While winners of this year’s CEW Beauty Insiders’ Choice Awards are due a well-deserved pat on the back, they are also a handy reminder of the most important trends governing the beauty space. The awards are also important for retailers, offering them a chance to engage with shoppers by highlighting them and explaining the trends, making them feel like true beauty insiders.
Mintel’s research shows that while 63% of US consumers who have bought beauty products in the last 12 months did so to replenish products they use regularly, 29% did so simply to try something new and 20% saw something they liked the look of and bought it on impulse. What’s more, 15% bought products in response to an advertisement. The publicity surrounding the Beauty Awards, therefore, has a strong chance of drawing these shoppers to stores and to the Awards winners in particular.
Skin Care and Make Up Looks East
Given the fascination with all things Korean, it was perhaps inevitable that two of the big winners not only came from South Korea, but also gave a foretaste of two trends poised to take Western markets by storm. Mintel has been watching the progress of cushion compacts for three years as part of its “East Meets West” trend, and we finally saw the first cushion compacts hit US shores at the end of 2014. As the inventor of the format, it was fitting that Amore Pacific won Best Face Make Up Mass with its Laneige BB Cushion. Given that 15% of US make-up wearers believe that BB creams are better for their skin, but 7% have doubts over their coverage, cushion compacts, which offer superior and more long lasting coverage could put foundations under even more pressure, raising the proportion of US make-up wears who have replaced their foundations with a BB or CC cream from 27% to an even higher share.
Amore Pacific also scooped the award for Moisturizer Mass with another trend-setting product: Laneige Water Sleeping Mask. The sleeping mask is a great example of Mintel’s new “The New Night” trend, which examines the repositioning of night care to create the perfect sleeping environment for time and sleep-starved consumers, and then to make the most of the shortened hours of sleep with products that work faster and harder. Sleeping masks started out in South Korea, China and Japan as multi tasking, intensive night creams or masks which hydrate, brighten and repair the skin overnight with an unusual gel-like texture. With Western manufacturers such as L’Oréal and Peter Thomas Roth coming on board, we expect to see many more of these sleeping masks in a water-gel format on shelves over the next six months.
In the fragrance category, both Coty and Dior showed their mastery of fragrance trends. The success of the Marc Jacobs franchise has been down to its skill in creating juices, packaging and marketing campaigns that appeal to particular consumer demographics and psychographics – the young in years and the young at heart. Daisy Dream, which won Women’s Scent Prestige, already has a well disposed audience, with 14% of US fragrance users opting for a scent from their favourite designer, including Marc Jacobs, and 11% liking to build a collection of scents from a particular designer, again including Jacobs. This ahead of the 7% who buy celebrity fragrances, and reveals consumer attitudes towards the nature of fame in the fragrance universe.
Men – blending complexity with simplicity
The rise of the metrosexual, lumbersexual, hipster, whatever you want to call him, has added an extra layer of complexity to the men’s grooming routine. While 86% of US men want to keep their grooming routine as simple as possible, 24% of those who have appearance concerns spent more time on their skincare in 2014 than they did in the previous year and 44% of 18-24 year old men used an average of 12 products in their grooming regimen. Mintel’s “Man in the Mirror” trend shows how men are adding new steps to their daily regimen without fear of feminisation. Lab Series’ Age Rescue+ Water-Charged Gel Cream, winner of the Male Grooming award, is a fine example of this, using the trending water-gel texture in an anti-ageing product that blends powerful moisturisers with energising ginseng.
In hair care, one of the strongest trends has been the confluence of hair and skin language and benefits in a new generation of hybrid products, something Mintel has been following as part of its “Mixologiste” trend for the last two years. Living Proof, whose Curl Conditioning Wash won the award for Hair Shampoo/Hair Conditioner, exemplified this movement. The product appeals to the people who believe that shampooing their hair can dry it out and the 58% who say they would be interested in trying a co-wash.
The final nod has to go to Nudestix, which won the Indie Brand award. Nudestix’s proposition of flawless coverage with a no make up look is wholly on-trend and perfectly calibrated to today’s Selfie Generation, who want camera-ready skin with the minimum of fuss. In fact, 28% of US consumers want face make up with skin-perfecting benefits and 59% would like skin care products that make them look camera-ready at all times. Nudestix’s products hold out hope to both groups.
These are of course just a handful of the 2015 winners and Mintel looks forward to congratulating the class of 2016 for their combination of formulations and flair. To view a complete list of Beauty Award winners and finalists, please click here to view the Insiders’ Choice Digital Beauty Guide online, or download the app from the Apple App store or Google Play by searching “CEW Beauty Awards.”
For more information about Mintel’s trends, please contact bpc@mintel.com.
