Skin care

BASF’s new Mexican innovation center targets tailor-made solutions

25-Jul-2019 By Simon Pitman

BASF’s Care Chemical division has ramped up its capabilities in the Mexico with the recent opening of a new innovation center to serve this important market.

Uplink Live opens in New York City this August

25-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

Produced by the Indie Beauty Media Group, Uplink Live is a 2-day event where brands at any stage of business can connect with a wide array of service providers. And prominent industry suppliers—like Gattefossé, Lubrizol, Croda, and Symrise—will be on...

Mediheal brings 2-step K-beauty masking to US market

25-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

After carefully growing its business in and beyond South Korea, the skin care brand has arrived in the US and is hopeful that consumers here will add masking into their daily beauty routines.

ABIHPEC-ITEHPEC Innovation Award are open

24-Jul-2019 By Simon Pitman

This year’s ABIHPEC-ITEHPEC awards are now open for entries, with the leading ingredient to be announced at in-cosmetics Latin America event in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

From The Editor's Desk

Could Unilever’s ‘Tinder for ideas’ app reinvent beauty R&D?

24-Jul-2019 By Simon Pitman

Unilever’s recently announced an app aimed at simplifying concept phase development and it has got beauty professional’s tongues wagging.

Can there ever be a zero-chemical beauty ingredient?

24-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

Consumer interest in safe, natural, and synthetic-free cosmetics and personal care products seems to have inspired a whole new beauty marketing language, where ‘chemical-free’ stands in for at-times rather nuanced concepts—not the least of which is actually...

Cibus picks up another patent for non-transgenic gene editing technology

23-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

Last week, the biotech company announced receipt of the patent No. 10,287,594 for technology that builds on Cibus’s previously patented gene-editing tech. And now, Cibus is confident that it has in-house intellectual property for the use of Gene Repair...

Editor's Spotlight

Indie Beauty brand leaders as product knowledge experts

22-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

Startup founders and independent brand leaders in the cosmetics and personal care business know what’s been missing in the marketplace and they often keep in close contact with consumers both online and in person, making the beauty entrepreneur’s perspective...

Indie Beauty Profile

Shaffali Miglani, Shaffali

19-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

In her Indie Beauty Profile, Shaffali Miglani, Founder of the ayurvedic and aromatherapy – based skin care brand Shaffali, describes the patience and perspective she has gained in over a decade of brand ownership, the value of self-awareness in entrepreneurship,...

L’Oréal Canada brings 5 tech startups into corporate accelerator program

18-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

The technologies—voice, machine vision and location analytics, ecommerce advertising, multicloud broadcasting, and AI—aren’t exclusively beauty tech solutions. But L’Oréal Canada and the men leading these startups see great potential for their tech tools...

Personal care manufacturer KDC/ONE makes second acquisition this month

17-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

The Canadian company announced this week that it has reached a deal to acquire Swallowfield’s beauty manufacturing business. The news comes just 2 weeks after KDC/ONE acquired Alkos and again furthers the company’s presence and capabilities in Europe.

Kopari closes $20 million Series A funding round, thanks to L Catterton, Unilever Ventures, and others

17-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

Coconut oil is the hero ingredient in Kopari products. And the San Diego, California – based beauty startup has plans to grow its business even further, creating more coconut beauty products and reaching more consumers in-store and online.

Sally Beauty ramps up customer insights and engagement with new experience programme

17-Jul-2019 By Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe

International beauty products retailer, Sally Beauty, engages with platform technology provider, Service Management Group (SMG), to launch customer experience management programme.

Colgate set to acquire Laboratoires Filorga Cosmétiques Skin Care Company

17-Jul-2019 By Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe

Leading consumer product company, Colgate-Palmolive, enters agreement to buy aesthetic medicine name, Laboratoires Filorga Cosmétiques (Filorga).

Project Beauty Expo moves to Los Angeles, California

16-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

Last year, the beauty discovery show and entrepreneur education event, hosted by and for women of color, took place in New York City. For 2019 it’s headed to the West Coast. PBE will take place from September 14 through 16, and a first look at the program...

Charkit acquires CA Specialties and Custom Ingredients, Cathy Ayer Clark stays on as president

16-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

Late last week, the multi-industry chemical supplier announced its latest acquisition. Adding the Custom Ingredients business to its portfolio means Charkit now offers that company’s popular ready-made ingredient blends for both personal care and industrial...

The Estée Lauder Companies creates a new role for Sara Moss

16-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

This month, Moss became the beauty company’s vice chairman, a post that sees her advising executive management, collaborating with senior staff to advance women’s leadership, and coordinating communication between the board of directors and the Lauder...

6 indie brands helping define the mindful beauty movement

15-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

Mindful beauty is a catchall term that describes the sorts of businesses and brands that conscious consumers want to support. Here, Cosmetics Design takes a look at 6 types of mindful beauty and a small selection of the indie brands that are envisioning...

2019 Indie Beauty Innovators Awards finalists announced

11-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

This week, ICMAD, the Independent Cosmetic Manufacturers and Distributors association, released its list of 30+ finalist across 11 categories. Winners will be announced at a celebratory dinner later this month in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Can machine learning help cosmetics and personal care brands build consumer loyalty?

11-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

Launchmetrics thinks so. The data analytics company launched a new brand decisioning platform today called Insights by Launchmetrics that promises to help beauty brands spend smarter on marketing as well as to compare and contrast a beauty brand’s performance...

Unilever advances zero-deforestation initiative

10-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

This week, Unilever published lists of its paper and board product suppliers as well as of its soy suppliers. The beauty maker believes that this sort of transparency will compel partner companies along the supply chain to be accountable for practices...

5 big beauty makers rank on Forbes 2019 list of Best Employers for Women

10-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

The list, published this month by Forbes Media, rates 300 US companies based on survey data that indicates which companies working women like most. The 2019 list includes 5 multinational cosmetics and personal care corporations as well as a handful of...

Cosmoprof North America is just 3 weeks away!

09-Jul-2019 By Simon Pitman

The Cosmoprof North America event will be opening its doors in less than three weeks, and this year it will incorporate a number of brand new innovations to the show floor.

Investors start to get behind Edgewell Personal Care

09-Jul-2019 By Simon Pitman

Initially investors seemed to shy away from Edgewell after the company decided to merge with shaving brand Harry’s back in May, but things have started to turn around.

What trade wars mean to smaller beauty players

09-Jul-2019 By Simon Pitman

Trade wars have been grabbing the headlines for the past couple of years, with protectionist policies spelling both opportunity and barriers for small- to medium-sized beauty companies.

Coty bounces back, rumors of Kylie Cosmetics bid persist

09-Jul-2019 By Simon Pitman

Coty is finally bouncing back after its acquisition of P&G’s beauty business and with share prices rising, the company is now rumored to be in negotiations to buy a stake in Kylie Cosmetics.

CBD and cosmetics in Austria: What is the legislative environment?

09-Jul-2019 By Natasha Spencer

As intrigue surrounding the inclusion of CBD in cosmetics continues to grow, we take a look at the Austrian legal landscape to see its current take on CBD in cosmetics.

Canadian firm bets on Colombia for low cost hemp cultivation

03-Jul-2019 By Hank Schultz

Relevium Technologies, a Canadian development stage company focusing on online sales of dietary supplements and personal care products, is moving to acquire LifeLine Pharma, a Colombian cannabis company.

From The Editor's Desk

How trade wars are impacting the cosmetics industry

03-Jul-2019 By Simon Pitman

Global trade has seen some big changes in recent years, highlighted by massive shifts in international trade agreements that have impacted many areas of business, including the beauty and personal care industry.

Society of Cosmetic Chemists preps for annual meeting

03-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

The 2019 SCC technology showcase and meeting event site is live. And it lists out an agenda full of cutting-edge topics, spanning microbiome beauty; sustainable formulations; clean beauty; and textured hair; as well as all things CBD, hemp, and cannabis....

Natural beauty brand MyChelle helps fund marine conservation efforts

03-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

This month, the skin care brand announced a new partnership with the Coral Restoration Foundation, a non-profit working to reestablish reefs in Florida and around the world. For mission-driven MyChelle, the partnership is about finding ways to both realize...

European Union signs trade agreement with Mercosur

02-Jul-2019 By Simon Pitman

The European Union has signed a big trade agreement with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay that will see many tariffs eliminated in the two regions, including chemicals.

KDC/ONE acquires French beauty manufacturer Alkos

02-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

Recently, Canadian cosmetics and personal care manufacturer KDC/ONE has been growing steadily, opening new laboratory facilities in 2018 and again early this year, and acquiring several businesses to strategically bolster the company’s capabilities in...

Cosmopack puts beauty manufacturing on display with new Factory feature

02-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

This month’s Cosmoprof North America event will include an event-within-an-event: Comopack, a tradeshow all about contract and private-label manufacturing, with exhibitors showing packaging, applicators, machinery, ingredients, and raw materials too....

Editor's Spotlight

5 ways indie brands are approaching microbiome beauty

01-Jul-2019 By Deanna Utroske

Emerging data on the human skin microbiome is changing the way cosmetics and personal care brands of every size approach product development and formulation. It presents opportunities for new benefits and more ways to design for and deliver conventional...

Indie Beauty Profile

Sara Monster, Sara Rosalie

28-Jun-2019 By Deanna Utroske

In her Indie Beauty Profile, Sara Monster, Founder of Sara Rosalie, describes the Amsterdam-based brand’s sustainability strategy, which extends beyond the environmentally conscious sourcing and processing of lanolin (the brand’s hero ingredient) and...

Expo Pack Guadalajara breaks attendance records

27-Jun-2019 By Simon Pitman

Expo Pack Guadalajara, one of the leading events for the packaging and processing industries in Latin America, broke attendance records for its 2019 event.

Unboxing Wellness: Scentbird adds CBD, Women’s Health, Supplements, Tonics, and more

27-Jun-2019 By Deanna Utroske

The monthly subscription and discovery service has moved beyond its core business of fragrance in recent months—adding color cosmetics and skin care. And now, Scentbird has entered the wellness category, partnering with bands like Perfect V, Golde, and...

From The Editor's Desk

What will make skin microbiome a long-term trend?

26-Jun-2019 By Simon Pitman

This week’s two-day Cosmetics Design Summit on Skin Care Microbiome Innovation concluded with a panel discussion to explore whether the microbiome trend is a fad or here for the long-term. The consensus was unanimous…

bgX develops on-demand beauty service and new e-commerce platform

26-Jun-2019 By Natasha Spencer

On-demand beauty technology provider, bgX, has teamed up with software management company, Shortcuts, in a new global partnership.

2 tech company updates that beauty pros need to know about

26-Jun-2019 By Deanna Utroske

This month Google and Amazon announced new tech services that change the ecommerce marketplace for both consumer and professional beauty products. Read on to find out what’s new and why it matters.

“For a better world”: Amorepacific plots 2020 sustainability goals in newly published annual report

26-Jun-2019 By Amanda Lim

K-beauty conglomerate Amorepacific has published a new report detailing its sustainable practices and its 2020 goals that focus on three strategic directions -promotion of a sustainable lifestyle, contribution towards a cyclical economy, and ensuring...

Beleza Pura Store corners Brazil’s vegan beauty category

25-Jun-2019 By Simon Pitman

Brazilian consumers are showing an increasing concern in beauty products that are kind to the environment and to animals, a trend that is underlined by the success of Beleza Pura Store.

Unfiltered Experience, a brand new DTC beauty event

25-Jun-2019 By Simon Pitman

A new beauty show targeting the fast growing Direct To Consumer (DTC) beauty industry will be launched at the end of July, in Las Vegas.

Why is Algenist going vegan?

25-Jun-2019 By Deanna Utroske

This week the algae beauty brand announced its new product formulation and marketing strategy, adding the on-trend ‘vegan’ qualifier to its already of very contemporary list of designations: marine, biotech, naturally derived, etc.

Does indie beauty move first? a look at trend-driven innovation in 2019

24-Jun-2019 By Deanna Utroske

Ours is a notoriously fast-paced industry. Still, everything new has to start somewhere. And there is a fair amount of work to be done educating consumers, integrating novel ingredient tech, capitalizing on new industrial-scale opportunities. Here, Cosmetics...

Indie Beauty Profile

Kara Brook Brown, Waxing Kara

21-Jun-2019 By Deanna Utroske

In her Indie Beauty Profile, Kara Brook Brown, the creative director at Waxing Kara, presents a delightfully well-conceived personal care brand, offers insight into the regulatory challenges of building a consumer goods brand, and explains why hers is...

Athletic apparel maker lululemon launches personal care

20-Jun-2019 By Deanna Utroske

The Canadian company announced its move into the new consumer goods sector just this week. lululemon’s initial personal care product portfolio is small but carefully targeted to meet the needs of the brand’s active consumers.

3 reasons Codex’ first beauty line will do well

20-Jun-2019 By Deanna Utroske

Codex is a global beauty collective with plans to bring numerous science-backed, clean beauty brands to market. The collective’s first line, called Bia, launched just this week and is already a brand worth watching.

Canadian beauty retailer Cliona Derma receives funding to launch own brand

19-Jun-2019 By Deanna Utroske

This week, the Women’s Entrepreneurship Strategy initiative invested $100,000 to help grow the Cliona Derma beauty business and in doing so increase the number of women-owned ventures in the country.