Winners for 2009
There were four awards given last night at the show: the Special Jury Prize, Emerging Brands Prize, the Niche Brands Prize; and a new award introduced this year called the Beauty Organic Award. The four awards aim to recognise the most promising new brands on the cosmetics market.
The Special Jury Prize was awarded to Absolution, a unisex brand of ‘customised biocosmetics’. Beyond Beauty praised the company for achieving ‘balance between desire for natural ingredients and culture, effectiveness and simplicity’.
The Emerging Brands Prize, which recognises the originality and high potential of a product on the market for 5 years or less, went to French organic skincare brand 66⁰30, a product launched in 2009.
The Niche Brands Prize, which was created for brands distributed in selective or alternative channels, went to Fleurs de Bach, a range of elixirs, soaps, creams and fragrances which promise benefits for the ‘body and mind’.
Finally, the Beauty Organic Award, which recognises the achievements of an organic brand, went to last year’s Special Jury Winner, Aїny. Beyond Beauty described Aїny as a ‘brand which brings indigenous people’s sacred, shamanic sciences together with modern innovations of cosmetology to invite us to take a new look at cosmetics’.
Judging Criteria
Approximately 40 brands entered the Beyond Beauty Awards this year and a panel of 45 judges, French and foreign distributors, select the winners based on criteria such as innovation, differentiation, consistency, packaging, fragrance and texture.
The awards are well known in the industry for highlighting the most successful trends of the year in cosmetics. Last year paid homage to the emergence of a number of natural and organic cosmetics brands and this year was yet again a triumph for natural beauty. The strength of the natural cosmetics category was recognised in the creation of a new category for the Beauty Organic Award.
The run-up to the event was marked heavily by the downturn in the global economy, which the organisers ITEC France said would have an impact on the format. Claiming to have organised the event around a strategy of optimised investment for companies and bringing the event to a new location at the Porte de Versailles, the event looked to give the industry a boost in a difficult economic time.