The New Beauty Bazaar

Brazilian brand Beauty’in brings a new concept of alimentary products that treat beauty from inside to out.

Emerging regions are challenging new and established brands as they set their sights on becoming the next global beauty icons.

We are no longer conforming to a traditional and Euro-centric standard of beauty. As social, economic and cultural powers continue to shift, we, too, are embracing different cultural values and new aesthetics and sensibilities from key emerging markets. As our desire for new forms of beauty expression continues to grow, what are the brand—and brand design—opportunities in this diverse and ever-changing beauty landscape?

Globetrotting Giants

The reality is four-fold. First, we are seeing more brand giants and innovators looking to cater to different nationalities, skin types and colorings, with the focus on the Hispanic/Latino market of particular note in the last couple of years. Second, many of these said brand giants are entering new territories to buy key brands or establish new manufacturing plants, such as L’Oréal’s much documented purchase of Shu Uemura (Japan) and Yue Sai (China). Third, a much more progressive and bold step is evidenced by those brands finding new ways to refocus on and develop these territories by respecting their culture, customs and iconography through new product design and design innovation.

Of the most interest, we are seeing challenger brands from brand new emerging territories—such as Hungary and Croatia, to name just two of the newest contenders—breaking down and changing the face of the established beauty borders and the global beauty landscape.

Breaking Borders

In recent years, the power of the beauty BRICs has been much talked about and their influence has truly grown apace. In fact, it is probably fair to say that the success of beauty brands from the BRICs has maybe given other new territories the confidence to express their cultural and creative credentials.

And while I am not going to focus exclusively on the BRICs—though they are integral to the continuation of the story—it would be remiss of me not to mention the phenomenal progress that this group of countries has made to the global beauty market in just a couple of years. Particularly when Brazil is responsible for one of the most exciting and visually impactful beauty offers to hit our shelves in recent years.

Using her knowledge of the beauty market, wellness and health, Brazilian entrepreneur Cristiana Arcangeli has launched her new brand Beauty’in. Innovative and unlike anything that has been seen in this segment, the brand—with two product lines of The Beauty Drink and The Beauty Candy—brings a new concept of alimentary products that care for the beauty from inside to outside.

The drink comes in a unique format. It is the first in the Brazilian market to use the twist cap, in which a bottle with pure water and all active ingredients (in powder form) are concentrated on the cap. By turning the cap, the powder falls into the water, dissolves and turns into the drink. This process ensures a 100% free of preservatives drink, that contains zero sugar, zero fat, is very low in sodium and holds many vitamins, minerals, proteins, natural flavors and organic fruits. The unique structure is combined with a graphic presentation bursting with color, diversity, exoticism and sensuality which perfectly represent the Brazilian culture and which can only add to the attraction.

If we look to Russia, the country launched its first designer beauty brand—Rouge Bunny Rouge (RBR)—into the UK market less than a year ago to great acclaim. RBR is a quietly confident and creative brand that fits the needs of today’s zeitgeist. The classic and premium-looking, black-and-white packaging is brought to life with the superb use of flower and fauna and fantastical illustration, which carries the brand’s theme and positioning of“enter the enchanted garden” across the entire product range. Wonderfully ethereal sounding names such as Prelude in the Clouds Aqua Primer and Seraphic Veil Anti-Aging Moisturizer add to the allure.

Rouge Bunny Rouge answers the Russian cultural need for a high level of glamour, femininity, a supernatural air and a meticulous attention to detail. And the brand opportunity now, for established and new brands, is to look and learn from local needs and culture and reflect them globally in new forms of product and design expression.

Bravely Beautiful

We have now reached a pivotal time as the growing collective of new beauty breakthroughs challenges the status quo, leading a new direction and form of global expression with their sights set on maybe being the beauty icons of tomorrow.

Widely publicized in the media, Croatian-inspired spa brand Occo launched into the UK market in October. Occo boasts the largest ever range of natural products with names inspired by the natural elements of the Dalmatian Coast and Adriatic Sea—such as Markocija No. 5 (translated as “wild meadows”) and Kornatia No. 7 (“pure Adriatic”) with a gentle and contemporary brand mark that is at once explicit as well as open to personal interpretation.

Now becoming more widely available across Europe is Hungarian mineral skin care and cosmetics brand Omorovicza. The brand icon is actually very similar in style to Occo. The product names, such as Queen of Hungary Mist, and its “from Budapest” tagline leaves you no doubt as to its heritage, but visually it translates across and transcends borders to appear as a clean, simple, feminine and premium beauty offer.

And from farther afield, Liberty (London) has just started to stock the Rahua hair care range. The prime ingredient of the range of products is the “ra wa nut,” and the brand story tells how the nut is sought out by women of the Quechua Shuar tribe in the Amazon rainforest. An exotic heritage, but a restrained visual expression, focuses on clean sleek lines to reflect the merits of the product with just homage to its hunter-gatherer heritage in the form of a small, gold, female archer icon. It is beautifully clear in its understatement.

It should come as no great surprise that some of our most popular annual beauty events are coming out of these new territories: Intercharm in Moscow, Beauty Eurasia (Turkey) and Beautyworld Middle East. And what of the UAE? Lebanon is currently a hive of creativity in a design and brand sense, and with one of the world’s most established fragrance houses, Ajmal, located there, it is certainly the next one to watch as it exports and develops its beauty ethics.

What does all this mean for our beauty future? It means that we absolutely cannot rest on our iconic beauty laurels. The collective force of all these new territories is bravely pushing the boundaries and borders by fusing elements of their heritage and cultural civilization with a challenging design communication. And this is opening up new ways of seeing the beauty marketplace through original expression and innovative aesthetics—breaking down existing brand and retail barriers to create and continue to strengthen an unprecedented, exciting, diverse and brave new global beauty bazaar.

Jonathan Ford is a designer and creative partner of Pearlfisher –[email protected], www.pearlfisher.com, http://twitter.com/ Jforddesigns