The latest Beautyjagd translation is now online!
News and Reviews from the World of Organic Beauty (14) – this time with a pre-view article about NaturkosmetikCamp 2016 (the biggest German bar camp for the organic beauty industry), a feature about the new Cream Eyeshadows from Studio 78 Paris (review & swatches) and the first part of Julia’s Vivaness 2016 trade show review: the major launches of the big German and European organic beauty brands!
Filed under Beautyjagd, Retail, Trends
Last week I was in Nuremberg to attend Vivaness, Europe’s biggest organic C&T trade fair. This year, Vivaness celebrated its 10th anniversary; happy birthday! The official trade show statistics speak for themselves: organizers Messe Nuremberg have announced that 48.000 visitors from 132 countries visited Vivaness and its companion trade show Biofach (the world’s biggest organic food show. EVER!), an increase of around 7% compared to 2015.
Altogether there were 2.544 exhibitors from 77 countries at both shows (Vivaness: 245 companies from 33 countries) and you can imagine how busy the trade show centre in Nuremberg was. Biofach/Vivaness always has a fantastic atmosphere: different languages everywhere, people rushing around like mad, exciting new brands to discover and interesting people to talk to…it’s one of my favourite German trade shows.
So let’s dive right in: here are some of my favourite brand discoveries from Vivaness 2016! Also, this article is even longer than my show report on Cosmoprof Hong Kong 2015 – you have been warned.
Filed under Exhibitions, Industry News, Mintel, organicwellnessnews.com, Retail, Show Reports, Trade Shows, Travel, Trends
The latest English-language installment of Beautyjagd (Germany’s biggest organic cosmetics blog) is online!
News and Reviews from the World of Organic Beauty (13) – including an article on cosmetics formulated with chamomile, a feature on organic niche beauty brands from France; an interview with a product manager at raw ingredients supplier Dr. Straetmans and, of course, the latest German and international organic beauty news, product launches and reviews. Enjoy!
Filed under Beautyjagd, Retail, Trends
And here is the PDF article of my Cosmoprof Asia 2015 show report for SPC Magazine (SPC Magazine, February 2016 (Vol 89 No 2); copyright: HPCi Media). You can also find the article on www.cosmeticsbusiness.com. Enjoy!
Filed under cosmeticsbusiness.com, Industry News, Retail, Show Reports, Trade Shows, Travel
Yes, the new edition of OWN has just been published! And I’ve contributed several articles: a brand profile on Fair Squared (p. 16 in the print version, here is the pdf article) – an interesting company: Fair Squared’s products are organic, halal, fair trade AND vegan. The brand will be officially launched in Germany, Austria and Switzerland at Vivaness next month.
There is also an overview of the current state of organic C&T legislation in Europe (p. 18 in print – pdf article) and two articles about one of the most interesting topics I’ve ever written about: entomophagy (edible insects!). Click here for a background piece on the edible insects industry and an interview with Dan Imrie-Situnayake, founder of edible insects farm consultancy Tiny Farms. (p. 22 in the print version). Or download the entire Spring issue here: http://organicwellnessnews.com/en.
Filed under Brand Profiles, Industry News, organicwellnessnews.com, Retail, Trends
Twice a year – in January and in June – Berlin is hosting the Fashion Week. And I actually got to attend three of the fashion shows thanks to the lovely people at Cosnova! Cosnova is the company behind two of Germany’s best-selling colour cosmetics brands, Essence and Catrice. For several years Catrice has been a sponsor of the Berliner Modesalon, a special Fashion Week showcase for young German design labels.
The brand’s makeup artists create the makeup look for each of the Modesalon fashion shows and the models are then made up with Catrice products. I attended three shows – Nobi Talai and René Storck on Tuesday and Marina Hoermanseder on Thursday. After the Hoermanseder show I had the chance to chat with Catrice’s chief makeup artist, Loni Baur.
Filed under Berlin, Brand Profiles
The latest installment of “Beautyjagd in English” has just gone online!
News and Reviews from the World of Organic Beauty (12) – this time with a visit to the Birchbox pop-up store in Bon Marché, Paris; the second part of Julia’s 2015 Review article (favourite organic cosmetics of 2015), an article on the beauty classic Cold Cream, a store profile of organic perfumery Belladonna in Berlin and, of course, all the latest info about German and European organic brand news and launches. Enjoy!
Filed under Beautyjagd, Retail, Trends
First of all, this is not a product review or comparison. It is more of a presentation – three interesting products from different brands, taken from the same product category. In this case: face cleansing. All three brands are from Korea.
So, let’s dive right in! What we have here is a solid cleanser based on coconut oil and glycerin (Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick), a creamy white foam based on sea water and sea salt granules (Sea Salt Perfect Cleanser 40%) and a cleansing oil whose key ingredient, besides deep sea water, is Epidermal Growth Factor cell activator (Pure Propolis Washable Cleansing Oil).
The three brands are equally different: Su:m37 is from the luxury sector, Innisfree is a mass market brand with a very wide distribution and LaCell is firmly rooted in the niche/online retail channel.
Filed under Asia, Brand Profiles, Industry News, Retail, Travel, Trends
Here is some more reading material! My editorial projects also include the monthly Retail Focus series that I write for HPCi Media’s CBM Magazine. These are short one-page company profiles of interesting C&T retailers. The Retail Focus articles cover the big international chains but we also feature smaller or regional beauty companies: different countries and distribution channels, tiny chains and large retail empires, online stores and bricks & mortar perfumeries, specialist stores, drugstore retailers, department stores, pharmacies…when I am travelling I frequently come across interesting beauty stores and these often appear as Retail Focus articles in CBM Magazine a few months later.
And here is a list of 2015 articles: the year started with a company profile on French department store chain Monoprix. In February I wrote about Japanese beauty retailer @cosme, March it was was German drugstore chain Budnikowsky’s turn, and in April we featured German drugstore retailer Müller. May: Paris-based niche perfumery Nose, June: Japanese organic beauty retailer Cosmekitchen, July: Hong Kong-based C&T giant AS Watson, (two pages actually since AS Watson has such an immense retail presence!) August: UK beauty and pharmacy retailer Boots, September: perfumery chain Sasa (also from Hong Kong), October: UK online salon booking company Wahanda, November: German beauty box subscription company Glossybox (two pages again: I interviewed Glossybox founder Charles von Abercron) and December: US drugstore chain CVS Pharmacy.
And the first half of 2016 will be equally interesting (and international!): we have profiles coming up about Korean drugstore chain Olive Young, US perfumery retailer Ulta, UK-based online men’s care store Mankind, drugstore chain Superdrug (also from the UK), Korean perfumery chain Belport, London’s Selfridge’s department store, Swiss supermarket retailer Coop, and in July it will be the turn of another Japanese drugstore chain, Sundrug.
Filed under Brand Profiles, cosmeticsbusiness.com, Industry News, Retail, Travel, Trends
And here is the annual Germany Report that I wrote for SPC Magazine last September. It’s one of my favourite repeat assignments: an analysis of what happened in the German C&T industry over the past 12 months – retailers, brands, product launches, trends.
And 2014/2015 was a tempestuous year for the German retail industry: drugstore chains DM and Rossmann continue the battle for market leadership and Germany’s leading perfumery retailer Douglas was acquired by a Luxembourg-based investment fund.
The two biggest German department store chains, Karstadt and Kaufhof, also changed hands: Karstadt has gone to Austrian Signa group (Signa has already sold some of Karstadt’s premium stores to Italian department store retailer La Rinascente) and Kaufhof went to Canadian retail group Hudson’s Bay.
The feature appeared in the magazine’s October issue; the copyright belongs to HPCi Media/cosmeticsbusiness.com. Enjoy!
Filed under cosmeticsbusiness.com, Industry News, Retail, Trends
TRENDS. TRAVELS. AND BERLIN 