The American dream was alive and well at the 14th annual edition of Cosmoprof North America, which teemed with entrepreneurship, diversity, and innovation at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV, last month. The trade show kicked off with a “Beauty Pitch” event, where entrepreneur finalists from all sectors of the beauty industry pitched their ideas “Shark Tank”-style to celebrity judges, national retailers, and editors. This year’s winners were Sunlights Balayage, maker of “The Balay Box” (an educational balayage kit), and P3 Pure, marketer of Primal Pit Paste all-natural organic deodorants.
The floor layout has been revamped to add more curated discovery zones. Discover Green is a new section for companies with a green or natural positioning and featured brands like Haconut, Jurlique, and EQ. The Emerging Beauty section is open exclusively to first-time exhibitors and housed an interesting array of independent beauty newcomers.
Discover Green
The Tones of Beauty section displayed brands targeting multicultural consumers. Many of these players, including curLUXE Naturals, Mixed Roots, and Twisted Sista, offer natural solutions for curl management, a key trend that is driving the multicultural beauty category. Kline’s own Carrie Mellage had the opportunity to discuss this trend’s contribution to the multicultural beauty boom during her participation in a panel discussion from the “From Concept to Creative: How to Best Engage the Multicultural Market” session. Ebony’s Marielle Bobo and Black Opal’s Maya Brown were also among the session’s participants.
Tones of Beauty
The Glamour Me section is also new to the expo and is a place where attendees could book and enjoy beauty services, including hair styling by Zotos, nail coloring by Orly, and skin care by newcomer ChinUp, a U.K.-based marketer of a non-surgical facelift mask, which made its U.S. debut at the show.
Glamour Me
Greater emphasis was given to the international country pavilions this year, with more dedicated country-specific sections than in the past. Each section contained design elements inspired by the country’s unique culture. Pavilions were present for Australia/New Zealand, Brazil, China, Italy, and Turkey, just to name a few, with some like China significantly increasing in square footage from prior years.
Country Pavilions
Another place where originality and creativity were recognized was ICMAD’s Annual Cosmetic Innovator of the Year (CITY) Awards Dinner. Winners from 14 categories were honored, including BioMimetic Laboratories in the facial skin care category for its Erasa XEP30, a concentrate featuring a patented neuropeptide XEP-30 complex, and Flip-It! Cap Company taking the Member’s Choice Product award for its cap that replaces the pump or cap on plastic bottles of products, such as lotions, shampoos, and creams, so users can more easily extract the last of the contents.
ICMAD’s Annual Cosmetic Innovator of the Year (CITY) Awards Dinner
The level of diversity and freshness that was present at the show was at an unprecedented high and seems to promise a bright future for the beauty industry. To learn all of the industry’s ins and outs, take a look at our insightful beauty market research reports covering dynamic markets like professional skin care, salon hair care, and professional nail care, among others.
