Pure Beauty

It’s a wrap! Cosmetics Business Live 2022 tackles the beauty industry’s big issues

Published: 19-Oct-2022

The first in-person Cosmetics Business Live took place in London’s iconic Business Design Centre to help you make the best decisions for 2023 and beyond

Images credit: Kurt Rebry

Cosmetics Business Live 2022 wrapped up its first in-person edition yesterday at London’s iconic Business Design Centre.

The event provided a platform for brand owners, manufacturers, suppliers and retailers to come together to discover the latest trends, share knowledge and grow their customer network.  

 

Speaker highlights, day 1

In conference room B, Jonathan Travers-Smith and Yihu He from Hot Pot China, who provided guidance for those brands looking to successfully break into the lucrative China market with ‘How beauty brands can win over Chinese consumers’.
Travers-Smith, founder and CEO of Hot Pot China, said: “China is a hero product market. You may have a huge range, but that hero product will be the one that gets known.”

The day’s first panel discussion, organised by Cosmetic Executive Women (CEW) UK brought together Celine Gilg of Puig, Space NK's Margaret Mitchell and Amazon’s Huw Govier to discuss 'The cost of living crisis: how to survive in a downturn'.

Govier, Category Leader for Beauty at Amazon, said in order to navigate the current cost of living crisis, beauty brands should continue to invest in their advertising and marketing strategies. “There is plenty of evidence that brands who invest in media and advertising during challenging times not only perform well during that period, but also come out stronger.”

Moving onto product safety and testing, MSL Solution Providers covered ‘Microbiological considerations for progressive cosmetics’. 

<i>Networking at Cosmetics Business Live 2022</i>

Networking at Cosmetics Business Live 2022

Ben Elmadi, Technical Manager at MSL Solution Providers, said staff training for refill station housekeeping is key for beauty brands to keep customers safe and satisfied. “All it takes is for a couple of people to get a bad product out of your refill dispenser to start a negative trend," he explained.  

Clariant zeroed in on ‘Nature-inspired innovation: From resurrection plants to skin resilience’. Julie Droux, Senior Technical Marketing Specialist at Clariant, said the plants are able to survive months and even years without water, essentially putting themselves on “pause” until conditions become more favourable. 

Can these plants be used as a source of inspiration for new skin care developments? 

“Climate change and exposure can deeply affect skin health,” added Droux. “Under harsh weather, oxidative stress is triggered, DNA can be damaged and create less protein functionalities.” Clariant’s new Galactinol Advanced formula could be a solution to these skin care issues. 

A panel discussion on ‘Microbiome mapping and working with skin microflora’ was led by Sarah Parsons (Cosmetics Business) brought together experts Dr Kristin Neumann from MyMicrobiome, Barbara Paldus (Codex Beauty) and Fanny Coste (Cosmebiome). 

Neumann, co-founder of MyMicrobiome, said it is important to take a “down to earth” approach to making claims around microbiome-focused products. 

“Everyone’s microbiome is different, so there will never be a gold standard microbiome that works for everyone,” she explained. “Even if you have a lot of data, it’s not enough to say you’re improving something.”

Christiane Lippert from Lycored then discussed ‘Beauty from within with natural, plant-based carotenoids’. 

“Lumenato has a damage limitation effect, it's a really interesting approach at a cellular level," said Lippert about the wellness ingredient. "We're a good foundation to help collagen work better."

‘The importance of beauty activism’ was the topic addressed by the British Beauty Council’s Millie Kendall (OBE). She said” "I believe everyone becomes an activist as soon as you use a beauty product" as it shows a message about "what we truly believe in". Beauty leads people to activism as it allows people to question societal norms and standards, she continued. 

<i>Millie Kendall (OBE) from the BBC spoke on beauty activism</i>

Millie Kendall (OBE) from the BBC spoke on beauty activism

Dr Mark Smith of Natrue was next on the lectern, covering ‘Environmental claims: Expectations, regulation and substantiation’. He said now is the time to act when it comes to addressing the issue of greenwashing in the beauty industry. “More than half of people are looking to make more sustainable choices, but two thirds struggle to understand if the products are environmentally friendly.”

And continuing with the claims theme, Cutest Systems’ Stewart Long spoke on ‘How claims can differentiate your brand (and how to do it credibly)’. Long said: “Social media will kill you if you make a crazy claim these days”, and stressed the importance of being truly authentic in how you market your beauty goods. 

He also speaks about the importance of standing out from the crowd. “Are you saying something interesting? Are you differentiating from the brands on the shelf next to you?,” he added. "You have to give people a reason not to forget about you.

‘Transparency tech: How to future-proof your sustainability marketing’, was then delivered by Provenance’s Jessi Baker. Without sustainability credentials, Baker argues that many brands will become irrelevant to shoppers by 2030. “We’re seeing shoppings are more likely to trust claims if they have been verified,” she added. 

The event’s kickoff speaker in conference room C was Aprinnova’s Ashlee Cannady, covering ‘Bio fermentation: Transforming the beauty industry’; here she made the case for Aprinnova’s pure, Brazilian sugarcane-based cosmetic ingredients, which are manufactured using fewer land and water resources than traditional alternatives.  

From ingredients to regulatory, Bartosz Jaslowski from Freyr discussed ‘Centralised monitoring, assessment & smart decisions on changing global regulatory requirements & ingredient regulations’. Jaslowski presented a strong case for the benefits of regulatory intelligence in saving time and helping to avoid product recalls. 

The event’s first panel in Room C got to grips with ‘The future of personalisation’. The panel was moderated by Cosmetics Business' Julia Wray and brought together Nicola Meldrum (Skin Trust Club), Experimental Perfume Club’s founder Emmanuelle Moeglin, Samantha Dover (Mintel Beauty & Personal Care) and Dr Jason Thomson (Skin + Me).

The panel agreed that the much-heralded boom in bespoke beauty hadn’t yet occurred due to some of the inherent challenges, including regulatory and consumer education challenges, involved with the approach. 

But, in an era of consumer ‘over choice’ and amid more sophisticated approaches to personalisation, they predicted that bespoke beauty is going to grow and grow.  

‘Make-up on display: The case for glass packaging’ was the topic of Berlin Packaging’s presentation by James Senior, who demonstrated the appeal of Berlin’s VIP collection of premium glass, low fossil-fuel usage packs for the colour cosmetics sector. 

A regulatory panel discussion, ‘EU/UK ingredients laws updates’, was moderated by Julia Wray (Cosmetics Business) with experts including Alex Fotheringham from MSL, Sarah-Jane Dobson from Kennedys Law and Bloom Regulatory’s Olivia Santoni.

Updates to the EU Cosmetic Products Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 were discussed as well as divergence between this and the UK Cosmetics Regulation, plus other areas of legislation post-Brexit. 

The impact of green ingredients and packaging laws going forward was considered to be an area of future importance for the industry.

Also providing regulatory advice was Iona Silverman from Freeths, who gave insight into ‘The influencer market what to do if the ASA complains’; Silverman stressed the importance of #ad over #spon or any equivalents, and touched on issues including negotiating influencer contracts, influencer fraud and the legalities surrounding the use of virtual influencers.

Under the packaging vertical, Jesus Beneyto from FACA Packaging, Mark Lockyer (Sampling Innovations) and Dan Williams (Orean) joined moderator Julia Wray (Cosmetics Business) for a FACA-led panel talk on ‘Refill strategies’.

During this spirited discussion, the panel covered the respective benefits and shortfalls of each approach to refillable packaging – at-home, ‘send back’ models and in-store refills – and what might work for which brands. 

The role of refills in the wider context of sustainable packaging solutions was also hashed out.

Closing day one in Room C was ‘Beyond skin deep: Beauty manufacturers driving UK innovation’, a panel discussion moderated by Julia Wray (Cosmetics Business) and featuring Made in Britain members Shalom Lloyd (Naturally Tribal Skincare), Chris Taylor (Eve Taylor London) and Madeleine White (Juni Cosmetics).

The panellists gave their case studies into the benefits they’d noticed carrying the Made in Britain mark and championed the positive international reputation that British-made goods have for quality and reliability. 

 

Speaker highlights, day 2

 

Conference room B on day two opened with a talk by the Soil Association’s Paige Tracey on ‘Organic certification is a solution to greenwashing in the beauty industry’.

“Consumers are becoming more aware of greenwashing as a dirty marketing tactic,” she said. “Also, claims like ‘clean’ and ‘green’ are really unregulated.”

‘Championing your internal influencers’ was the topic of Lavandi Talent’s presentation, delivered by Gary Laverty and Genie Burgees. 

They noted that it is very much a candidate-driven market at the moment, and the quicker clients realise that the better. 

This was followed by ‘Cleaning and disinfecting manufacturing equipment effectively, removing cosmetics residues with less time, water and energy’, delivered by Marcel Korevaar of Ecolab.

Increasing production capacity, protecting operators’ safety and cost reduction and sustainability were targeted as key considerations.

A ‘Making luxury sustainable’ panel, moderated by Cosmetics Business’ Sarah Parsons, brought together Simon Dipple from BellaGiada and re/sources’ Eva Lagarde.

Here the panel considered thinking holistically about the whole product journey and how we create the packaging and experience around it.

Kennedys Law’s Sarah-Jane Dobson then delved into responsible claims with ‘ESG in cosmetics – green claims and ‘greenwashing’’.

It is no longer OK to just talk about one part of a product lifecycle if you are making green claims, she said. You need to be considering the whole lifecycle

The day in room B rounded-off with In Trend’s Glendean Rehvan, who spoke on ‘The medicalisation of skin care’. She noted that today’s consumer wants ‘safe’ skin care, which is free from ingredients that are a source of potential irritation or could harm their health.

And finally there was Wizz Selvey of Wizz & Co, who discussed ‘How to grow your brand – the retail and consumer trends to future-proof your business’.

“The biggest opportunity to think about as a brand is how can you build engagement with your customers and extend the amount of time they spend with you?” she said.

<i>A panel discussing UK and EU regulations at Cosmetics Business Live 2022</i>

A panel discussing UK and EU regulations at Cosmetics Business Live 2022

Day two in room C started off on a high with ‘Cannabinoids catch up: CBD, CBG and their uses’, delivered by Matt Birt from British Cannabis. He spoke about the benefits of CBD and CBG containing products for sensitive and acneic skin, and discussed the growing popularity of whole plant extracts thanks to the entourage effect.

Ingredients also took centre stage for ‘Sustainable, clean and minimalistic: The holistic approach of collagen peptides in beauty’ from Florencia Moreno Torres (Rousselot). 

Moreno Torres presented the upcycled supplement ingredient Peptan and revealed brand-new data about its positive effects in combating hair loss. 

‘Space-certified technology: What is it and how can it benefit your skin care products?’ was presented by Kyle Landry (Delavie Sciences). He presented a UV-boosting ingredient initially discovered when Bacillus lysate was exposed to open space conditions and teased some more exciting future work on ingredients discovered when organisms are placed in extreme conditions. 

‘Vegan accredited microbiology testing: The future of cosmetics and personal care products’ is the title for the talk from Natalie Callaghan, Melbec Microbiology, who presented vegan-suitable culture media alternatives to those traditionally using animal-derived products. 

‘Half the energy, half the time: How high shear can transform your manufacturing process’, was presented by Silverson Machines' James Cardus. Here he demonstrated how advanced rotor-stator technology can reduce mixing timeframes by up to 90% in some cases, enabling these high-energy processes to be cost and environment friendly. 

‘Streamlining global supplier raw material documents and compliance management’, was presented by Freyr’s Bartosz Jaslowski, who delved into the human cost of compliance data overload and offered a smoother, time-saving path via its rmReady system. 

eBay’s Beth Alexander took us into retail with ‘The rise & importance of the marketplace’. 

80% of the UK now shops online, she said, noting that eBay’s strategy was particularly targeting Gen Z consumers who valued attributes like personalised communication, the sustainability agenda (via the opportunity to buy preloved and refurbed) and immersive tech. 

‘Digital R&D: Support innovation from customer’s needs to market compliance’ was explained by Flora Pense from Coptis. She discussed how to support product innovation which meets customer needs, plus manage all-important market compliance at levels including raw ingredients, formulation, stability, regulatory, testing and packaging.

XcellR8's Dr Carol Treasure was unable to attend due to illness, but her presentation of ‘What is truly cruelty-free testing?' will be available as a digital presentation soon.

Closing up proceedings in room A, Mintel’s Andrew McDougall gave an overview of ‘The future of beauty’. Here he channelled the visionary Reymond Loewy who said the key to success was to provide something that was “the most advanced yet accessible”. 

He noted that today’s consumer is seeking comfort and familiarity, but also a more inclusive approach to what defines beauty. 

He then invited attendees to step into the ‘beautyverse’ and stressed that beauty’s well-known affinity for building loyal communities would be core to the industry’s success in this brave new world. 

<i>Discover our special event edition of Cosmetics Business by subscribing via the link below!</i>

Discover our special event edition of Cosmetics Business by subscribing via the link below!

The December issue of Cosmetics Business magazine will be dedicated to a full review of all of the presentations and panel discussions which took place at Cosmetics Business Live 2022. 

To subscribe and receive your issue, click here

 

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