CyberDERM- The Sunscreen Company TM: Talk of Trends in the Skincare Industry

One of the biggest tradeshow events for personal care, In-Cosmetics, wrapped up in Paris. People in the industry flock to the event every year from all over the globe. Us CyberDERM folk have yet to attend since we frequent a lot of the medical/dermatology meetings but it was practically impossible to get any one of our suppliers, chemists or lab specialists on the phone that week! Who could resist one of the most important shows with a little extra time to tour la Paris!

I did manage to attend one of our supplier’s symposium days this month. They are one of the largest raw material providers in the world and so their corporate vision trickles its way down to what makes it to the shelves for consumers- whether they’re our products or L’Oreal’s. Of course, they also respond to the trends that they see in the industry and shape their offerings accordingly. It’s a reciprocal loop!

Here at CyberDERM we are not necessarily interested in being trendy. We absolutely keep up with the science but for us, the precepts behind beautiful and protected skin are fairly constant. We are more interested in hand-picking the best active and non-active ingredients out in the world. In the event though that you are interested in what the industry considers the trends, here are some of the big things we discussed.

The Evolution of the BB, to the CC, to the DD and then the EE.

The discussions surrounding the BB creams and their next generations of products was amusing. You have venerable PhD’s scratching their heads and asking what’s a DD cream? No one in the room knew what an EE cream was going to be but it is certain it will come. Really, it will be for the first marketing team to plant their flag and declare an EE cream is… an Energizing Eraser cream…. Evaporating Elixir cream… Eerie Everyday cream. It’s clear that these are mostly a marketing convention since not even industry specialists can clearly say what the differences are from an ingredient perspective. Who knows maybe at CyberDERM we will just preempt the end by creating our own ZZ cream and put the conversation to bed.

As you might hope, this is a big topic of concern for everyone in the supply chain. It goes to show the power of the consumer since a lot of the changes that we see are as a result of your concerns and demands. With social media, consumer’s level of education about ingredients and their products is exponentially better than even a couple of years ago. I know that it has shaped our conversations with our suppliers- we are up front with all of them about our need to keep our ingredient lists ‘clean’. In other words, don’t show us the most fantastic miracle ingredient if it is preserved with a Dirty Dozen. The EU’s ban on any animal testing will also dramatically change the landscape since many of the large raw material companies are European. Before, much of the initial testing done by a raw material company is confidential but we will now know 100% that a European company’s products will truly be cruelty-free! Wunderbar!

Raw material companies do try to keep up with the au courant trends. We saw a lot of pictures of mermaid braids and beachy waves- you’d better believe the industry is hard at work delivering the products that will get you those desired looks. Even pictures of a neo-gothic Rooney Mara were presented with a full inspiration board about how to formulate the full palette and feeling for those looking for dark romanticism. One had better just hope that you all do not abandon your braids for chignon’s over night or brands are going to be left with products that are just not quite right!

In the end, there are always going to be brands that create the trends and others that are left chasing them. We are pretty happy with our version of a classic type of quality- certainly not out-dated but on point,