Euro Style

Foreign Chic: The New Beauty buzz?

March 8, 2007

Editor-in-Chief

Foreign Chic: The New Beauty buzz?

Spring has arrived and thoughts are possibly turning to foreign climes as we plan our summer vacations. Traditionally, many of us change our personal grooming and beauty regimes when we go away, taking the bare minimum in travel size containers, or just enjoying the fact that a tan can cover a multitude of sins.

However, as the price of travel makes the globe more accessible and the beauty marketplace smaller, we are starting to discover and embrace more new cultures and brands, and I wonder how many of us now wait to arrive at our destination before buying some new, foreign products to try? It would seem that the unique and the exotic is becoming far more attractive to us and what we are terming “Foreign Chic” is fast becoming big business for the beauty business. So, if we look at the domestic beauty marketplace, does this mean that we are seeing a greater demand for foreign imports? Not necessarily. However, it probably is time for our home-grown brands to look at how they can compete and the ways in which they can maybe imbue their products with just a touch of this desirable Foreign Chic.

Innovation seems a good place to start, as this inevitably fuels the life cycle of the brand. But, if we look at recent innovations within this marketplace we need to ask just how much of it really lives up to consumer expectation, and just how much is about copying or reinventing the wheel to fool us into thinking that we are buying newness. Dior recently brought out Pretty Charms—a charm bracelet containing two complementary lip colors. Although more novel than anything previously offered by Dior, it does seem somewhat of a downmarket offer for the premium brand and is maybe just taking advantage of, and mimicking, the recent craze for mobile phone charms, which undoubtedly have a limited shelf-life.

Essentially, we do not want more of the same, but want brands to force themselves to reappraise the brand or product—really taking a fresh look in a meaningful way at an existing way of doing things to give us truly different products.

Of course, one of the most obvious sources of making new is to look at cultures that are different from our own. The growth of Foreign Chic does represent the purest form of making new whether through the discovery of radical new ingredients, by changing philosophies or by introducing radical new aesthetics and rituals. And just as we find foreign travel exciting and inspirational, we also want our domestic beauty brands to take us on a journey of sorts and give us this sense of the exotic, and a more enigmatic sense of “otherness,” that we are craving from these foreign climes and brands. It does seem to be the Far East, with the popularity of brands such as Kenzo and Eve Lom, that has, in recent times, dominated this shift. However, we want to ensure that we create desire in an authentic way and don’t just inject our brands with a gimmicky eastern element as a way of attaining “foreignness” or “otherness,” for example Fresh and its recent rice and sake infused bath and body gift set, A Grain of Rice.

In short, we have the very real opportunity to cross-fertilize cultures and embrace and enrich the cultural base with influences from those outside of our own; in that lies an exciting source of innovation. I believe that we can deduce certain principles from studying these foreign brands and applying them in the abstract to shake up what is, or maybe isn’t, happening with western domestic beauty innovation. It may seem like a contradiction, but two of the principles that many of these foreign brands seem to display in abundance are those of the “surreal” and of “restraint.” While we are not advocating a copycat mentality, western brands could maybe emulate the approach of some of their eastern, and other foreign, counterparts and use these platforms to inject a sense of difference and “otherness” in not just new product development and innovation, but also when approaching packaging and design as the key consumer touchpoint.

Designer Hanae Mori has long been hailed as the great lady of Japan and of Parisian haute couture and, although it first launched in 1996, her Hanae Mori Butterfly fragrance is experiencing something of a popularity resurgence, due in part to the fact that it is now reaching a wider geographical audience and, as we have said, we are more keen to buy into the values of these foreign and exotic brands. The classic and timeless presentation of this fragrance exemplifies a sense of this understated restraint. There is no branding, just a clear bottle with the focus being the bottle stopper, which takes the form of a butterfly with half-closed wings; a traditional and historical oriental symbol but one which is also recognized and revered the world over as a symbol of beauty, delicacy and finesse. The design is not open for immediate interpretation and consumption but we are drawn in by a sense of intrigue and this pared down approach demonstrates an expertise and specialization.

Similarly, Skyn Iceland is hitting more shelves across Europe and the U.S. with products such as the Glacial Face Wash or the Anti-Stress Oral Spray. The no-nonsense approach to the packaging makes it appear to be a very basic and almost pharmaceutical line. However, the restraint in design is deliberate, with the clean and composed typography and colorways serving to reflect the unique heritage of the product and the use of the “purest Icelandic glacial waters and beneficial minerals.”

On the other hand, we have also witnessed foreign brands embracing the polar opposite by providing us with more surreal offerings. By far one of the strangest to emerge in recent times is the Mare’s Milk Bio Organic Skincare range from the Austrian farm of Wegwartehof. This is a truly unusual, and possibly unique, offer, but the bland packaging in no way does the product justice. Do we fully appreciate and buy into the surreal composition of the product if this is not reflected in the positioning, design and packaging? Surely this is what brings the whole journey to life for us. Jean-Paul Gaultier’s “tin can” packaging paved the way and probably still sets the design standard for a more surreal, yet universal, representation. Brands such as Mare’s Milk, which are personality driven with a more quirky touch to inspire and challenge familiarity, must not be afraid to follow this through and embrace the power of cutting edge creativity and design as part of the overall product package.

Moving forward, how brands use or integrate this approach to “otherness” to make their own identity and culture more diverse and interesting could be critical to the consumer uptake and success of the brand. Of course, not all ideas and innovation will always be transferable from east to west, or even from country to country. However, good and meaningful design is an integral part of the global language and we must not underestimate the power of design in creating a point of differentiation as part of the creative, brand and retail experience, regardless of the geographical territory.