Oct 14, 2016
After two days of invaluable business meetings, sourcing new ingredients and learning about the trends shaping the global personal care industry, visitors heaped praise on the inaugural in-cosmetics North America event that closed yesterday.
Evonne Lau, Scientist at Unilever, said: “in-cosmetics North America stands out as a truly international event. The Innovation Seminars were one of the highlights of the event. The high profile speakers and the topics were spot on, answering the questions that companies like ours are asking.”
Elizabeth Thomas, Director of Regulatory Affairs at L Brands, commented: “We travelled to in-cosmetics North America to source new raw materials for our future products. The quality conversations we had with suppliers in attendance were extremely useful to us and will help manufacturers create some unique products.”
With a total visitor attendance of more than 2,000, this week’s event at Pier 36 welcomed senior scientists and R&D representatives from across North America, including 23 of the top 25 US manufacturers.
Toussaint Jordan, Technical Marketing Leader at Gattefossé, said: “We were very excited to see what the first in-cosmetics North American event would bring and the show didn’t disappoint. We were delighted at not only the volume of people coming by our stand, but also the seniority of positions. It’s been great to connect with directors and chemists, something that’s not so common at other shows we attend.”
Visitors had come to see the 160-plus international exhibitors who were showcasing their latest ingredients – some of whom had never presented at a trade show in the region before. The latest innovations from AkzoNobel, Ashland, Cargill, Clariant, Lonza Consumer Care and Solvay were all on display, with the show’s Innovation Zone presenting some of the best ingredients launched in the last six months.
Brianne Repasy, Color Chemist at Cosmetic Group USA, added: “We’ve seen many new suppliers with super-innovative ingredients, many of whom we have never met before.”
While Amy Engels, Senior Fragrance Evaluator at Colgate Palmolive, said: “We’re here to learn about new cosmetics ingredients and trends, while expanding our supplier base. The diversity of the exhibitors has been excellent and we’ve had conversations with new contacts.”
Creating winning formulations
One of the most exciting areas of the show was the Formulation Lab, which saw five leading ingredients suppliers – KOBO, Lonza Consumer Care, Lucas Meyer, DSM Nutritional Products and Ashland – give R&D professionals hands-on demonstrations of their latest products. The IPCS also revealed how to create a disruptive formulation in a short timeframe, to keep pace with changing consumer demands.
Jason Booth, Innovation Scientist at Cosmetic Group USA, who attended one of the sessions, commented: “It was great to be able to get hands-on experience with the ingredients and hear directly from the supplier. We usually work from a data sheet or the technical information we receive from the business, but it’s nothing in comparison to face-to-face time in a lab. It’s something we don’t usually get to do, so it’s a great benefit.”
Delivering the latest trends
The educational program also received widespread acclaim. Many of the event’s Marketing Trends presentations were standing room only as attendees flocked to hear sessions from Euromonitor, Kline, ICMAD, the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) and Mintel.
Paige LaBrie, R&D Technologist at L Brands, said: “Attending the marketing trends presentations provided me with invaluable insights into current innovation and marketing trends within the global personal care market.”
In the opening session, to a full room, Amanda Hartzmark of Euromonitor revealed the latest US market trends and how consumer buying habits are changing. Later in the day, Dr. Nava Dayan, Brian Cook from Nu Skin Enterprises, Muriel Pujos of Coty and Brittany L. Graf, Ph.D. from Rutgers University advised manufacturers on how to safely use natural compounds in cosmetics products. Nikola Matic from Kline, who had earlier said the future of the personal care industry will be based on specialty ingredients, wrapped up the opening day by explaining how current trends are impacting the use of traditional ingredients.
Day Two’s sessions were in just as high demand, with visitors keen to hear from some of the industry’s most respected global experts. The Institute of Personal Care Science (IPCS) gave a thorough overview of how to formulate for the Asian market, while the CEO of ICMAD, Pam Busiek, hosted a session on the legal requirements of expanding a brand globally. Dr. Jay Ansell from PCPC discussed the various claims that have been made about personal care products and how reliable they are. And in perhaps the busiest session of all, Sarah Jindal from Mintel offered attendees a look at some of the key products and trends that are influencing the global beauty market.
Furthering knowledge of innovative ingredients
Another area of the show that drew a lot of attention was the series of Innovation Seminars – where suppliers gave technical information about their products. Solvay, Revolymer, Lonza Consumer Care and Clariant were among those who introduced new ingredients.
Emily Trillaud, who works on product development at Kiehl’s, commented: “We attended the session with Clariant as we are currently working with this technology and exploring its potential. It was a great presentation, thoroughly enjoyable and their insights were invaluable.”
A groundbreaking challenge for leading manufacturers
The event also witnessed the first ever Formulation Challenge – an exciting competition that required finished product manufacturers to create a new product in just 90 minutes. With two boxes of ‘secret’ ingredients supplied by some of the event’s exhibitors, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Conair Corporation, Victoria’s Secret and Cosmetic Group USA set to their task, developing some outstanding products.
Announcing Conair Corporation as the challegne’s winner, during the evening awards ceremony on September 7, Belinda Carli, Director of the IPCS, said: “This was no easy challenge and the level of creativity and knowledge on display was remarkable. Conair scored top marks in both the marketing and technical categories, and its all-day moisturiser product could be sold today. Very high commendation was also given to Cosmetic Group USA, who were runners up. The Formulation Challenge highlights the possibilities that manufactures have when it comes to NPD in the future.”
Also announced during the ceremony was the winner and runner-up of the Innovation Zone Best Ingredients Awards. Fending off 16 other suppliers , who have launched new products in the last six months, Sensient Cosmetic Technologies (SCT) took home the Gold Award for its FSP Surface Treatment Technology, with Cosphatech LLC claiming the Silver prize for Neosome EM Ultrafill.
Finally, the brand new Best Recycled Material Awards – presented by CosmeticsDesign – were handed to two suppliers whose ingredients are made from recycled or by-products. Gold went to Neossance Hemisqualane from Amyris, while Silver went to Olifeel by Amedeo Brasca.
in-cosmetics North America will move to the Javits Center in 2017
The overall success of the show saw the in-cosmetics Group announce that the event will be moving to a larger venue in 2017, as Daniel Zanetti, Exhibition Director of in-cosmetics North America, explains: “We were confident that this event would be a success and the numbers recorded have proven that it is a valuable addition to the personal care product manufacturers calendar. Not only are we able to bring in some of the most innovative suppliers from across the globe, we provide visitors with a unique setting to learn about trends and new formulation techniques. in-cosmetics North America is here to stay and we’re proud to be growing the show next year at the Javits Center.”
Clayton Rozic, Developmental Scientist at Sonneborn, who exhibited at the show, concluded: “The diversity and size of companies attending the first in-cosmetics show was fantastic. We were also impressed with the range of functions of companies, from research through to formulating. We’ve had some excellent technical conversations with visitors, more so than any other shows, and are excited about the 2017 event.”
in-cosmetics North America will return from October 11–12 2017 at the Javits Center in New York, for more information please visit http://www.in-cosmeticsnorthamerica.com/