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
One of my favourite projects is doing the translations for organic beauty blog Beautyjagd.de. Beautyjagd is run by Julia Keith who really knows her stuff: she writes about organic C&T brands, stores and companies, about new product launches, trends and ingredients.
Sometimes she publishes interviews with retailers or brands; there is coverage from trade shows and other industry events – my favourites are the weekly Beauty Notes: a round-up of new organic products, launches and brand news from around the world. In fact, this is what I particularly like about Beautyjagd: the international angle. Although the blog’s primary focus is the German organic C&T industry, Julia also writes about international brands and retailers so you get a good mixture of articles.
I do the translations for Beautyjagd: every two week there is an English-language post which offers a condensed version of the most important articles that Julia has published over the previous two weeks. And it occurred to me that I haven’t linked to any of my translations yet! The latest English installment went online today, you can find it here:
News and Reviews from the World of Organic Beauty (11) – including an article on Japanese incense brand Shoyeido, a visit to DIY beauty store Aroma Zone in Paris, organic beauty Christmas presents, a review of US brand Ilia Beauty’s Vivid Foundation and plenty of organic products launches and brand news.
For a list of previous English-language Beautyjagd articles, click the “Continue Reading” button below.
Filed under Beautyjagd, Retail, Trends
I first came across Kyushu-based niche beauty brand Satamisaki Organics in Japanese drugstore retailer Ainz & Tulpe’s Shinjuku East outlet this October (you can read my article about the company’s fabulous new Tokyo flagship store here!). Ainz & Tulpe has a special section on the first floor that is dedicated to local beauty brands from across Japan.
Filed under Asia, Brand Profiles, Retail, Travel, Trends
A few days ago I was in Zurich – gorgeous winter weather, blue sky and lots of sunshine – and of course a visit to Les Gourmandises de Miyuko was at the top of my to-do-list! Miyuko is an fabulous little patisserie which is run by Swiss graphic designer-turned-confectioner Sara Hochuli.
Filed under Délicieux!, Travel
The last stop on my Asian tour was Hong Kong – and the big event here was, of course, Cosmoprof Asia! Not only is it the most important C&T trade show for the entire Asian region but the fair also celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2015. Congratulations!
The official trade show stats for 2015 speak for themselves: there were 2,504 exhibitors from 46 countries which marks an increase of 6% compared to 2014. A total of 63,241 visitors from 119 countries attended the trade show (+ 5.5%) and there was a 7% increase in visitors from outside the Hong Kong area (including me!).
And here are some more facts and figures: there were 22 country and group pavilions (Korea was the biggest exhibitor and Chile attended for the first time), total exhibition space grew 3% to over 84,000 sq m and Italy and the US were the countries of honour because of their continued support of Cosmoprof Asia.
At the official Cosmoprof Asia press conference, organizers UBM and BolognaFiere also announced the following news: because the trade fair has grown so much over the last few years, the 2016 edition will take place in two different venues.
Cosmetics, Salon, Hair, Nails & Accessories will remain in the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre; Packaging, Ingredients, Equipment, Private Label etc. will move to Asiaworld Expo. The 2016 fair dates are 15th to 17th November for Asiaworld Expo and 16th to 18th November for the Convention Centre which means that there is an extra day for visitors who want to take in both parts of the show.
But all of that is still in the future; join me now for a tour around Cosmoprof Asia 2015 featuring, in no particular order, some of my favourite brands and companies from across the world. By the way: this article is even longer than my usual trade show reports – you have been warned!
Filed under Asia, cosmeticsbusiness.com, Industry News, Retail, Show Reports, Trade Shows, Travel
I arrived in Taipei a few days ago and one of my first visits was to MasKingdom’s flagship in the city’s trendy Ximen area. I had written about this unique Taiwanese face mask manufacturer last November during my first visit to Taipei – you can read the post here.
[EDIT 29/04/2017: Unfortunately the store has closed down. Thanks to nn for the info!]
I did notice that MasKingdom masks are now appearing in a number of Asian online shops so it looks like the brand is doing very well. When I visited the store I was yet again struck by the beauty of MasKingdom’s Taiwanese Aboriginal mask series – probably the brand’s best-known range – and decided to buy a mask set.
Filed under Asia, Brand Profiles, Industry News, Retail, Store Profiles, Travel, Trends
From 24th October to 3rd November 2015, Tokyo Design Week celebrated its 30th anniversary with the biggest and most spectacular show ever. Granted, it was only my second time at Japan’s most important design trade show but the whole event was on a much bigger scale than in 2014, with a number of new exhibition sections. This year they also had a central festival/food tent which hosted live bands, DJ sets and other events. I was lucky enough to catch a gig by Japanese indie band Noodles and became a fan straight away.
Amongst my favourite shows this year was the Robot Inspired Exhibition (featuring famous android girl Asuna, a robot band and some seriously intriguing examples of 3D facial and motion capturing!). The Schools Exhibition – young designers from different Asian design institutes and universities – was also very worthwhile. And then there is Creative Life: the main TDW exhibition in which brands and companies from all over the world present their take on how we might live, communicate and interact in the future.
TRENDS. TRAVELS. AND BERLIN 