Happy New Year! Welcome to 2019—and our eagerly awaited annual issue that announces the recipient of the title ‘Beauty Company of the Year: Excellence in Packaging.’ Toward the end of every year, Beauty Packaging asks our online audience—currently a rapidly growing 42,000 unique monthly readers—to nominate beauty brands they feel deserve this top designation. More than 100 companies were suggested. The Top 5 were selected, and readers had a second say in determining the ultimate winner—which this year, is tarte cosmetics.

I’ve admired tarte for many years, so working on this article (see page 24 in this issue) has been such a pleasure, as it’s allowed me to delve more deeply into the brand’s history, foresight and accomplishments, as it heads toward its remarkable 20th anniversary. As you’ll read, there are many reasons—both obvious and behind the scenes—that make this year’s deserving winner shine brightly, from concept to package development to social engagement strategies. We hope you enjoy hearing from the dedicated team.

In a tough market, and one in which competition is only heating up, it takes a lot to stay at the top of the beauty charts. What will 2019 bring? We can only guess, but we reached out to Larissa Jensen, executive director, beauty industry analyst, The NPD Group—and a member of Beauty Packaging’s Board of Advisors—for her best predictions for the coming year, which you can read on in this issue.

Jensen speculates that, among other strategies, success will likely hinge on aspects such as listening and reacting to consumers, personalization and ‘finding the white space.’

With industry trade shows offering an up-close view of trends, this issue spotlights a number of key features from Cosmoprof Hong Kong and the first Indie Beauty show to cross the pond to London. You’ll also find previews of the co-located dynamic West Coast duo MakeUp in LosAngeles and Luxe Pack in Los Angeles—as well as Cosmoprof Bologna.

As always, Beauty Packaging will attend all these events, and we look forward to bringing you the highlights. There’s a lot of ground to cover—but we’ll happily lead you down the Beauty aisles. And don’t hesitate to stop publisher Jay Gorga and I in our tracks.
Wishing you a wonderful year ahead,