Tuesday is typically referred to as The Day After. That would be The Day After CEW’s big panel. The Day After a dozen meet and greets with brands. The Day After CPNA announces growth plans for 2019. So Tuesday, the last day of the show—which is a half day since the show floor closes at 3 p.m.—is one where we tend to wrap up any loose ends, visit pavilions we heard were hot, and reschedule any meetings we had to cancel due to last minute urgencies. Here, a brief on who We Saw, What We Learned and Where We Ate on Tuesday, July 31, Day Three of CPNA as seen by Andrea Nagel, VP of Content; Landree Bower, Senior Development Manager; Britney Turner, Marketing Assistant; and Jessica Caixiero, Events Assistant.

TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2018

Who We Saw

CEW was amped to kick off the last day of CPNA with breakfast with Ada Polla, CEO of Alchemie Forever. Over avocado toast, eggs and smoked salmon, Ada talked to CEW about how she helped grow a skin care line that started in her father’s Swiss dermatology office, into a 15-item line that’s now sold in Walgreens. Ada’s lessons began when she worked the front desk at her father’s office, and have evolved to keep her on the cutting edge of formulas, packaging, business relationships and growing a brand without outside funding. (Be sure to read about Ada’s journey in an upcoming Indie Spotlight.) Another interesting meeting was with Kayla Villena, Senior Research Analyst, Beauty and Fashion, Euromonitor International, who walked the show floor to validate some of the trends her group is seeing on a global basis. For example, trends in mass and prestige makeup are being pushed by ingredients including hyaluronic acid, collagen, peptides and charcoal. Premium brands, Kayla said, tend to deliver on a brand’s story, more so than mass brands, which fear consumers will be turned off by “information overload,” Kayla said. We also saw Shawn Haynes, CEO of Palladio Beauty, a professional cosmetics company, which sells everything from shadows to foundation, all under $15. On the tech side, CEW met with Laura Delgado from Founder’s Factory, who talked about several of the firm’s tech start-ups, including Sampler and Riviter, the former of which developed a strategic way of sampling products, with the latter of which developed an algorithm that uses AI on social media to recognize beauty products within images and posted content. CEW closed out the show with a soothing facial at the Sonäge booth in Discover Green. We met CEO Anisha Khanna at last year’s show when she and her Laserine Botanical Salve came to the rescue for a curling iron burn. The all natural line of skin care products are all about self-care for a spa experience home. They manufacture in small batches every 90 days to incorporate new research and best practices into their products. Their Soothe Kit was just what we needed to relax, unwind and get rejuvenated for the remainder of the week.

What We Learned

  • Euromonitor kicked off the event’s education series with a panel on The Changing Narrative of Aging. One key takeaway from the presentation was how brands plan to speak to consumers about aging in the future. Insights show that brands will go from using fear tactics (you won’t be loved if you have wrinkles) to prodding consumers to embrace the aging process with more empowering messaging.
  • Premium brands are holding on tight to the edge they have with connecting to consumers via great storytelling. This combined with key ingredients is what is driving engagement and trial. Mass brands, on the other hand, are relying more on ingredients with benefits.
  • In mass makeup, professional beauty brands NYX and elf are driving the mass market. K-beauty is also holding on strong, in both mass and prestige skin care, and shows no signs of fading.
  • For some brands, such as Hey Honey, CPNA serves as a way to maintain relationships with the partners they already have, as opposed to opening new doors. However, other brands, such as Yuni, get a lot out of CPNA’s tremendous buyer attendance, which this year included Barneys New York, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Nordstrom Rack, QVC and Detox Market. “Even though we can’t sell [product to the public like at other shows] the whole infrastructure within the naturals section here at CPNA makes it very convenient. We saw lots of investors and press here. And for our brand, which is 2.5 years old, we have a lot of momentum and lots of choices of where we want to go and how to grow,” said Suzanne Dawson, co-founder, Yuni.

Where We Ate

Breakfast kicked off (again) at The Veranda at The Four Seasons, where smoked salmon platters and avocado toast ruled. Again, no time for a proper lunch before our 5 p.m. flight back to the East Coast, so salads from a nearby deli had to do.