19/10/2015 · 12:32

Off-Topic: An ode to Injeolmi bing-su!

Check out my new favourite dessert! This is Injeolmi Snowflake Sherbet (as prepared by Sulbing Korean Dessert Café): a great big pile of shaved ice – I have no idea how they manage to achieve such fine ice grains! – layered with a mixture of powdered Injeolmi (glutinous rice cake) and toasted soybean and topped with an extra-thick layer of Injeolmi powder plus flaked almonds.

This kind of traditional Korean ice dessert is called bing-su (which translates as “shaved ice”) – you can get it with different kind of toppings but my favourite is the Injeolmi version – it’s completely addictive! I read that Sulbing uses frozen milk in the ice mixture; you get a small dish of sweetened condensed milk to pour into the dish once you’ve eaten a path into the interior. When the ice starts melting, the Injeolmi powder turns chewy. It’s delicious!

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17/10/2015 · 18:20

Retail notes from Seoul: [Show Report] International Beauty Expo Korea 2015

I arrived in Seoul, the first stop on my Asian tour, a few days ago and my goodness, it’s wonderful to be back! Luckily I don’t get troubled by jetlag when I am flying from Europe to Asia (on the way back it’s a different matter unfortunately) because I arrived on a Wednesday evening and at 10am the very next morning, the 13th International Beauty Expo Korea trade show opened its doors in COEX Convention Center.

It was an interesting show: as far as I could tell, the exhibitors were primarily salon brands and smaller Korean cosmetics labels looking for distributors. There were only a few brand names that I recognized – like Elishacoy and Incoco – but since I like discovering new beauty labels, I found plenty to occupy my attention.

Beauty Expo Korea Intro (2)

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09/10/2015 · 10:27

Natural Cosmetics Conference 2015: [Show Report]

It is that time of year again: the Natural Cosmetics Conference (Naturkosmetikbranchenkongress) was in town this week! It’s an annual event which used to be held in Nuremberg but then moved to Berlin in 2011. And it’s one of my favourite industry events: two days jam-packed with interesting lectures, discussions, forums and presentations plus the chance to meet interesting people.

The Conference always offers a good mixture of topics. This year there were presentations on consumer trends, demographics and behavior, on market research and gender marketing, but also on certifications with a particular focus on the much-debated ISO guideline for natural cosmetics and on halal certification.

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04/10/2015 · 15:34

Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, Hong Kong: My next trip to Asia

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!

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01/10/2015 · 10:37

Le Cinéma Olfactif at Soho House Berlin: Scented cinema

Yesterday night I attended a screening of Le Cinéma Olfactif in Berlin’s Soho House. Cinéma Olfactif is a fascinating concept: enhancing a visual experience through an olfactory sensation; in this case we were watching a film – Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides – whilst a fragrance created especially for this movie was diffused into the audience space at the appropriate moments.

I had read about the Cinéma Olfactif series but this was the first time I actually attended a performance. Cinéma Olfactif is the creation of perfumer Kaya Sorhaindo whose art house perfumery Folie à Plusieurs is developing fragrance concepts for films, exhibitions, performances and events.

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26/09/2015 · 11:48

The Aluminium Garden: Exhibition at Studio Picknick Berlin

Up until a few years ago, my street was quite boring. It’s right in the middle of what used to be the governmental area of Eastern Berlin: the building I live in is surrounded by offices, ministries and embassies.

Including the North Korea embassy, by the way: if you’re ever in the neighbourhood check out their glass-covered information case at the entrance – very brightly coloured pictures of various Kims and happy-looking North Koreans and beautifully written communist propaganda (North Korea is the most prosperous place on earth, in case you didn’t know).

Anyway, over the last couple of years there’s been an influx of Internet start-ups, media agencies and galleries which is really brightening up the neighbourhood. Like Studio Picknick Berlin, an arts space which must have opened at some point this year; all of a sudden they were there! And they have the most beautiful exhibition on at the moment: The Aluminium Garden, a collaboration between artist Toshihiko Mitsuya and architectural firm June 14 Meye-Grohbrügge & Chermayef.

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16/09/2015 · 13:59

OWN: The Fall 2015 edition of Organic & Wellness News is now online

Here is the link to the Fall Edition of Organic & Wellness News. I’ve contributed a number of articles to this issue, including a company profile about Berlin-based vegan supermarket chain Veganz (read the OWN article here), previews about the upcoming Naturkosmetikbranchenkongress (OWN article) and organic food trade show Biofach America/Expo East (OWN article), an article on the Baobab tree and UK brand Aduna’s innovative social marketing campaign #makebaobabfamous and an article on this summer’s organic equivalency agreement between the US and Switzerland. Enjoy.

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08/09/2015 · 21:04

Mintel articles: Kadewe Group, Soho House, Nickerchen and Miriam Jacks

Here are some of my Mintel articles from the first half of the year:

The February cityscape was about German premium department store group Kadewe Group.  Kadewe Group (which  was sold to Italian department store chain La Rinascente this summer) has launched three signature city fragrances – 030 Berlin, 040 Hamburg and 089 Munich – which were developed by Frau Tonis Parfum, one of my favourite Berlin perfumeries.

In early 2015, Berlin’s Soho House – the Berlin dependance of London’s famous Soho House private members club – opened a store slash café slash creative space slash co-working area. My March article was about this new location: The Store is open to everyone (unlike the rest of Soho House) and features a café (their coffee is supplied by Berlin’s Bonanza Coffee Heroes), large retail area (designer fashion, accessories and other stuff), beauty salon (hairdressing, manicures and pedicures), comfortable sofas and free wifi. A good café choice if you’re in that neighbourhood of Torstrasse.

My April article was about Nickerchen, Berlin’s first power-napping store which opened in December 2014. Nickerchen (the German term for “small nap”) is the brilliant idea of Irina Ivachkovets. You can rent day beds for 10, 20 or 30 minutes; Irina also offers a range of massage treatments, there are early-bird and after-work yoga sessions and once a week she organises a popular salsa dancing night. Nickerchen is a great example of a new type of urban spa – well, you can read all about that in the PDF. Nickerchen is at Zimmerstrasse 27 near Checkpoint Charlie; check it out if you’re in the area.

And the May cityscape was another store profile: Miriam Jacks, one of Berlin’s most high-profile makeup artists, has opened a brand new store right in the middle of Kastanienallee in Prenzlauer Berg. Jacks is L’Oréal Germany’s national makeup artist; her new retail store also features a salon, beauty treatment area, barber’s shop and a great selection of niche beauty brands.

Enjoy, but please respect the copyright (Mintel/BPC)!

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04/09/2015 · 12:42

Exhibition: Dancing on the Volcano – J.F. Schwarzlose fragrance exhibition

Yesterday evening I attended the opening of Stadtmuseum Berlin’s new exhibition: “Tanz auf dem Vulkan” (Dancing on the Volcano) – Berlin’s “Golden Twenties” as reflected in art and design. The Weimar Republic (a historical epoch defined as extending from 1918, the end of WWI, to 1933, the year when Adolf Hitler became German chancellor) is one of the most interesting, complex and, of course, pivotal periods in German history.

Tanz auf dem Vulkan approaches Berlin’s Weimar Republic from a different angle. Rather than analysing the political, social and economical aspects of these fifteen years and what they were leading up to (depressing and very grim since we all know what happened), the exhibition highlights a different side of the Weimar Republic: the hedonistic and colourful lifestyle, culture, art and design of Germany’s capital in the Roaring Twenties.

Schwarzlose Exihibition (19)

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30/08/2015 · 13:00

Veganz, DM Bio and Trend it Up: Drugstore retailer DM is gearing up for battle

Yes, this is a rather tabloid-sounding headline! However, for the last six months German drugstore chain DM has dominated the retail headlines in Germany with a slew of interesting and innovative projects: In April, the DM group introduced its new organic food brand DM Bio (de-listing organic brand Alnatura in the process). Then, DM announced that it would launch an online store plus a brand new own label make-up brand (Trend it Up). And this July, the newspapers reported that DM had entered in a distribution agreement with Berlin-based vegan supermarket chain Veganz to retail a 50-sku portfolio of vegan brands, superfoods and raw food products.

Trend it Up (4)

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