Next week I’m travelling to Asia again – first to Seoul (Korea) for the 13th International Beauty Expo Korea trade show, then to Tokyo to see friends and attend Tokyo Design Week festival (yay!); then Taipei for local art and design and more friends, and finally Hong Kong for the biggest Asian cosmetics trade show ever, Cosmoprof Asia 2015. Watch this space for blog posts on interesting beauty brands, retailers, art and design stuff, food, trends or whatever strikes my fancy!
Category Archives: Travel
Company Profile: Farina
While 4711 Echt Kölnisch Wasser is arguably the best-known fragrance manufactured in the German city of Cologne, there is another – and much older – local Eau de Cologne company. Farina can trace its roots back to 1709 and although the brand’s fragrances are a lot more exclusive than 4711, its customer base is equally international.
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Filed under Brand Profiles, Retail, Store Profiles, Travel
Cake design extraordinaire: Les Gourmandises de Miyuko in Zurich
I visited the most amazing patisserie in Zurich yesterday – the famous Les Gourmandises de Miyuko. I’d been in Freiburg (a city in Southern Germany, close to the Swiss border) and was travelling back to Berlin.
Freiburg doesn’t have an airport and Berlin is up in Eastern Germany (the travel time between the two cities is around 6 ½ hours by train) so it was actually cheaper and faster to fly to Zurich and then take the train across the border.
And a stop-over in Zurich is always a bonus! I had booked my return train and flight so I’d have a free afternoon in the city and after a quick visit to Kunsthaus museum to check out the new exhibition “Europa: The Future of History” (interesting!) I walked over to Kreis 6 district to visit Miyuko.
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Filed under Délicieux!, Travel
Brand Profile: 4711 Eau de Cologne
On a recent trip to Cologne I visited the flagship store of legendary fragrance brand 4711 in Glockengasse street. 4711 Echt Kölnisch Wasser is one of the most famous German perfume brands, with an interesting and rather convoluted brand history.
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Filed under Brand Profiles, Retail, Travel
Retail notes from Seoul: [Store Profile] Olive Young Lifestyle Experience Center in Myeong-dong
[EDIT 11/5/2018 – Following a major relaunch of the Olive Young store brand across Korea, and the opening of several new (and considerably larger) Olive Young outlets in Seoul, the Myeong-Dong Lifestyle Experience Center was completely remodelled in line with Olive Young’s new look. The store looks entirely different now, with a new interior design and a different brand portfolio; more style and less hallyu. You’re therefore about to take a step into the Olive Young chain’s retail history ; )]
On my very first evening in Myeung-dong area I was randomly walking along the streets, enjoying the very special Myeung-dong evening experience: crowds of shoppers pushing along the narrow streets, music blaring from every store and restaurant, sales staff standing outside the beauty stores announcing special offers to try and lure customers inside, food stalls everywhere, more crowds, more noise…..
Then I drifted past an Olive Young store, one of the many branches that Korea’s leading drugstore retailer operates in the central Seoul area. This particular outlet looked different though, so I drifted right back to check it out. The store was much bigger than the average Olive Young retail space; new, stylish and sophisticated-looking – and indeed, as it turned out this is a new Olive Young retail format. The “Lifestyle Experience Center”, opened in 2012, is an attractive beauty concept store with an integrated café area and a strong hallyu flavour.
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Filed under Asia, cosmeticsbusiness.com, Industry News, Retail, Store Profiles, Travel
Retail notes from Seoul: Capital of beauty stores
Greetings from Seoul where I’m winding up my spring trip to Asia! I spent the last two weeks in Tokyo: enjoying the city, exploring different neighbourhoods and doing some article research (I am writing a retail profile on Japanese store chain Cosmekitchen for CBM Magazine). I also visited most of the major art and design museums and galleries in the greater Tokyo area. Unlike last year’s visit, my first 2015 trip to Tokyo was culture-oriented rather than retail-focused.
In Seoul, however, I am making up for this: my visit here is all about brands, cosmetics and retail! Although this is my first trip to Korea I already know a good bit about the Korean beauty market and I’m familiar with many of the big retail brands. Korean cosmetics are popular across Asia and brands like Holika Holika, Tony Moly, Innisfree, Nature Republic, Skin Food, Etude House and Missha have a significant presence in East Asia and most of the South East Asian countries. Several of these brands also have retail boutiques in the US, by the way. And with the Korean hallyu blazing its triumphant path across the world, K-Beauty is only going to grow in importance.
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Filed under Asia, cosmeticsbusiness.com, Retail, Travel
[Brand Profile]: Whamisa – organic beauty from Korea
One of my favourite things about trade shows is the chance to discover new beauty labels. I first came across Whamisa at CosmeTokyo 2014 trade show and was immediately struck by the brand: Beautiful packaging, high-quality ingredients, great organic certification (BDIH and Ecocert) and a very attractive 38-sku product range.
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Filed under Asia, Brand Profiles, Industry News, Retail, Trade Shows, Travel
Retail notes from Hong Kong: [Show Report] Cosmoprof Asia 2014
I arrived in Hong Kong a few days ago to attend Cosmoprof Asia, the biggest and most important C&T trade show in the Asian region. This year’s Cosmoprof Asia took place from 12th to 14th November at Hong Kong’s Convention & Exhibition Center in Wan Chai. Click on the link below to read more on the show.
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Filed under Asia, cosmeticsbusiness.com, Industry News, Retail, Show Reports, Trade Shows, Travel, Trends
Retail notes from Taipei: [Company Profile] Eslite!
One of my favourite store chains in Taiwan is bookstore retailer Eslite. Not only do they have an interesting and very appealing retail concept, but I’m also impressed by how carefully the company tailors its brand portfolio and store layout to the local neighbourhood.
The Eslite chain started out as a bookstore in 1989 with a small selection of titles from the arts and humanities. Since then it has become a majorly successful multi-channel business. In 2004 Eslite was chosen as “Asia’s Best Book Store” in Time Magazine’s Best of Asia ranking and in 2011 the company received the Top 100 Taiwanese Brand Award from the Taiwanese government.
Books and literature are still a key part of the Eslite portfolio but the company has diversified its focus to embrace the cultural and creative industries in Taiwan, too. In some of the larger Taipei Eslites you’ll find gourmet food courts and super-stylish cafés, hand-made Taiwanese art and design objects, lifestyle cosmetics, international avant-garde fashion and accessories and a very comprehensive selection of books and magazines – mostly in Chinese but the larger Eslites also carry a respectable number of English language books. Some of the outlets feature lecture halls and auditoriums and in these stores there is a varied program of concerts, exhibitions and other cultural events. And the newest Eslite in Songshan even has an arthouse movie theatre.
Filed under Asia, Brand Profiles, Retail, Travel
Art & design in Taipei (3/3): Red House
The Red House cultural centre is the second-oldest and the smallest of the three arts spaces. It is a group of compact and attractive red-brick buildings which is located right in the middle of bustling Ximen area.
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Filed under Asia, Design, Exhibitions, Travel
TRENDS. TRAVELS. AND BERLIN 