Tag Archives: organic beauty

04/01/2024 · 12:19

Cosmoprof Bologna 2024: [Show Report]

The 55th edition of the world’s most important beauty trade fair Cosmoprof Bologna (21st-24th March) was such a good show. Super buzzy every day of the fair, with lots of interesting brands and product to discover. And it was fantastic seeing friends and colleagues again.

So, overall, Cosmoprof Bologna 2024 was a lot of fun. The weather was absolutely beautiful as well (not a given in Bologna in March; I’ve been to Cosmoprof Bolognas when it was pouring with rain or, one time, snowing!). Which reminds me, here are my reports from Cosmoprof Bologna 2016, Cosmoprof Bologna 2017, Cosmoprof Bologna 2018, Cosmoprof Bologna 2019, Cosmoprof Bologna 2022 and Cosmoprof Bologna 2023.

According to the organisers, 3,012 exhibitors from 69 countries participated across the three sections of the show (Cosmo Perfumery & Cosmetics: Finished/retail cosmetics; Cosmopack: Packaging/supply chain; Cosmo Hair & Nail & Beauty Salon: Professional/salon beauty) and a total of 248,500 visitors from 150 countries visited the fair. I just compared these figures to the last pre-pandemic Cosmoprof Bologna (2019: 3,033 exhibitors from 70 countries; 265,000 visitors) and yes, the 2024 edition of Cosmoprof Bologna is practically back to 2019 levels!

Halls (6)

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03/04/2024 · 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.

Intro

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04/10/2023 · 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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02/20/2023 · 17:56

Vivaness 2023: [Show Report]

In 2023, the world’s most important organic beauty trade show Vivaness (together with its sister show Biofach) finally took place again at its traditional time of year: in February! 14th to 17th February, to be precise. Nuremberg is usually rainy and cold (and on occasion snowy) in February but this week the weather was pretty great throughout – blue sky and sunshine, with moderate temperatures.

Anyway, it was wonderful to be back at Vivaness in the show’s usual Hall 3C. At last year’s trade show (Vivaness 2022 had been postponed to July so it was a summer edition), the beauty exhibitors had been dribbled around the Biofach halls rather than grouped in a single exhibition hall, which wasn’t great. But in 2023, everything was back to normal. More or less.

Intro (1)

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12/08/2022 · 20:17

Cosmoprof Asia Singapore 2022 [Show Report]

Singapore! This is where Cosmoprof Asia 2022 took place this year. Hong Kong still has a lot of pandemic restrictions (presumably thanks to its mainland China overlords and that government‘s spectacularly restrictive and ineffectual zero covid policy) so the organisers decided to relocate Asia-Pacific’s most important trade show rather than cancel it outright. And I’m very happy they did. Relocate the fair, that is. This was first in-person Cosmoprof Asia since 2019 (and my first Asian trade show since Cosme Tokyo in January 2020) and it was marvellous to be finally back in Asia.

Halls (4)

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05/06/2022 · 15:08

Cosmoprof Bologna 2022: [Show Report]

Finally! The first in-person Cosmoprof Bologna show (28th April to 2nd May 2022) since the pandemic began and although the Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese contingents were almost non-existent this year (Korea was the only Asian country with a major presence at the show), the world’s biggest cosmetics trade fair started its first edition in the New Normal with 2,700+ exhibitors from 70 countries and 26 country pavilions. Over 220,000 visitors from 140 countries attended the show.

If you’re interested in what the pre-pandemic trade shows were like: here are the links to my previous articles: Cosmoprof Bologna 2019, Cosmoprof Bologna 2018, Cosmoprof Bologna 2017 and Cosmoprof Bologna 2016.

halls (2)

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03/05/2021 · 19:01

Vivaness 2021: [Show Report]

This year’s edition of Europe’s most important organic beauty trade show Vivaness was a fully digital event. The Biofach/Vivaness eSpecial – or rather, the live webinars and presentations – took place from 17th to 19th February 2021. The digital fair, however, was launched a few days before the official start of the show and the entire virtual structure is remaining accessible to all participants for the next six months.

Organisers Messe Nürnberg wanted to create a kind of online knowledge ressource which is a really cool idea. All webinars, presentations, panels and so on – 775 sessions (!) in total – are available to view as often as you like, as are the exhibitor profiles, file uploads, videos and images. The live messaging function was discontinued a few days after the show ended but all the rest of it is still up and running until August 2021.

Biofach is always the much bigger event of the two fairs and this year was no exception. There were 1,443 exhibitors in total: 102 companies exhibited at Vivaness, the rest were at Biofach. According to the post-show report of the organisers, over 13,800 visitors from 136 countries registered for the trade fair (I should mention that this virtual edition of Vivaness and Biofach was also open to non-trade visitors – usually it’s strictly trade only) and the digital figures were also pretty impressive: over 10,000 video meetings took place at the Biofach/Vivaness eSpecial and over 400,000 chat messages were dispatched.

This was my eighth Vivaness –  my goodness! My first visit to the show was in 2014; in 2015 I published my first trade show report on this blog and here are the links to the subsequent articles if you want to check them out: Vivaness 2016, Vivaness 2017, Vivaness 2018, Vivaness 2019 and Vivaness 2020.

cover shot

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03/28/2019 · 23:38

Cosmoprof Bologna 2019: [Show Report]

Cosmoprof Bologna becomes more fun every year. This was my third visit to the world’s biggest C&T trade show (well, the fourth if you count my Cosnova-sponsored overnight visit from 2016 – and while I’m at it, here are my trade show reviews from 2017 and 2018!).

By now I know the basic layout of the halls (although I still get lost in the CS (Centro Servizio – press office, event rooms, store, pharmacy, post office etc.) every single time because the different sections are just so badly signposted!).

I know which buses go to the trade show from the city centre (an important consideration when selecting my accommodation!) and, almost more importantly, which of these bus lines are diverted on the weekends because Bologna’s historic city centre turns into a pedestrian zone on Saturdays and Sundays.

And I can rest assured that I won’t need to get morning espresso fix in the city before heading to the trade show centre (like I would in any German city) because the cafés at Bologna Fiera serve excellent espresso for 1.20 Euro and a 1 ½ littre bottle of water retails for 3 Euro. Water and caffeine, two trade show essentials!

Click on the link below for an overview of some of my favourite brand discoveries at this year’s Cosmoprof Bologna!

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02/09/2019 · 13:30

Retail notes from Tokyo: [Show Report] Cosme Tokyo 2019

Cosme Tokyo is getting bigger and better every year. The 2019 edition of Japan’s largest trade show for retail cosmetics featured 780 exhibitors from 35 countries. And over 25.000 visitors attended during the three days of Cosme Tokyo and its sister fair, Cosme Tech.

It was one busy and very cool show! My Insta feed shows almost 30 mini brand/product profiles which is usually my Cosmoprof Asia average! Anyway, it was an exciting trade fair: I met a lot of interesting new brands (and some old favourites). And if you’re interested: here is my Cosme Tokyo 2018 show report.

For more on my favourite brand discoveries and the key trends at Cosme Tokyo 2019, click on the link below!

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01/01/2019 · 16:00

Retail notes from Hong Kong: [Store Profile] Mi Ming Mart

On my very last afternoon in Hong Kong I visited beauty retailer Mi Ming Mart‘s Causeway Bay outlet.

It was actually a recommendation by someone I had met at Cosmoprof Asia trade show the previous day: Sophie from Hong Kong-based organic beauty distributor Aura HK – the company’s portfolio includes European brands like Dr. Hauschka, Melvita, Sanoflore, Flow Cosmetics and Avril – suggested that I check out Mi Ming Mart, a clean beauty store chain founded by a Chinese beauty KOL (Key Opinion Leader = Influencer). It sounded intriguing (and I do love me some female entrepreneurship!) so I went – and Mi Ming Mart is indeed a fascinating retailer.

The first Mi Ming Mart was opened in 2009, so the company has been a mainstay of Hong Kong’s niche beauty retail scene for almost a decade. Founder Erica Yuen is a former beauty queen turned social media icon/celebrity who was also active in local politics between 2011 and 2016 – she is the co-founder of Hong Kong’s radical pro-democracy party Power Voters and from 2013 to 2016 served as chairperson of the pro-democracy People Power party before focusing on further expanding her retail business.

Which she seems to have been doing successfully: in February 2018 Mi Ming Mart was listed on the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) of Hong Kong’s stock exchange. According to parent company Inwell International’s annual report, group revenue grew 19.3% to HKD 123.4 million in the financial year ending March 2018 – a result which can be traced back to the opening of three new retail stores (Quarry Bay, Tuen Mun and Tseung Kwan O) and the strong performance of skin care sales. The company’s gross profit climbed 18.4% to HKD 74.8 million over the same period.

For more information on the company and the store click on the link below!

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