Building Collagen, Boosting Immunity and Returning to Nature: In-Cosmetics Paris

By: Katie Schaefer and Rachel Grabenhofer

Posted: April 21, 2010

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In-Focus: Fashion and Cosmetics
Fashion and cosmetics have one major element in common—they both must be innovative to be successful. These two industries often inspire each other with trends for the future. In-Cosmetics focused on this cross-inspiration for this year’s In-Focus theme: Fashion. The three fashion trends featured at In-Focus were Seductive Future, Natural Extravaganza and Sensuous Veils. Seductive Future comprised metallic and cold tone fabrics such as blue and green. Meanwhile, Natural Extravaganza explored a variety of textures and colors in natural fabrics. Finally, Sensuous Veils featured muted hues and sheer fabrics with a romantic tone.

So how do these fashion trends inspire the beauty industry? They can be used as blueprints to help cosmetic manufacturers choose innovative ingredients, create formulation textures, and choose packaging that will appeal to a trend savvy consumer.

Awards Reception 
To mark the 20th anniversary of In-Cosmetics, attendees gathered on April 14, 2010, at the 20th Anniversary and Awards Reception to network, debate industry politics and honor innovation in the cosmetics industry. During the reception, Grabenhofer announced the winners of C&T magazine's International Technology Awards. For the New Technology category, Procter & Gamble Beauty and Grooming was awarded for its use of global gene expression profiling to study changes that occur in skin with aging. The New Technology Launch Award was presented to RBT, a Syneron Company, for its elure Advanced Dermal Whitening campaign. Finalists for the New Technology award also included The HallStar Company for its SolaStay S1 photostabilizer, and CeeTox Inc. for its animal alternative in vitro skin sensitization test method. Finalists for the New Technology Launch award included Sederma for its Chromocare product campaign, and ColorMetrics for its TouchBack by ColorMark hair color in a marker campaign. (More on the finalists)

Following Grabenhofer, Richard Hesk, group exhibition director for In-Cosmetics, awarded the event’s first ever Lifetime Achievment Award to Alain Khaiat, PhD, who accepted the award proudly as his colleagues cheered him on. Khaiat has been involved in the field of cosmetic science for over 40 years. The three other individuals nominated by the industry for this prestigious award included: Karl Lintner, PhD; Daniel Maes, PhD; and Johann Wiechers, PhD.

Breaking Records
By the end of the second day, In-Cosmetics had broken all previous attendee records and by the end of the show recorded a whopping 7,839 attendees, an increase of 26% over the previous record set in 2007, making the 20th anniversary installment of In-Cosmetics the best-attended in the exhibition’s history. According to the organizers, this was reflected in the overall show size too. For the first time, the event exceeded 10,000-sq-m, with 575 companies from over 40 countries worldwide signing up to showcase their latest innovations to a captive audience.