeeping units to employ the natural sponge microneedling technology. The company plans to roll out three products in 2020 and is currently sold in 56 countries around the world. In the U.K., Remescar is available on Boots’ website and Farmaline.
Dr Russo: One of the tenets of sun protection is to reapply every two hours, a ritual that is as inconvenient as it is exasperating. Many people miss reapplication, and ultraviolet damage, or worse, skin cancer develops as a result. Luca Russo, a London-based cosmetic and dermatologic surgeon with clinics on London’s Harley Street and Canary Wharf, and a patient list that includes celebrities, politicians and royalty, has developed a Once A Day Sun Protection Invisible Face Gel SPF 30 to combat the reapplication problem. Its encapsulated sunscreen is formulated for long wear and creates a barrier on the surface of skin to deflect the sun’s harmful rays for up to 12 hours with a single application. Two clicks dispenses enough SPF product onto the brush applicator to cover the whole face. Also formulated with vitamin E and ferulic acid, Once A Day helps stimulate cellular turnover and encourage repair and cell renewal.
Facialderm: Facialderm’s so-called advanced neurocosmetics have been around since 2004. This year, it went through a rebrand and launched the Anti-Facial Stress & Anti-Aging line with star ingredient neurophroline. “Stress produces premature facial aging, especially in women,” explains Facialderm’s content manager Ana Patiño. “The main signs are dry skin, decreased luminosity, redness, flaccidity, increased acne or eye bags. Facialderm works to improve all these problems related to stress.” Neurophroline is a patented extract taken from the seeds of the wild indigo plant that Patiño reports “has demonstrated a unique biological capability to break down cortisol production by skin cells and activate the release of a natural calming neuropeptide acting on mood, and visibly improve skin tone within two weeks.”
5. PATCH PARTY
In an evolution of the sheetmask craze, patches and masks have been enhanced and reshaped to deliver more pronounced results and work all over the body.
Apricot: At Apricot, padding has prettying purposes. Started by Verena Jaeger in 2014, the Munich-based brand has a wide array of pads and patches priced from $13.95 to $48.95 to suit seemingly every body part and beauty need. Its pads are constructed from medical-grade silicone for the décolleté, neck, hands, forehead, eyes and mouth. The pads promise results after the first application and can be reused up to 30 times. Apricot states, “We focus on anti-aging products and wrinkle reduction with minimal ingredients and maximum effect.” The brand sells a silicone pad cleanser to keep them in tip top shape. In addition, the brand has single-use patches with microneedles for the face and, more specifically, for pimples and eyes. The needles drive hyaluronic acid into the skin. Apricot’s packaging is made from natural paper that doesn’t limit its gender appeal. The brand is available at Douglas, Müller and Amazon. It’s currently concentrating on amplifying its retail presence in Europe and the United States.
BeYou: Patches are a woman’s best friend when she’s got her period. BeYou’s Period Cramp Relief Patch is its hero product. Producing a cool tingling effect, the British brand’s adhesive polymer patch contains menthol and eucalyptus oil that are delivered over the course of 12 hours. “We like to describe it as the cooling power of nature,” says Katherine Tyndall, marketing manager for BeYou. “Our customers love the patch format of this product as it is such a discreet and mess-free way to manage their pain.” The patches are turned to as an alternative to water bottles and conventional medications. A pack of five of them is priced at 7.99 pounds or roughly $10.25 at the current exchange rate. On BeYou’s website, they can be purchased for 5.99 pounds or $7.70 via monthly subscription. Aside from patches, BeYou’s assortment spans a menstrual cup, cup wash, anti-chafing cream, sleep pillow mist, and CBD oral drops, sprays and balm. Its prices ascend to 39.99 pounds or $51.40 for oral drops with 600 milligrams of CBD. BeYou can be found at Beauty Bay, Cult Beauty, Health & Her and independent pharmacies.
Soo’AE: Men have joined the facial masking movement. For them, the brand Soo’AE, which is on a mission to bring the best of South Korean beauty to the market, has created an energizing black charcoal hydrogel mask priced at $4 that comes in two parts. One part is for the upper half of the face, and the other is for the bottom half of the face. “This way, men who opt to grow facial hair can nourish the forehead and upper cheek zones of their face,” says Janice Kang, senior director of sales and new business development for the Americas and Europe at Soo’AE. “However, for those who do go clean shaven, the bottom half of the hydrogel mask is an excellent solution for post-shave care and restores moisture, soothes and nourishes the skin.” Both parts feature the ingredients chondrus crispus extract, ceratonia siliqua gum, panthenol, and allantoin. Another $4 mask option from Soo’AE is the V-Line Chin Up Mask that Kang describes hooks onto the ears and wraps around the jawline “to tighten and lift the lower contours of the face.” The brand’s mask selection expands beyond the face, and its hair treatment masks recently entered Ulta Beauty. Outside of Ulta, its products are carried by Target, CVS, Walmart, Superdrug, Sephora Europe, Watsons, SaSa and Riley Rose.
6. Male Mayhem
It’s raining men’s brands. The indie beauty boom has been largely fueled by concepts directed at women, but the gender balance is shifting, at least slightly. Brands are multiplying to cater to evolving notions of masculinity and capitalize on an accelerating men’s personal care business. Allied Market Research forecasts the global men’s personal care market will advance at a compound annual growth rate of 5.5% to reach $166 billion by 2022.
Beyl Made for Men Skincare: As a management consultant with A.T. Kearney, Pieter-Jan Beyls spent 220 nights in hotels in 2014. The intense travel schedule that took him to cities all over the world, including London, Johannesburg, Madrid and New York, did a number on his skin. Beyls resorted to his wife’s La Prairie for relief, but he didn’t find it suited his tastes or specific needs. Sensing a gap in the market for a men’s equivalent, Beyls decided to create one. Beyl Made for Men Skincare is starting with three products priced from 35 to 85 pounds or $45 to $109 at the current exchange rate: Purify & Refresh Cleansing Gel, Clima-Adaptive Anti-Pollution Moisturizer and Firm & Brighten Eye Cream. “Beyl is skincare range that comforts men with an active city life, protecting the skin for the dialogue with the natural and artificial environment,” says Beyls. The brand is targeting high-end retailers for distribution and launching at Selfridges in April next year. Beyls says, “The men’s mass market has quite some brands to date, but there is an increasing demand for premium product. Looking beyond premium, there is, however, a gap in the market in the luxury segment, where to date you only have one to two players, and that’s where Beyl comes in.”
Mr Carter’s Essentials: John Hamilton co-founded Essentially Yours, a beauty company blending nature with scientific advancements, in 1998. The company has grown to consist of three brands: organic anti-aging specialist Natural Elements, targeted solution natural skincare player Therapeutics and men’s range Mr Carter’s Essentials. Hamilton explains the men’s offshoot of Essentially Yours arose from boxers, cage fighters and other athletes gravitating to his company’s products for recovery reasons. Its nine-item plant-powered assortment priced from nearly $7 to $25 includes a Konjac Exfoliating Sponge, Defense Body Balm, Muscle Recovery Body Oil, Sports Body Wash and Natural Salt Deodorant. Hamilton envisions the core customer for the products as an active man older than 30-years-old that isn’t interested in fashion statements. He’s interested in products that work on his sore muscles. Mr Carter’s Essentials is currently sold online on its website and in select salons, but the brand is exploring broader distribution.
Shakeup Cosmetics: Shakeup Cosmetics is guiding men into makeup gently. It’s starting them with color cosmetics-cum-skincare products handling what co-founders and brothers Jake Xu and Shane Carnell-Xu believe are their principle beauty product objectives: concealing and covering. “Shakeup is a game-changing new concept in men’s beauty,” says Xu. “We believe makeup has no gender, but skin does. Understanding that men’s skin is physiologically different from women’s, we offer everyday men easy-to-use, hybrid skincare cosmetic products with unique formulas, specifically designed with men’s skin type and concerns in mind.” Priced from 12 to 25 pounds or roughly $15 to $32, the brand’s three debut products are Let’s Face It BB Tinted Moisturizer, Eye Eye Captain Under Eye Concealer & Moisturizer, and Lip Life To The Full Volumizing & Moisturizing Lip Gel. Eye Eye Captain is the hero product, but Lip Life To The Full is selling briskly, too. “We think this is an indication of the number of men wishing to get into using cosmetics and have the Shakeup experience, but not yet made up their mind about color cosmetics. Very interesting to see,” says Xu. “We would expect our BB Cream to perform well in markets such as China and The Philippines.” Shakeup is facing a major test at retail starting this month, when it’s launching at Harvey Nichols.
7. CBD Crazy
The CBD phenomenon isn’t restricted to the U.S. In the U.K., the CBD segment is on pace to be worth 1 billion pounds in 2025. That’s close to $1.3 billion. As the segment explodes, new brands are popping up to serve CBD up to curious cannabis consumers.
Errbshop: A longtime luxury accessories executive, Maggie Finneran has leveraged her sales and design background to create CBD massage oil candle company Errbshop with two brands: Errb+ and Rb+. Errb+’s focus is handcrafted ceramic vessels featuring sleek shiny logos and matte encasements. The brand’s 26-oz. massage oil candle is priced at $420 and has 2,600 milligrams of CBD, and its 8-oz. version is priced at $190 and has 800 milligrams of CBD. The lower-priced brand Rb+ is centered on travel-friendly massage oil candles housed in tins. It has a 3-oz. size with 60 milligrams of CBD priced at $19 and a 6-oz. size with 120 milligrams of CBD priced at $38. Finneran singles out the hero item as Rb+’s rose/sage CBD-infused massage oil candle in the 6-oz. tin. Errbshop’s products are being picked up by upscale stores, spas, yoga shops and more.
Pura Vida Organic: Pura Vida Organic distinguishes itself in a CBD market that has sketchy stuff going on with its COSMOS organic certification. Jennifer Deegan, director of product R&D at the three-year-old brand based in the Croatian city Velika Gorica, explains it targets “problematic and sensitive skin types as well as health-conscious and vegan customers. We have a complete skincare routine for different skin types [featuring] cleansers, moisturizers, facial elixirs, massage oils, balms and body butters, all containing CBD.” The extensive assortment is priced from 5 to 135 euros or around $5.50 to $149 at the current exchange rate. Pura Vida Organic’s bestseller is the 5% CBD Oil incorporating 500 milligrams of broad-spectrum CBD. “This is a well-balanced oil with the perfect daily ratio for most people to use topically and sublingually,” says Deegan. Pura Vida Organic’s retail network encompasses local pharmacies, health stores and boutiques. The brand is looking to extend its distribution in the European Union. “CBD has been growing in popularity over the last three to four years and shows no signs of stopping. The customers in EU are very eager to try all types of CBD products for better all-round health, and this is why CBD is booming. It has many uses that can improve our daily life,” says Deegan, emphasizing, “CBD is going to grow even more. It’s just starting.”
Green Stem: Headquartered outside London in Guildford, Vapouriz has been in the electronic cigarettes accessories and e-liquids business since 2011. In March, the company branched out from electronic cigarettes to CBD merchandise with Green Stem. The brand sells a comprehensive topical and ingestible selection of CBD goods such as tonic water, bath bombs, gummies, oral drops, hand cream and lip balm. Packaged in boxes and bottles with retro designs, Green Stem’s products are priced from 2.50 to 59.99 pounds or about $3.20 to $77 at the current exchange rate. CBD Hand Cream and CBD Bath Bomb are its most popular products. Describing the usage of the bath bomb on its website, Green Stem says, “As the bath bomb begins to unfurl across the water’s surface, you’ll notice the rich, warming aroma of sandalwood perfuming the air, accompanied by herbaceous notes of wild lavender and delicate, fragrant jasmine flower.” The brand gets its isolate and broad-spectrum CBD from hemp organically cultivated in Colorado and manufactures its products, which are independently lab tested to ensure purity, in the United Kingdom.
8. AT-home Tool advancement
Now that everyone owns a jade roller and keeps a gua sha crystal tool cooling in their fridge for use on rough mornings, brands are creating tech-enhanced tools that work with topical skincare products to amplify results.
Solaris Laboratories: When founder Iliana Ivanova was introduced to holistic and integrative health, she mixed it with what she learned from experience in molecular biology and mathematics to launch Solaris Laboratories in 2017. “Because of my medical background, I am accustomed to reading medical literature. So, out of interest, I spent hours reading up on controlled studies conducted in holistic space, particularly vacutherapy or cupping,” recounts Ivanova. “Holistic therapies are deeply rooted in our history and, through my research, I learned about the ancient Egyptians, their use of cupping therapy, and how they were obsessed with their maintenance. For them, skincare was integral in their daily life and went beyond aesthetic. There was a spiritual component as an added dimension in their self-care ritual.” Solaris created a cupping set that Ivanova has engineered for better results that the standard cupping offerings.
The company’s newest launch is a pink series of smart tools addressing exfoliation, extraction, anti-aging, acne, sculpting, lifting and toning. Priced at $85 and available for pre-order online, the first high-tech tool of the series is the It’s Lit smart facial massager. Speaking of the tech-enhanced gua sha that boasts a red LED light and heat mode, Ivanova says, “People are familiar with the technique. It has the same massage principle, [but provides] different options.” Next up will be an at-home radio frequency facelift tool. “Until recently, these technologies were large machines in dermatologist offices and were very exclusive to a select few who could afford the monthly sessions,” says Ivanova. “Because the devices are high/low mixes of price point, our goal is to make them accessible for anyone who wants to add a synergistic tool to pair with their go-to serum in their beauty ritual.”
B&B Labs: When high-performance skincare specialist B&B Labs was conducting research on its treatment sheet mask range, CustoMask, it discovered many women were sheet masking daily or several times a week. “What if we could amplify the results from those 10 to 15 minutes even more so that they wouldn’t have to sheet mask as often?” queries Julius Lim, CEO of B&B Labs. “This is why we created CustoMask Amplifier, which enhances the results by more than 10 times.” Available next month, the CustoMask Amplifier is worn like headset with two probes sitting on each cheek. It has three levels: The first is for sensitive skin, the second for normla or acne-prone skin, and the third for anti-aging. The CustoMask Amplifier, which will retail for 399 Malaysian ringgit or $99, is not B&B Labs’ first foray into the beauty tool category, though it is the first time the company has launched a tool for home use. In the professional beauty sector, it’s been purveying a compact tabletop machine called Skinarkitek 2.0 for years that can perform the latest trending spa treatments, including diamond microdermabrasion, myology and cryotherapy.
The players
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