Category Archives: Industry News

Cosmoprof Bologna 2023: [Show Report]

This year’s Cosmoprof Bologna took place from 16th to 20th March 2023 and it was a blast! The energy of this fair almost felt like the pre-pandemic Bologna shows and looking at the official trade show stats, Cosmoprof Bologna 2023 was indeed almost back to its 2019 strength [2019 was the last year that the fair took place before the pandemic; the first post-pandemic show happened in May 2022].

According to organisers BolognaFiere, a total of 2,964 exhibitors from 64 countries participated in the show while visitor numbers reached 250,000 attendees from 153 countries. This is still a bit less than the 2019 numbers (3,033 exhibitors, 265,000+ visitors) but it’s majorly impressive nonetheless, considering the current economic and geopolitical situation in Europe.

Halls (15)

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Vivaness 2023: [Show Report]

In 2023, the world’s most important organic beauty trade show Vivaness (together with its sister show Biofach) finally took place again at its traditional time of year: in February! 14th to 17th February, to be precise. Nuremberg is usually rainy and cold (and on occasion snowy) in February but this week the weather was pretty great throughout – blue sky and sunshine, with moderate temperatures.

Anyway, it was wonderful to be back at Vivaness in the show’s usual Hall 3C. At last year’s trade show (Vivaness 2022 had been postponed to July so it was a summer edition), the beauty exhibitors had been dribbled around the Biofach halls rather than grouped in a single exhibition hall, which wasn’t great. But in 2023, everything was back to normal. More or less.

Intro (1)

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Retail notes from Tokyo: [Show Report] Cosme Tokyo 2023

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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Retail notes from Singapore: [Show Report] Cosmoprof Asia 2022

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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Vivaness 2022: [Show Report]

Organic trade show Vivaness usually takes place in February which means that I’ve only ever experienced Nuremberg in winter, at icy temperatures, in pouring rain and occasionally even in hail and snow.

This year, however, Vivaness and its partner show Biofach took place from 26th to 29th July – organisers Messe Nürnberg had postponed the trade fair duo for pandemic reasons. Nuremberg during a heatwave – also exhausting, but altogether so much more attractive than Nuremberg in late winter : )

2022 was my eight Vivaness visit altogether. If you’re interested check out my trade show reviews of Vivaness 2014, Vivaness 2015, Vivaness 2016, Vivaness 2017, Vivaness 2018, Vivaness 2019, Vivaness 2020 and Vivaness 2021 (which took place digitally).

Intro (1)

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Cosmoprof Bologna 2022: [Show Report]

Finally! The first in-person Cosmoprof Bologna show (28th April to 2nd May 2022) since the pandemic began and although the Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese contingents were almost non-existent this year (Korea was the only Asian country with a major presence at the show), the world’s biggest cosmetics trade fair started its first edition in the New Normal with 2,700+ exhibitors from 70 countries and 26 country pavilions. Over 220,000 visitors from 140 countries attended the show.

If you’re interested in what the pre-pandemic trade shows were like: here are the links to my previous articles: Cosmoprof Bologna 2019, Cosmoprof Bologna 2018, Cosmoprof Bologna 2017 and Cosmoprof Bologna 2016.

halls (2)

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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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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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Vivaness 2021: [Show Report]

This year’s edition of Europe’s most important organic beauty trade show Vivaness was a fully digital event. The Biofach/Vivaness eSpecial – or rather, the live webinars and presentations – took place from 17th to 19th February 2021. The digital fair, however, was launched a few days before the official start of the show and the entire virtual structure is remaining accessible to all participants for the next six months.

Organisers Messe Nürnberg wanted to create a kind of online knowledge ressource which is a really cool idea. All webinars, presentations, panels and so on – 775 sessions (!) in total – are available to view as often as you like, as are the exhibitor profiles, file uploads, videos and images. The live messaging function was discontinued a few days after the show ended but all the rest of it is still up and running until August 2021.

Biofach is always the much bigger event of the two fairs and this year was no exception. There were 1,443 exhibitors in total: 102 companies exhibited at Vivaness, the rest were at Biofach. According to the post-show report of the organisers, over 13,800 visitors from 136 countries registered for the trade fair (I should mention that this virtual edition of Vivaness and Biofach was also open to non-trade visitors – usually it’s strictly trade only) and the digital figures were also pretty impressive: over 10,000 video meetings took place at the Biofach/Vivaness eSpecial and over 400,000 chat messages were dispatched.

This was my eighth Vivaness –  my goodness! My first visit to the show was in 2014; in 2015 I published my first trade show report on this blog and here are the links to the subsequent articles if you want to check them out: Vivaness 2016, Vivaness 2017, Vivaness 2018, Vivaness 2019 and Vivaness 2020.

cover shot

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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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