With face-to-face events across the globe still on hold, the in-cosmetics Group provided another unique opportunity for the personal care industry to continue learning and discussing new approaches to product development. Over three days in the first week of October, the first-ever in-cosmetics Virtual event brought together 3,062 personal care creators from 86 different countries, with the largest representation hailing from Brazil, the USA, France, the UK and Spain.
Running from 09:00-21:00 UK time each day, in-cosmetics Virtual offered targeted meetings for formulators, buyers and suppliers from the European and Americas markets predominantly. The exclusive, free-to-attend business event matched 140-plus leading ingredient manufacturers with manufacturers and indie brands from across the world. Visiting companies in attendance included the likes of Antonio Puig, Avon, Belcorp Colombia, Clarins, Caudalie, Colgate Palmolive, Coty, Estee Lauder, Grupo Boticario, Glossier, Henkel, L’Oréal, Johnson & Johnson, La Prairie, Natura, Oriflame, Procter & Gamble, Shiseido, Tata Harper and Unilever, amongst others – providing them with an invaluable way of networking and identifying novel concepts while travel is restricted.
The value of in-cosmetics Virtual was undeniable, with attendees (exhibitors and visitors) rating the event’s quality of meetings as 4.53 out of 5. Kathryn Atkins, the co-founder of Kathryn Tilly, was one of those who joined the sessions. She commented: “in-cosmetics Virtual was fantastic! It was a very personable experience and I got to meet suppliers I didn’t even know existed in my field of natural skincare. I had 38 meetings over three days so you can imagine how intense it was, but everybody was highly engaged. I would give in-cosmetics Virtual a nine out of 10 and I would summarise my experience in one word: inspirational.”
Celine Erkey, Lab Technician at Tata Harper added: “It all went very well. I really enjoyed the fact that the process to schedule meetings was very straightforward. I liked the fact that suppliers were able to reach out to you and be able to introduce their new actives. I was very busy, but I also made time for seminars and presentations on sustainability and these were very informative!”
In addition to a focus on high-quality meetings, in-cosmetics virtual delivered more than 25 hours of excellent educational material in an informative, easy-to-use and engaging way. This enabled cosmetic/contract manufacturers, fragrance houses, indie brands and manipulation pharmacies to attend multiple presentations on new ingredients, technical developments and marketing trends, as well as the fabled in-cosmetics Awards which took place virtually for the first time.
Vytrus Biotech scooped both the Gold and Silver awards for Best Active Ingredient, with Mibelle Biochemistry and Clariant Active closing the category as joint Bronze Award winners. Symrise took the top award in the Best Functional Ingredient category with Dow Chemical presented with the Silver award. The category also honoured two bronze award winners: Clariant and Gattefossé. For the Green Ingredient Award, Henry Lamotte Oils was crowned with the Gold award whilst Cargill Beauty was unveiled as the Silver Award winner. Joining an exciting line-up of award winners, Minasolve SAS scooped the Bronze Award for Best Green Ingredient.
Learning during a pandemic
As ever, in-cosmetics brought a diverse range of experts together to provide registered viewers with very well attended presentations during its renowned Marketing Trends and Technical Seminars.
One of the most popular seminars over the three days was run by The NPD Group, which discussed where the next growth in prestige skincare trends is set to derive from. Attendees listened live to Ana Gonzalez explore how the current COVID-19 pandemic has affected the beauty retail category, before diving into the new normal. She talked about the emergence of ‘Clean-ical’ brands that are gaining greater prominence, with one in four consumers that look for natural ingredients also requesting information from a doctor/dermatologist. Ana concluded by looking at what the future holds for skincare, highlighting how revenge shopping will come to the fore around Black Friday in Europe and Cyber Monday in the US.
Euromonitor International’s session on the changing landscape of beauty and personal care retailing was also immensely popular. Povilas Sugintas, Consultant – Beauty and Fashion, reviewed the performance of the sector during and after the outbreak of COVID19. He highlighted the significant financial impact the virus has had on the industry, before reviewing the research consultancy’s latest predictions for different categories. He showed that the bath and shower sector is expected to outperform 2019, driven by liquid soap and sanitisers, while fragrance and colour cosmetics will be worse affected.
The top 10 most viewed presentations were:
| NPD | Marketing Trends | Where is the next growth in Prestige skincare trends? |
| Euromonitor International | Marketing Trends | Beauty and personal care retailing of today and tomorrow: How COVID-19 is changing the landscape |
| Kline | Marketing Trends | Ingredient innovation and trends. Impact of COVID |
| Sharon Laboratories | Technical Seminar | Face forward: Preservation for facial care & sensitive skin in the clean beauty era |
| Mintel | Marketing Trends | Sustainable beauty: Building trust after the pandemic |
| Grant Industries | Technical Seminar | 100% Naturally Derived GRANSENSE Elastomers for new formulating possibilities |
| Nagase | Technical Seminar | Boost skin wellness naturally by enhancing elasticity and firmness with fruit-based Polyphenol |
| in-cosmetics | Awards | in-cosmetics Awards Ceremony |
| Kao Chemicals | Technical Seminar | Exclusive J-Beauty ingredients to European skincare market |
| Surfachem | Technical Seminar | Simplicity; staying in & societal shifts | How 2020 is influencing personal care routines |
Finding the latest innovations
With a large percentage of the world’s leading personal care ingredient suppliers joining in-cosmetics Virtual, including Cargill, Croda, Evonik, Kobo Products and Solvay, R&D professionals had the perfect opportunity to learn about trends before finding solutions and ideas for future product development.
Reflecting the growing interest in wellness and natural ingredients, the product category of most interest to more than three-quarters of all attendees included botanicals, essential oils and plant extracts. This marks a significant increase in popularity compared to 2019, where it ranked as the 7th most popular product group at in-cosmetics Global and 12th at in-cosmetics Latin America.
Other product categories of interest include biological, marine extracts and bio-fermentation. With microalgae climbing in popularity and being famed for producing compounds for chemical defence – plus the main draw of fermentation being the production of probiotics – which have been shown to have benefits for skin health, it’s in keeping with the need for protection and cocooning in the Covid era.
Other trending beauty categories identified by attendees included ingredients to aid hydration and moisturization; anti-ageing and anti-wrinkle.
Last year, at in-cosmetics Global and in-cosmetics Asia, emulsifiers were the number one product category of interest to visitors. It has now dropped to 5th at in-cosmetics Virtual. It is true that the category is still of interest due to the fact that three-quarters of volumes are being used in skincare products (leave-on). However, according to Kline, a decline is anticipated due to a fall-off in sales of premium skincare, mitigated by mass, masstige and budget products.
For many, this was the first time to engage with their contacts since forced lockdowns were introduced around the globe. George Rosson, Managing Director of Natura-Tec, which exhibited, commented: “in-cosmetics Virtual provided a great opportunity to e-meet customers and also restart the conversation about our range of vegetable and marine-based ingredients. These meetings direct with manufacturers enabled us to share our vision, our philosophy, our technology and the traceability of our products and it gave us enhanced visibility. in-cosmetics Virtual was brilliant – I would rate it a 9 or 10 out of 10!”
Cathy Laporte, Portfolio Director of the in-cosmetics Group, concluded:
“We live in unprecedented times and this is the first time in 30 years that the in-cosmetics Group has had to run a full-scale virtual event for the industry. As we navigate this challenging period, it is essential for our community to keep abreast of the latest industry developments, both from a scientific and consumer trends perspective. We’re proud to have run this highly curated event, which has been widely welcomed by the screened R&D professionals that joined and we will continue to be at the heart of the personal care sector as it looks to innovate its way through the pandemic into the post-Covid era.”
in-cosmetics Virtual took place from 6 – 8 October 2020.
View select Technical Seminars / webinars that took place at the event
showFor more information on the Technical Seminars and Marketing Trends presentations delivered at this year’s event, please visit the in-cosmetics Connect website here.