Category Archives: Retail

27/03/2025 · 12:39

Cosmoprof Bologna 2025: [Show Report]

Cosmoprof Bologna 2025 was a resounding success: According to the organisers, this year’s edition of the world’s leading beauty trade show hosted 3,128 exhibitors (representing over 10,000 brands) from 65 countries, and over 255,000 attendees from 150 countries visited the fair from 20th to 23th March 2025. A definite increase compared to Cosmoprof Bologna 2024.

As always, the fair consisted of two sections: Cosmopack (packaging, ingredients, OEM/ODM etc.) and Cosmo Perfumery & Cosmetics (retail beauty) took place from 20th-22nd March; Cosmo Hair & Nails & Beauty Salon (salon cosmetics, salon hair, nails; beauty, equipment and tech) took place from 20th-23rd March.

If you’re interested in my other Bologna show reports, they are here: Cosmoprof Bologna 2016, Cosmoprof Bologna 2017, Cosmoprof Bologna 2018, Cosmoprof Bologna 2019, Cosmoprof Bologna 2022 and Cosmoprof Bologna 2023.

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28/01/2025 · 08:36

Cosme Tokyo 2025: [Show Report]

The 2025 edition of Japan’s largest retail beauty trade show Cosme Tokyo took place from 15th to 17th January, as part of Cosme Week Tokyo which also included Cosme Tech (ingredients, packaging OEM/ODM), Esthec Japan (salon/professional beauty), Cosmetics Marketing Expo (services for the Japanese beauty industry), Hair Expo Tokyo (hair care) and Inner Beauty (functional foods/beverages/supplements).

According to the organisers, a total of 618 exhibitors and 38,266 visitors across all shows attended Cosme Week Tokyo 2025. In previous years, Cosme Week had also included a smaller Lifestyle and Wellness show but in 2025, this was spun off into the Lifestyle Week Tokyo 2025 fair. Lifestyle Week took place in the hall adjacent to Cosme Tech and you could enter with your Cosme Week badge, but it was very much treated as a separate show.

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20/12/2024 · 13:06

Cosmoprof Asia 2024: [Show Report]

The 27th Cosmoprof Asia trade fair was, incidentally, my 10th Cosmoprof HK show (if you count the two digital fairs during the pandemic and the Singaporean edition in 2022). Despite Typhoon Toraji passing Hong Kong on the night of the first trade show day and delaying the opening of the fair on Day 2 for a few hours, it was a good show.

And here are the annual stats for Cosmoprof Asia 2024: A total of 2,500+ exhibitors from 47 countries/territories exhibited at HKCEC (13th-15th November, Cosmoprof) and AsiaWorld Expo (12th to 14th November, Cosmopack) and 60,975 attendees from 119 countries attended the two shows. A solid performance although the comparatively low official visitor numbers surprised me a bit – the show certainly seemed as busy at Cosmoprof Asia 2023 but according to the official data, fewer visitors attended this year. Not sure why.

If you’re interested in my previous Cosmoprof Asia trade show articles here are the direct links to Cosmoprof Asia 2014, Cosmoprof Asia 2015, Cosmoprof Asia 2016, Cosmoprof Asia 2017, Cosmoprof Asia 2018, Cosmoprof Asia 2019, Cosmoprof Asia 2020 (digital), Cosmoprof Asia 2021 (digital) and Cosmoprof Asia 2022.

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22/06/2024 · 11:35

Cosmoprof CBE Asean 2024: [Show Report]

The third edition of South East Asia’s first Cosmoprof fair took place from 13th to 15th June 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand. It was my second time to visit Cosmoprof CBE Asean (here is my report of last year’s show) and I enjoyed it tremendously. Compared to Cosmoprof CBE Asean 2023, exhibitor numbers increased by 50% to around 1,500+ companies and brands from 18 countries while visitor numbers grew 26% to 16,630+ visitors from 59 countries/regions. It certainly felt busier than the previous year.

There is no official country breakdown but I did a rough count of country exhibitors by colour on the information boards posted outside the exhibition halls in Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre: Around 225 exhibitors were from Thailand making this the biggest exhibitor country (as it should be!). Some 150+ brands were Chinese (almost all of these supply chain exhibitors – OEM/ODM, ingredients, machinery and especially packaging) and around 130 brands were from Korea (almost all retail brands, KOECO, IBITA et. al. were out in force again).

Halls (6)

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11/06/2024 · 05:14

Cosmobeauty Seoul 2024: [Show Report]

Cosmobeauty Seoul 2024 (29th to 31st May) was so much busier than last year’s show, with really great energy throughout the three days of the fair. There were some 370+ exhibitors including several big Korean brands that had been absent at Cosmobeauty Seoul 2023. If you’re interested, here are the links to my previous Cosmobeauty reports: Cosmobeauty Seoul 2019, Cosmobeauty Seoul 2018, Cosmobeauty Seoul 2017 and Cosmobeauty Seoul 2016.

This year’s Cosmobeauty Seoul was just chock-full of fascinating new product launches and overarching trends – like beauty tech, especially LED devices and skin/scalp diagnostics; and fragrance/home fragrance launches: I saw at least half a dozen Korean perfume/home fragrance brands that were launched within the past five years.

And of course the face care! Pimple patches everywhere (microneedle patches, patch kits with coin-sized LED devices to boost the effects, decorative/tattoo-type patches…) as were masks and serums. And a lot of aromatherapy/scented hair and body care – I posted 24 Instagram brand profiles across the three days of the show. According to my personal Instagram trade show coverage standards this is almost Cosmoprof Bologna level!

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04/03/2024 · 16:38

Vivaness 2024: [Show Report]

Visiting Vivaness 2024 was a bitter-sweet experience with a distinct end-of-an-era vibe (and I bet I’m not the only one feeling like this!): It was the last time that this wonderful and unique showcase for certified organic beauty took place as a stand-alone fair. From 2025 onwards, the Vivaness exhibitors will be allocated a space in the Biofach halls – Hall 4A is earmarked as the new location – as a “Vivaness area” within Biofach. Consequently, it will become part of Biofach trade show – no more dedicated expo hall, marketing or positioning.

When you consider that Vivaness originally started as the cosmetics section of organic food show Biofach it does feel like a bit of a regression. In the early Noughties, more and more cosmetics brands began exhibiting at Biofach and by 2005/2006, there were so many beauty exhibitors at the food show that the organisers decided to create a spin-off event: A trade show dedicated to certified organic beauty. The first stand-alone Vivaness took place in 2007.

My first Vivaness visit was in 2014 – you can check out my 2014 article here here, as well as Vivaness 2015, Vivaness 2016, Vivaness 2017, Vivaness 2018, Vivaness 2019, Vivaness 2020, Vivaness 2021 (digital trade show), Vivaness 2022 and Vivaness 2023. As you can tell, this is (or was) one of my essential annual trade shows.

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08/02/2024 · 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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24/09/2023 · 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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10/06/2023 · 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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10/04/2023 · 14:03

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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