Cosmoprof North America 2023: key takeaways

Beauty is booming, and so is Cosmoprof North America.

The beauty show, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in Las Vegas last week, saw a wave of attendees pour onto the floor. “Forty-four percent of Cosmoprof attendees are new,” said Liza Rapay, Marketing Manager, Cosmoprof North America. "It's a testament to the industry, to what we do, and not just to the visitors. It's the exhibitors."

As always, the crowd was looking for innovation, in key categories like skincare, as well as smaller ones like nails. Here, the main takeaways from Cosmoprof North America 2023.

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Skin Care for the Win: Cutting-edge skincare continues to drive retail growth, thanks to a slew of innovation from brands and vendors. "From a product perspective, high-tech skincare is doing exceptionally well for us," said Noah Rosenblatt, president, North America, SpaceNK. "Across our retail business and across all of our retail partners, we've seen high-tech skincare do very well. We're also seeing the haircare boom continue to happen. Even with what we call iconic brands, they're still doing very well and newness is always performing well in the category. These two areas account for over 70% of our total business."

Wendy Liebmann, managing director of WSL Strategic Retail, noted a preponderance of skincare at the show. "There was a lot of serious stuff with skincare," she said, "and more serious devices." To that end, Geske, the Germany-based device brand, which is gearing up to launch in the US market later this year, and the JOVS 4D Focus Mask, which has a concentrated light output density that would allow deeper penetration of light to regenerate collagen, tighten skin and improve hyperpigmentation.

Because I'm Worth It: Indulgence mindset continues to drive prestige beauty's double-digit growth, outpacing the mass market in sales. "We talk a lot about the candy mindset, because when you think about mass market, it's more about convenience, it's more transactional, and being in-store already," said Larissa Jensen, vice president of beauty, Circana. “For prestige, it's more a question of experience, of destination. When you look at the two markets together, you look at the performance of each, which is where mindset comes in. If you're going to indulge yourself, you're going to do it with a premium product, maybe at Sephora, Ulta or Macy's."

This mindset also benefits SpaceNK, Rosenblatt said. "The ability to work at scale has been great for us," he said. “Through our partnerships with all of our retailers, whether through the prestige channel at Walmart or our luxury channel with Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's or even Hudson's Bay in Canada, the scalability of our business has changed the way we operate. It's one of our biggest things, we're finding ways to perfect our platform which is very different from what we were before."

The Age of Discovery: Brands and vendors rethinking traditional formats have captured the attention of many retailers. Thirteen Lune co-founder Nyakio Grieco was a judge for the Cosmoprof and Cosmopack awards, and was particularly impressed with Solésence Beauty Science Natural Glow Face Oil SPF 40+. "It's an SPF hybrid that goes on like a serum," she explained. "It gave you all the benefits of skincare, plus that beautiful, natural glow with SPF protection."