Each year after all the IBE shows have closed, the team behind the Indie Beauty Media Group sets to work searching out the best of the best of the brands and products that have exhibited at the expo event across the US in Los Angeles, California; Dallas, Texas; New York, New York; and overseas in London, England; and Berlin, Germany.
This year, over 350 finalist brands in 40 categories were evaluated by 3rd party industry experts (including Cosmetics Design Editor Deanna Utroske). Looking over the list of winners, a number of emerging trends stand out:
Ayurveda has mainstream appeal
Ayurveda, as a long-standing medical tradition and as a modern philosophical approach, has an extensive history intersecting with the beauty industry. Now, alongside the ethical and natural beauty movements, Ayurveda has a place in the mainstream. Brands like IBE Best in Show winner Shaffali (best facial exfoliant) appeal to a wide spectrum of contemporary skin care consumers.
Luxury has a new look
Time has become the ultimate luxury. And along with that, products that calm, simplify, and are otherwise soothing to see, smell, and use are winning in the luxury beauty space. And speaking of winning, Henua Organics won two IBE Best in Show Awards this time around, one for branding and one for best toner.
“Every aspect of this brand’s experience was beautiful, from the primary packaging to the secondary packaging to the product itself to the website. All elements of the brand exuded ‘luxury’ in a way that really contributed to the overall wellness experience,” said IBE expert evaluator Margo Cole (Managing Partner of the independent investment firm MLC Brands).
Ingestible beauty products that work
New beauty-from-within brands and products like Nutrifol hair supplements are winning over consumers with clinically proven results and by offering real alternatives to dermatological and surgical interventions for hair loss. Nutrifol’s Core for Women supplement won the 2019 IBE Best in Show award for best ingestible.
The earth has a lot of ingredients to offer
Charcoals and clays have been popular ingredients for sometime. Now other earth-sourced ingredients are coming on to the scene and gaining the same level of popularity. “After trying all of the exfoliating products, this was the clear winner for me because it had a very fine physical exfoliation property and did not leave my skin feeling oily after use,” remarked Beth Santos, Vice President of Merchandizing at Dermstore and an expert evaluator.
She was talking about the Whipped Soap Body Scrub with volcanic ash from a brand called Bodhi, winner of the 2019 IBE Best in Show Award for body exfoliator.
Multi-tasking mom and baby products
In a marketplace where consumers seek convenience, multi-taking body care can be a time saver, especially when those products can be used by both a pregnant woman, a new baby, and a new mom. The 2019 IBE Best in Show winner in the baby/child product category is Visha Skincare’s Bump to Baby balm.
The full roster of the 2019 IBE Best in Show can be found online here.
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Deanna Utroske is a leading voice in the cosmetics and personal care industry as well as in the indie beauty movement. As Editor of CosmeticsDesign.com, she writes daily news about the business of beauty in the Americas region and regularly produces video interviews with cosmetics, fragrance, personal care, and packaging experts as well as with indie brand founders.
Deanna will be speaking next at the Uplink Live event in LA this month (save 10% on tickets with code: CD10) and at Green Beauty Night in February.
