Held in New York City last Wednesday evening, the event served to highlight the 40 award categories in the competition, which, since it was first launched in 1994, has developed into one of the prestigious industry awards for the North American region.
Voting for CEW members opened on March 8th and runs until March 22nd, with the finalists for each category due to be announced via twitter on April 4th by the organization’s board of governors. Please click here to access the voting.
The finalist and winners will then be formally announced at the CEW’s Beauty Insider Awards Luncheon on May 12th.
Consumers and industry professionals swoop in
This year’s Product Demo again took place at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Manhattan’s Chelsea district, an event that was packed with a mixture of industry professionals, all eager to discover the latest beauty products.
Although multinational brands were in evidence, the focus remains on up and coming, fast-moving indie brands, which in recent years have been setting many of the industry’s biggest trends, and in turn giving consumers much more choice.
The event is open to CEW members only pay a modest ticket price to enter the Product Demo, but most attendees agreed that the goody bag, containing product samples representing many of the award categories, more than justified the cost.
Launching pad for Beauty Insider Awards
But the event is more than just a goody bag. As the launching pad for the Beauty Insider Awards it serves to get a wider audience involved in what has come to be known as the Oscars of the beauty industry.
“Winning a CEW Beauty Insider Award is one of the highest honors in the beauty industry, which is why we have a record number of products entered this year,” says Carlotta Jacobson, President of CEW.
“The Beauty Awards is a celebration of the creativity in our industry, and we’re excited to kick off the event season with the Product Demonstration where our members can discover the latest innovations in beauty.”
The 2017 event focus
This year the event focus was once again on indie brands and the importance these products play in the awards, but in addition there were also platforms that promoted the award categories for digital technology, appliances and beauty tools, as well as a focus on earth friendly products. The category previously called Eco was renamed Sustainability Excellence for 2017.
This year will also see a return of the Iconic Consumer’s Choice award, after its debut last year, giving consumers the opportunity to name the product that they feel has made the most impression on them in both the mass and prestige categories.
Focusing on innovation, the Product Demo showfloor also included Beautystreams Intercolor’s 2018/2019 trends in a visual, immersive installation. This was exclusive to CEW in the US, giving attendees access to unique data and forecasts.