Category Archives: Asia

02/08/2024 · 11:19

Cosme Tokyo 2024: [Show Report]

The 12th edition of Cosme Tokyo, Japan’s largest retail beauty trade fair, took place from 17th to 19th January 2024 at Tokyo Big Sight expo centre. As usual, the show was held as part of Cosme Week Tokyo which also includes Cosme Tech (OEM/ODM, ingredients, supply chain), Inner Beauty (functional foods/beverages, nutritional supplements), Hair Expo (salon hair care), Esthec Japan (salon face/body care) and Beauty Marketing Expo (services for the Japanese cosmetics industry). Cosme Tech, incidentally, was the first beauty trade show in this format, Cosme Tokyo only followed seven years later.

I remember visiting the 2014 version (back then it took place in October) and the show was so tiny! My next Cosme Tokyo was the 2018 edition, followed by Cosme Tokyo 2019 and Cosme Tokyo 2020. Cosme Tokyo 2021 and Cosme Tokyo 2022 were digital events for me, with Cosme Tokyo 2023 finally (!) an in-person trade fair again.

Cosme Tokyo 2024 was very busy throughout the three days of the fair – a total of almost 34,000 visitors was registered across all Cosme Week shows – and I enjoyed it tremendously.

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12/31/2023 · 12:05

Cosmoprof Asia 2023: [Show Report]

In 2023, Cosmoprof Asia finally returned to its home town of Hong Kong: Cosmopack (packaging, supply chain etc.) in AsiaWorld Expo near the airport and Cosmoprof (finished cosmetics, salon beauty, hair and nails) at HKCEC in Wan Chai. And it was such a good show, packed with visitors and busy across the four days of the fair (14th to 16th November for Cosmopack, 15th to 17th November for Cosmoprof).

As usual, I focused on the retail beauty side of things: Perfumery, Cosmetics Toiletries in Hall 1E, with only a quick visit to Professional Beauty Salon, Spa Products & Equipment in Hall 3E. While I do track the salon beauty sector there’s only so much time in the day. Therefore I mostly skipped this section as well as Salon Hair in Hall 3G and Nail Products & Accessories in Hall 5G.

In total, there were 2,400+ exhibitors from 44 countries across both Cosmoprof and Cosmopack, and 65,582 visitors from 119 countries and regions. Visitor numbers were almost back to the 2018 edition which is really encouraging.

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09/24/2023 · 10:43

Cosmoprof CBE Asean 2023: [Show Report]

Cosmoprof CBE Asean is the latest additon to the Cosmoprof roster of beauty trade shows and caters to the rapidly growing South East Asian beauty markets.

Organised by Bologna Fiere, Informa Markets and Shanghai Baiwen Co. (the organisers of, amongst others, China Beauty Expo Shanghai), Cosmoprof CBE Asean 2023 took place from 14th to 16th September 2023 at Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre. Originally the fair was set to take place at IMPACT Expo on the outskirts of Bangkok but I was very happy when the organisers announced the change of venue to Queen Sirikit.

I only attended one trade show at IMPACT – Beyond Beauty ASEAN in 2019 – and it’s a nightmare to get there; no public transport and very expensive by taxi or Grab car, especially during the morning and evening rush hour. QSNCC is located in Bangkok’s city centre and connected to the subway which made the trade show commute super easy. This was my first Cosmoprof CBE Asean show.

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06/10/2023 · 10:03

Cosmobeauty Seoul 2023: [Show Report]

This was the second Cosmobeauty Seoul trade show after the pandemic and my first Cosmobeauty since 2019! This year’s trade fair was a good bit smaller than its pre-pandemic shows – just one hall in COEX expo centre rather than the customary two halls – but I had kind of expected this: Every beauty trade fair that I visited over the last eight months (Cosmoprof Asia 2022, Cosme Tokyo 2023, Vivaness 2023, Cosmoprof Bologna 2023, Beauty Düsseldorf 2023, Beautyworld Japan 2023) has been smaller than its respective pre-pandemic iterations. You can check out my previous Cosmobeauty coverage here: Cosmobeauty Seoul 2016, Cosmobeauty Seoul 2017, Cosmobeauty Seoul 2018 and Cosmobeauty Seoul 2019.

What kinda DID surprise me were the great many international (Western) visitors at Cosmobeauty Seoul this year! There were definitely more Caucasian faces around than during the 2019 show. And when I think back to my first Cosmobeautys in 2016 and 2017 – wow. Back then there were maybe half a dozen Caucasians amongst the visitors. This year, Westerners alone accounted for at least a quarter of all attendees, I think.

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01/19/2023 · 07:10

Cosme Tokyo 2023 [Show Report]

Cosme Tokyo 2023 was my first in-person Cosme Tokyo since the pandemic. The 2022 show actually took place offline again but back then travel to Asia was still impossible for Europeans, so I attended Cosme Tokyo 2022 digitally. Cosme Tokyo 2021 was a fully digital show as well. And here are the links to the 2020, 2019 and 2018 shows, if you’re interested.

Cosme Tokyo 2023 was smaller than its pre-pandemic editions. Then again, this has been the case with every international beauty trade show that I’ve attended over the past nine months (from Cosmoprof Bologna 2022 over Vivaness 2022 to Cosmoprof Asia 2022). I think it’ll be a few more years before these global trade fairs return to normal again.

Quite a few of Cosme Tokyo’s regular Japanese exhibitors didn’t attend the show this year, and the Chinese exhibitor contingent was also much smaller than usual. So was the number of European and US/Canadian brands, by the way – I only saw a half dozen or so non-Asian beauty companies at the fair. Still, it was a super interesting Cosme Tokyo and I was incredibly happy to be back at Tokyo Big Sight.

Halls (10)

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12/08/2022 · 20:17

Cosmoprof Asia Singapore 2022 [Show Report]

Singapore! This is where Cosmoprof Asia 2022 took place this year. Hong Kong still has a lot of pandemic restrictions (presumably thanks to its mainland China overlords and that government‘s spectacularly restrictive and ineffectual zero covid policy) so the organisers decided to relocate Asia-Pacific’s most important trade show rather than cancel it outright. And I’m very happy they did. Relocate the fair, that is. This was first in-person Cosmoprof Asia since 2019 (and my first Asian trade show since Cosme Tokyo in January 2020) and it was marvellous to be finally back in Asia.

Halls (4)

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02/13/2022 · 16:00

Cosme Tokyo 2022: [Show Report]

The 10th edition of Japan’s largest beauty retail show Cosme Tokyo took place from 12th to 14th January 2022 at Tokyo’s Big Sight Expo Centre.

Unlike last year’s event, Cosme Tokyo 2022 was not a hybrid show; it was held completely offline but luckily organizers RX Japan (formerly Reed Exhibitions Japan) had provided a detailed exhibitor database and digital product showcase. There were even two live-stream segments from the show (which were so much fun to watch!) so I attended from a distance, as per usual these days.

If you’re interested in checking out my previous trade show coverage, here are the links: Cosme Tokyo 2021, Cosme Tokyo 2020, Cosme Tokyo 2019, Cosme Tokyo 2018 and Cosme Tokyo 2014.

Cosme Tokyo LEAD

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01/05/2022 · 09:27

Cosmoprof Asia Digital Week 2021: [Show Report]

Well, the second edition of virtual trade show Cosmoprof Asia Digital Week has come and gone. First introduced in 2020 as a substitute for the cancelled Cosmoprof Asia trade show in Hong Kong, CADW 2021 had the same format as last year’s show (here’s the link to my Cosmoprof Asia Digital Week 2020 article) – the Match & Meet database for exhibitors and visitors, online exhibitor database, Cosmotalks lectures, Cosmostage product demonstrations. The whole event took place from 8th to 16th November 2021.

This year I was registered as Media/Press so I didn’t have access to Match & Meet but still found a lot of interesting beauty brands and trends, so let’s jump right in!

CADW title pic

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02/09/2021 · 18:43

Cosme Tokyo 2021: [Show Report]

The 2021 edition of Japan’s largest cosmetics trade fair Cosme Tokyo took place as a hybrid event, with the offline show held in Tokyo’s Big Sight exhibition centre from 13th to 15th January.

The online version of Cosme Week Tokyo 2021 (which comprises Cosme Tokyo, Cosme Tech, Inner Beauty and Esthec Japan) opened a few days earlier and the digital exhibition booths stayed up for another week or so after the offline fair had closed. Since the pandemic is still raging over here in Europe I visited the digital edition of Cosme Tokyo 2021.

There were some 200-odd companies at Cosme Tokyo, Inner Beauty and Esthec Japan and around 150+ exhibitors at Cosme Tech. Smaller than the usual Cosme Week Tokyo shows but still impressive. According to organisers Reed Business Japan, 10,468 visitors attended the offline edition of the fair.

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01/01/2021 · 14:33

Cosmoprof Asia Digital Week 2020: [Show Report]

My first trade fair report since the Corona pandemic hit Europe in spring 2020! As I’m finishing this article  Europe is knee-deep into the second wave of Covid-19. Germany is now in its second (or third? It’s difficult to keep track) consecutive lockdown and it doesn’t look like the situation is going to improve anytime soon.

At least the Asian C&T trade fair circuit is slowly starting up again. The organisers of Cosme Tokyo fair, for example, have annouced that the January trade show will take place as a hybrid event (13th to 15th January; offline in Tokyo’s Big Sight expo centre and online in cyberspace). I already signed up for the virtual edition!

However, Cosmoprof Asia Digital Week (CADW) in November 2020 was probably the first fully digitalised beauty trade fair to have taken place since Covid-19 appeared on the scene. I enjoyed the event tremendously – organisers Bologna Fiere and Informa Markets did a great job – and when I go through my Instagram trade show coverage, it really does look and feel like I attended a real-life trade fair.

Anyhow, the first virtual edition of Asia-Pacific’s biggest C&T trade show Cosmoprof Asia took place from 9th to 17th November 2020. Originally the fair dates were 9th to 13th November, but the event turned out to be so successful in terms of scheduled business meetings and video chat traffic that the organisers extended the show for another few days.

And if you’re interested in what the usual offline Cosmoprof Asia trade fairs are like, check out my trade show reports from the last years – Cosmoprof Asia 2014, Cosmoprof Asia 2015, Cosmoprof Asia 2016, Cosmoprof Asia 2017, Cosmoprof Asia 2018 and Cosmoprof Asia 2019.

CADW 2020 (4)

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