MakeUp in Seoul will take place on April 6th – 7th at the Conrad Seoul Hotel in Korea. It is the show’s third edition, and organized by Beauteam, which says the event is steadily gaining momentum. There are 20% more exhibitors this year than last.

Visitors will find a wide range of companies to meet with, from some of the most well known cosmetic and packaging suppliers in the industry, to Korean subcontractors with formulation expertise.

Beauteam reports that Korea is currently the fourth largest Asian market in terms of cosmetics. The country is also the world’s largest per capita skin care consumer, while local brands recorded a sharp rise of their export sales in recent months.

Highlights

Beauty brands will be walking the aisles to meet with cosmetic and packaging suppliers. Exhibitors this year include B.Kolor Makeup & Skincare, Cosmax, Fiabila, Intercos Group, IL Cosmetics, FS Korea, Pum-Tech Korea, and Schwan Cosmetics. Plus, there are several packaging suppliers that are first-time exhibitors this year, including Aptar, Albea, BaoSheng, Hana Innovation, HCT Asia and Yonwoo.

The show will feature a competitive event dedicated to covering trends: “Innovation Tour Products.” This is a special section on the show floor to highlight suppliers’ innovations. Show organizers will choose the winning items to include, in three categories: formulation, packaging and full service.

Like last year, makeup demos will take place inside a boxing ring. Korean makeup artist teams will compete to claim the winner’s title. A different team will enter the ring every two hours.

A Conference Preview

The conference schedule at MakeUp in Seoul will open on the morning of April 6th with “What’s New in China?” Participants of the roundtable discussion include Cyril Ruiz-Moise, chairman/general manager, SGD Asia Pacific; and Thomas Weckerle, CEO, Weckerle Cosmetics.

That afternoon, “What’s New in Korea?” will feature Daniel Cha, sales director, Yonwoo and Thomas Hwang, Samwha, among others. The next day, “What’s Hot in Japan?” will be a roundtable that will include several Japanese brands.

Another conference, ”Multi Level Future Trends,” will be presented by Antoinette Van den Berg, trend forecaster and owner of Future-Touch. Van den Berg will explain how consumers are requesting more, so trends go beyond the usual color and texture, to customized forecasting. Consumers have more label-specific wishes, she says, and she will explain how brands can fulfill this need.

By the Numbers

This year, more than 2,700 visitors are expected, up from 2,300 in 2015 and 2,000 during the event’s debut in 2014. Last year, 27% of visitors were from abroad, mainly from Japan and China.

Visiting Seoul couldn’t be easier, organizers say. The country is two hours by plane from Shanghai, Tokyo, and Taiwan. It is three hours from Hong Kong.