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]]>The 2016 Natural Beauty Roundtable brought together a group of 20 prominent brand owners, CEOs, commentators and practitioners for a two-hour themed discussion, working lunch and networking sessions.
The event also included the formal presentation of this year’s Natural Beauty Retail Awards. Among those collecting awards on the day were Holland & Barett’s senior beauty buyer Lucy Pottinger (for Best Retail Chain), Lovelula founder Sonia White (Best Online Retailer), Joanne Hill owner of Amaranth (Best Independent Retailer) and Jo Chidley from Beauty Kitchen (Best Branded Store). Weleda UK MD Jayn Sterland meanwhile was presented with an award for being voted number one in the 2016 Who’s Who in Natural Beauty Awards.
The main roundtable discussion, chaired by Natural Beauty News editor Julia Zaltzman, focused on four themes – The K-Beauty Trend (Korean and wider Asian beauty trends), Waterless Beauty, Future Proofing and Trends of 2017. The discussion also covered the growing need for natural beauty businesses to demonstrate a coherent sustainability strategy, the future role of personalized beauty, and the emergence of ‘micro-influencers’. The group also advocated an approach which balances a desire for innovation with a respect for trusted ‘hero products’ and ingredients. And there was universal support for the sector to work more closely together and speak with a unified voice.
Speaking after the event, Jayn Sterland said: “It was great to have the opportunity to come together and discuss some really meaty issues. One of the things we sometimes forget about is that we all share the same vision and come from the same place, so we need to unite and have one voice. My big take out from todays is that there is more that unites us than divides us.”
Joanne Hill, owner of award-winning retailer Amaranth, said: “I thought today’s discussion was incredibly interesting and thought-provoking. And I thought it encouraged us to think about important issues in a very different way.”
“I thought today’s discussion was incredibly interesting and thought-provoking. And I thought it encouraged us to think about important issues in a very different way”
Luke Sherriff, of Pinks Boutique, said: “It was really interesting to talk with the group about how sustainability feeds back into your whole business, and isn’t something that just affects final products.”
Lorraine Dallmeir, from Formula Botanica, told us: “I loved this morning’s discussion. It’s particularly interesting to hear the experiences of people who are in different parts of the industry. For example, I spend most of my time with people who are learning how to formulate, so it’s very interesting to hear retailers saying what consumers are looking for when they walk into a shop, how they view different beauty products. That was very eye-opening for me.”
The full report on this year’s Natural Beauty Rountdable will form a centerpiece of the Spring 2017 edition Natural Beauty News. Video interviews with some of this year’s Roundtable contributors will be posted shortly on the NPN and Natural Beauty News websites.
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The UK’s best natural beauty retailers have been announced today with the publication of the autumn edition of Natural Beauty News, published by Diversified Communications UK.
Waitrose, Debenhams, Holland & Barrett, LoveLula, Beauty Kitchen, and Amaranth have all been recognised with Natural Beauty Retail Awards, while Jayn Sterland, managing director of Weleda UK, landed the top spot in this year’s Who’s Who in Natural Beauty.
Voted for by the natural and organic beauty industry, the hotlist – also known as the ‘Who’s Who’ in natural beauty Top 25 – provides an essential snapshot of the leading personalities driving the newest trends and best products on the market.
Whilst this is the first time she’s been voted number one, Jayn Sterland has regularly appeared in the ‘Who’s Who’ top 25 since its launch in 2007.
She joined Weleda eight years ago and brought the original products she found in the Weleda archives, such as the iconic Skin Food, to the mass market. Appointed managing director of Weleda UK earlier this year, she has transformed Weleda into a truly customer-focused business and regularly speaks about the value of authentically natural and organic cosmetics.
“I am so thrilled to be voted number one in the natural beauty industry’s Top 25 – what an incredible honour!” says Jayn Sterland, MD of Weleda UK. “I am delighted for all my team; it is gratifying to know our voice for authentically natural products is being heard in a world where organic beauty is so often veiled in green-washing and dubious claims.
“In the year Weleda Skin Food celebrates its 90th birthday, it is encouraging that old is the new new! A true testament to lasting sustainability in a very transient beauty industry,” she says.
Last year’s winner Sonia White, managing director of Lovelula, was voted number two, closely followed by Luke and Kirstie Sherriff, co-founders of Pinks Boutique. Alexander and Kim Barani, founders of Kinetic Enterprises, were voted fourth, and Graeme Hume, owner of Pravera was fifth favourite overall.
The 2016 Who’s Who in natural beauty top 25 personalities (as voted for by the industry) are:
The Natural Beauty Retail Awards 2016
Highlighting the valuable contributions and support of retailers to the vibrant natural and organic beauty market, the Natural Beauty Retail Awards celebrate the industry’s dedication and innovations in offering their customers a great retail experience, at the same time as promoting natural and organic beauty for all.
“The standard of excellence within the natural beauty industry has never been higher,” comments Julia Zaltzman, editor of Natural Beauty News. “With product innovations, customer care and consumer awareness all at the forefront of this pioneering sector, we are proud to be able to highlight those who are truly trailblazing within their categories.”
The Natural Beauty Retail Awards 2016 winners are:
“Our customers love natural beauty products so we’re really happy to win this award for a second year running,” says Jo Skelton, Waitrose beauty buying manager. “We’ve been working hard to make natural beauty more accessible, so it’s brilliant this has been recognised. The award is a fantastic vote of confidence in the quality and choice we offer our customers. We remain dedicated to leading the industry in this area and enhancing our range, and we’ve been given a great boost of encouragement by winning this award.”
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]]> 2016 has been tough on us so far. Ronnie Corbett, Terry Wogan, David Bowie, Victoria Wood, Prince … it reads like a headline cast for the best New Year’s Eve cabaret show ever, but alas it is instead the tip of a celebrity iceberg of terribly sad losses that we have experienced thus far (let us at least hope that we have reached this year’s quota!).And despite most of us not knowing any of the above names personally, we have felt all of their deaths so very acutely thanks to their sheer brilliance and legendary ability to bring a little bit of beauty into our everyday lives. An observational gag that has us weeping with laughter and nodding our heads in recognition of this overly familiar scene. A guitar chord that strikes a poignant note with our nostalgic hearts as we reflect on youthful times gone by. Our formative years influenced by the resonating lyrics of those in the know, those who have ‘lived’, those who know more than we will ever know.
Collective passion
Be it humour, wit, musical talent or exceptional levels of pioneering genius that we commend them for, the real skill shared by those that we have lost is to unite us, on a global scale, via a collective passion or a common cause. Of course, you don’t need to be a celebrity to achieve that. One small act of kindness. One gesture of goodwill. One good deed a day. If we all lived by that mantra, if we all paid it forward all of the time, wouldn’t life be simply beautiful?
And it’s this humble philosophy that the Soil Association’s Organic September initiative aims to promote. One small change a day. A pint of organic milk. A T-shirt made from organic bamboo. A cup of organic tea and a slice of organic carrot cake offered to the kind builder who is happily installing your rainwater harvesting system.
There are so many ways you can ‘organic your September’, and it can become part of your beauty regime before you’ve even left the house. From shampoo to moisturizers, lipsticks to nail varnish, you can be a walking embodiment of organic beauty at its best. Not to mention looking and smelling amazing to boot!
Organic30
And if you’re not sure how to get started, the Soil Association is providing an interactive ‘Organic30’ list throughout September to encourage consumers to make small changes. Alongside its established ambassadors and brands, there are hundreds of events planned up and down the country, and from 19-23 September the emphasis is on beauty.
So why not jump on the organic bandwagon and get your shoppers united by this common cause? Little and often is easy to do, and far less demanding on the average person’s work schedule. Besides, when we compare our daily grind with that of a Nicaraguan organic coffee farmer, an African organic shea butter producer or an organic tea grower from Assam, it seems a little foolish to think that to swap our mainstream shower gel for an organic option is just too hard, or that we’re too time poor, or dare we admit, we just can’t be bothered…
Pay it forward this month. One small act of organic kindness in the name of natural beauty!
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]]>Life in the 21st century is just one long, ever-decreasing circle of commonality. In the same way that the older you get, the social game of six degrees of separation actually begins to ring true, it seems to me that no matter what genre you look at, it’s intrinsically linked with all others.
Take fitness, for example. What is the first thing that springs to mind when you read that word? Is it exercise, or getting fit? Fitness trackers, maybe, and the new wave of smart technology? Food, perhaps, and eating healthily? Or maybe just health in itself? All of these are plausible, to me. But high-end catwalk fashion? Hmm, that one’s a little more tenuous, right? Wrong!
The latest discovery to be touted is that fitness trends are influencing high-end fashion. Activewear brand Sundried claims that the ‘superior materials’ its collection is made from, not to mention its ‘ergonomic features’ actively empower men and women to get fit.
And, careful not to appeal to too-small a market, the brand has even reached out to the environmentally-minded consumer and offers transparency through uniquely coding each item so that its journey from sourcing of materials to final product can be traced.
Now this is merely the marketing hype of a single brand, you may argue. But, apparently not. In February The Guardian ran a story on Canadian company lululemon, which is “known for selling £138 leggings” and has successfully tapped into the goldmine clothing industry for the yoga and pilates market. This success story alone (it expects sales of up to $695 million in the fourth quarter of the year) is, says columnist Nadia Khomami, “indicative of a wider trend – sometimes labelled ‘athleisure’ – in which expensive workout clothing has become a wardrobe staple”.
Trends are powerful things. They’re much like self-fulfilling prophecies. If you tell a consumer something for long enough, they start to believe it, live it, expect it.
Back in 2013, the Spafinder Wellness 264 Trends Forecast report singled out ‘mindfulness’ as the uber trend to watch for in the spa and salon industry. Fast forward to 2016, and the term is now referenced in everyday life. Mindfulness is even recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to prevent depression.
Professor Mark Williams, former director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, is quoted on the NHS website as saying that “an important part of mindfulness is reconnecting with our bodies and the sensations they experience. This means waking up to the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the present moment”.
Spas traditionally embrace and encourage the value of inner health leading to that outer glow, and it’s clear to see why mindfulness resonates with them in particular. It’s also interesting to observe the parallels with the natural beauty industry, especially when you take into account that the non-surgical cosmetics procedures market has grown by almost 500% over the last 20 years. While spas have traditionally been at the forefront of the clean beauty movement, they are also the integral lynch pin between the organic industry and other core markets, such as health and leisure.
When it comes to trend-spotting, the March issue of Natural Beauty News offered its fair share of insightful 2016 nuggets, including that of using food-grade ingredients in beauty products. Nowhere has this trend been more beautifully exemplified than on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, when Gwyneth Paltrow recently demonstrated that her new organic beauty range Goop is good enough to eat, by dipping a McDonald’s chip into a pot of cream. Now that’s what I call putting your mouth where your money is!
Julia Zaltzman is a freelance journalist and editor of Natural Beauty News.
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]]>Black Friday, Cyber Monday, even the January sales have started appearing before we’ve sung the New Year in. Loud price slashing has always been most retailers’ preferred way of engaging with consumers, and once our interest is piqued we’re further enticed with BOGOFs, three-for-two deals and any other money-saving offer that can be dreamed up. It’s a war zone where a war of attrition is being played out to the bitter end.
But just wait a minute. Let’s sit down, pour ourselves a herbal infusion and think this through properly. There’s only so far that we (retailers and shoppers alike) can go with eye-wateringly low prices before quality becomes compromised, questions get asked, both integrity and trust is lost, and we’re surrounded by irreparable collateral damage.
There has to be another way. And the empty shop floors during this year’s infamous Black Friday suggest weary shoppers are thinking along the same lines.
Last month The Independent published its ’10 best online beauty retailers’. It’s a giddy list of fashionable e-tailers purveying the best that beauty has to offer, and I was delighted to see that at number three and number eight respectively were our very own natural beauty trailblazers Being Content and LoveLula.
Rubbing shoulders with the likes of SpaceNK Apothecary, Look Fantastic and The Independent’s number one pick Get The Gloss, which was launched a year ago by two former beauty editors – Vogue’s Susannah Taylor and The Times’ Sarah Vine – it is yet again clear to me that organic beauty is very much at the top of its game, and shouldn’t be treated as a niche sub-category.
SpaceNK itself offers up no less than 144 beauty products when you search the term ‘organic’ on its website (I know because I counted them), and yet it is not considered a speciality store. More accurately it is a stylish emporium stocking what are deemed to be the world’s best beauty brands, whether they are organic or not.
And then it dawned on me. When sold online, natural beauty doesn’t have to compete with the minimalist designs of stores such as SpaceNK. The products speak for themselves, and the ratings naturally follow.
Out on the High Street, however, little independents are most definitely battling with the sleek Apple-like appeal that nowadays we shoppers readily associate with premium outlets stocking premium products. And it’s when we’re feeling frumpy in our plain old bricks and mortar and crowded out by the big boys that the knee-jerk price-slashing reaction tends to creep in. But stop. Don’t do it!
Independent natural beauty retailers, you may be small, but you are mighty. Our stake in the beauty retail sector is considerable enough to have all the large multiples wanting a piece of the organic action. The age-old mantra of quality over quantity has never rung more true. Organic beauty is no longer the future, it’s the here and now, and you independents are in effect the godfathers of that gold mine.
So this January stand tall and stand proud. Don’t slash your prices to compete with the national chains left floundering after Christmas. Instead cease-fire, hold the line, and stand by the brands and products on your shelves. There’s no need to compromise when what you’re offering is the nothing but the best.
Julia Zaltzman is a freelance writer and editor of Natural Beauty News.
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]]>In my July Beauty Buzz column Organic beauty retailing – the future is multi-channel I wrote about how high street fashion retailer H&M had become the latest store to relaunch its beauty collection, which included a subsidiary-conscious range of Ecocert-approved sustainable products. In celebration of this range, the forward-thinking retailer went one step further and threw open the doors of a pop-up beauty emporium in the heart of East London, which ran for the month
of October.
Now the first thought that struck me when I initially read about this initiative (apart from ‘I must rush down there and check it out for myself’ and the obvious ‘I hope the queues aren’t massive’) was ‘why does it feel the need to do that?’. As a multiple retailer of gargantuan proportions (it boasts 3,700 stores spread across 60
markets worldwide) it’s not going to be about exposure, nor does it have to make itself more accessible to the consumer.
The beauty treasure trove, based in the Old Truman Brewery on Dray Walk, stocks the brand’s full range of make-up, hair and beauty products. On top of that it has littered the pop-up with a host of friendly experts who are on hand to offer customers top tips, tricks of the trade and treatments.
And then it struck me. It can only be about one thing; H&M is investing in its long game. It wants to be taken seriously as a dedicated beauty destination, but taken seriously by one type of consumer in particular: the youth. A sort of Space NK meets Willy Wonka for the younger generation. A debutante’s first encounter with lipsticks and blushers, toners and masks, in a safe haven where the ‘coming of age’ can dive in head-first and explore. It achieved that within the world of fashion eons ago, so why not beauty? And why not organic beauty?
And this is where the natural beauty industry needs to jump on H&M’s bandwagon for once and maximize on the exposure. If H&M’s Ecocert range is going to be a consumer’s first foray into organic beauty (and let’s face it, for most tweens it will be), then it’s the responsibility of natural beauty retailers and brands to bridge that gap, and fast.
Don’t wait for curious youngsters to wander aimlessly into your store or naively stumble upon your products and decide to spend their well-earned cash on brands they’ve never heard of boasting logos that mean nothing to them. It’s time to pop-up and listen to what needs to be done. Leverage the power and spend of the multiples, and, for once, follow in their footsteps. Take your store and products to the shoppers.
Be it a stall at a festival or an in-store concession, pop-ups are a sure-fire way of reaching an altogether new type of consumer. We all know this already, but it’s the dormant consumer that matters. It’s the children of today who will be the shoppers of tomorrow. So introduce yourself early, host pop-ups in places where you’d be least expected, partner with each other to strengthen your message, and be sure to make a great impression.
Julia Zaltzman is a freelance writer and editor of The Natural Beauty Yearbook
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]]>As this latest installment of my Beauty Buzz column goes to press, we are putting away the chairs and closing the door on yet another hugely successful Round Table discussion hosted by the Natural Beauty Yearbook and Natural Products News magazine.
Held once again on the first day of Organic Beauty Week, a select group of retailers, distributors, PRs, brands and industry experts gathered under one roof to share views and opinions on the future of natural beauty.
When the clock struck 12 the room was abuzz with animated voices and excited chatter as new and familiar faces greeted and jointly Tweeted for the Soil Association’s Thunderclap midday announcement. In a bid to get the organic message out to as many consumers as possible, the charity stored up hundreds of Tweets citing this year’s theme, Campaign for Clarity, and released them in one job lot.
Jumping on the pumpkin wagon of this Cinderellaesque announcement was successful organic beauty blogger Ailish Lucas from The Glow Getter, who recorded an instant ‘periscope’ interview with her fellow Round Table panelist Emma Reinhold, trade relations manager at the Soil Association before sending it off into the ether to be viewed by her thousands of followers.
To say the event was a lesson in the art of social media is an understatement. More importantly, it illustrated the international reach that organic beauty could potentially leverage. It is no coincidence that ‘going global’ was the first debate topic of the day, which proved to be one that came full circle, concluding the morning’s discussions as well.
“Unfortunately I don’t think there is a global understanding at all, and I think there probably won’t ever be a correct or in-depth understanding – nobody is ever going to agree,” said Sonia White, owner of Amarya and LoveLula.com. “However, it would be great, and hence why we launched the Real Beauty Manifesto just so that we can at least get the basics right. Defining the term ‘natural’ would be a great first step.”
Helen Lewis, brand manager at Neal’s Yard, agreed that there remains a confusion among consumers on a global scale regarding the varying different terminologies: “We find that consumers understand the term ‘natural’ more than they do ‘organic’, and tend to trust the term ‘natural’ more as well.
“From an international perspective we are seeing the level of organic understanding growing, but there are differences. For instance, in Japan consumers are very hot on what is good for your skin, on healthy eating, and they’re leading the way in Asia; whereas in Korea, where we’ve just opened up, it’s all about cosmetic surgery. In order to get that organic message across you have to make sure that your products are effective. We have to show that organic isn’t just a fluffy word – it actually does something beneficial for your skin.”
Once again it all comes back to efficacy and brand transparency. It was agreed that getting the retail message right is also vitally important, particularly in light of the rise in online sales. But if ever there was a succinct way of reaching an international audience with one clear message then the Internet is just that.
The untapped potential for natural beauty is overwhelmingly large. Forming key partnerships, agreeing on a clear message, producing efficacious products and reaching a wider audience is the way forward. The ingredients are elementary, the question is, how long until we get there?
A full write up of the Round Table discussion will be available to read in the 2016 Natural Beauty Yearbook, published in November this year.
Julia Zaltzman is a freelance writer and editor of The Natural Beauty Yearbook
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]]>Keep it clear. Keep it transparent. And no, I’m not just referring to your well-cared-for complexion! That’s the mantra this September when the Soil Association embarks on yet another emboldened Organic Beauty Week, focused this year on the theme, Campaign for Clarity.
Running from 14-21 September the aim, as always, is to “raise awareness of the importance of certification in a very unregulated market,” says Emma Reinhold, trade relations manager at the Soil Association, “and why consumers should look for a certification symbol to ensure they are buying truly organic beauty products”.
Every year retailers, brands and campaigners alike join together to celebrate and promote the world of organic beauty. And this is achieved in a variety of ways, from pop-up shops to consumer-friendly discounts, from promotions to competitions and events. This year over 60 brands, from large stalwarts like Neal’s Yard to fledgling start-ups, and over 20 retailers, including independents, multiples and online stores will be singing the praises of all things organically beautiful, and engaging with shoppers in a variety of ways.
And that’s the hard part. Engaging with consumers who have heard it all before, but haven’t necessarily bought into the idea yet. For those of us who have been not only talking about it but living it for years, it can on occasion feel as though we’re repeating ourselves over and over again. But it is only with continued repetition that the message will eventually sink in and become the norm and greenwashing will finally be something that no longer washes with the general public. Until that realization occurs, certified organic is a mark for consumers to trust, and it’s this trust that gives momentum to things such as the Campaign for Clarity.
“We believe that organic is the future, and this year we’re going to campaign for brands to be better and for consumers to understand more,” says Reinhold. “It’s time to reclaim organic and stand up for the consumers who deserve to know what they’re buying.”
Seizing the power of social media, a number of hashtags have been set up to “educate and motivate” consumers over the week, such as #OrganicBeauty, #OrganicSeptember and of course #Campaign4Clarity. And in its bid for consumer creativity, the Soil Association hasn’t been afraid to diversify. The Hemsley sisters are introduced this year as the first ambassadors for Organic Beauty Week. Food lovers with a passion for wellness and delicious, nutrient-dense cooking, they are the perfect example of how buying into the organic beauty psyche is far bigger than using a certain type of moisturizer or lipstick.
For campaigns and movements such as Organic Beauty Week to work, it needs to be deemed as a conscious lifestyle change, not just a temporary novelty for one week every year. And independent retailers are the best vehicle for endorsing this. So while you’re encouraging your customers to spur on their as-yet-unconverted friends and family to approach their buying decisions differently this year, make sure you are the best ambassador for both your store and organic beauty as you can possibly be this September.
For more info on Organic Beauty Week, visit https://bit.ly/1MaZXeC.
Julia Zaltzman is a freelance writer and editor of The Natural Beauty Yearbook
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]]>It’s been more than six months since the team at the Natural Beauty Yearbook and Natural Products News magazine sat down around a round table with a handful of key industry figures and discussed the state of the natural and organic beauty market.
In what was a lively, topical and engaging debate, one of the main issues raised at the event was the need to communicate more clearly with both existing natural beauty consumers, and the wider general public, to get key messages both heard and understood. And it was felt that in order to do so the industry as a whole had to unite and come together as one, to sing off the same song sheet, so to speak.
We all agreed that high-end, efficacious, natural beauty products are now at the forefront of the industry, competing like for like (if not even better) with mass market brands on quality of ingredients, proven results and price point.
I couldn’t help but feel at the time, though, that once again we were all preaching to the converted, and wondered how the message would reach those who really need to hear it. Which is why I was so delighted when I heard the exciting news about the recent launch of the Real Beauty Manifesto (realbeautymanifesto.org).
Founded by Sonia White, managing director of leading online natural beauty retailer LoveLula, and partaker at last year’s Round Table, it’s aim is for the unification of natural and organic beauty brands “in support of a more holistic vision of honesty, integrity, community and sustainability,” says White.
A complementary manifesto
Far from competing with existing certifiers, the RBM logo complements the current standards and provides an immediate point of reference “informing customers that a product is made with decency and care and can be bought
with confidence”.
Over 20 companies (including the Soil Association) have already signed up to the campaign that White describes as “a tangible way for us to unite and move forward”.
A similar initiative – the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics – was launched in the US back in 2004 by Stacy Malkan. Set up as a consumer safety advocacy group uniting hundreds of non-profits and natural beauty companies for a safer beauty industry, the campaign helped prompt mass manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson to reformulate, and for the US Government to consider updating cosmetics legislation.
The persistent lack of a proper framework or point of legal reference for the UK’s natural beauty industry is a long-standing bugbear for retailers, brands and consumers alike. It breeds greenwashing, confuses shoppers and diminishes the hard work done by those who do actually produce products that tick all the right boxes. If the Real Beauty Manifesto could at the very least lend some weight to getting natural beauty standards recognized within European law, then that would be a long-awaited victory for us all.
So let’s make a concerted effort to unite on all fronts, and stand up to be counted. It’s about time our rather substantial voice was finally heard, don’t you think?
Julia Zaltzman is a freelance writer and editor of The Natural Beauty Yearbook
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]]>It has always been the No 1 rule of retail – know your customer. Learning buying patterns, understanding why they step foot in your store in the first place, and making sure you keep them interested by consistently introducing new product lines will be a big help to ensure customers keep coming back.
But the same applies to new consumers. What about the next generation of buyers who are yet to spend money with you or show any customer loyalty? What about the tween market who aren’t even that sure themselves what it is that they’re after?
Tapping into this sector is an intelligent way of winning new business, but it is one that requires a little delicacy too. According to research by Business Insider, “teens still rely on their parents for more than half of their spending money. That might explain why they’ve started to embrace some new ‘grown-up’ shopping habits – namely, organic eating and discount shopping”.
Forming healthy habits
Few parents, however, are going to welcome funding their teenager daughter’s newfound obsession for looking like a painted doll. But promoting it as an opportunity to start healthy beauty habits by swapping items on their wish list for inexpensive, chemical-free products in attractive packaging is appealing.
Pravera, distributor of natural make-up brand benecos, recently announced a partnership with English Netball in order to put benecos in front of a female audience across all age groups. Pravera’s managing director Graeme Hume says the aim of the brand was to “develop a high quality, reasonably priced natural make-up, nail polish and skincare brand that would also attract a younger audience and introduce them to the benefits of natural cosmetics”.
And there is a wide range of natural and organic beauty products that cater specifically for the tween market, such as Aequus, Amie and BM Beauty to name but a few. Happy teen plus happy mum equals double your number of regular shoppers.
The move towards functional
According to Roshida Khanom, senior personal care analyst at Mintel, organic eating and discount shopping aren’t the only adult shopping trends that the tween market is adopting.
In her report into Natural and Organic Toiletries 2014, she states that as beauty “moves away from free-from claims and moves towards more functional claims this is likely to make the category more appealing, particularly to younger people who want to know how a product will benefit them”.
2014 witnessed a definite decline in the amount of consumer interest in organic and natural certification (mainly due to a lack of clarity), but a huge rise in efficacy testing and results-driven products.
While the use of preservative/additive-free claims only made up 38% of new natural launches in the period January-October 2014, declining from 61% in 2013, anti-ageing claims rose by 45% in the same time period. “This offers opportunities for brands to be more competitive against regular beauty and personal care products, as well as to present functional benefits to the consumer which are more likely to resonate with a wider range of people,” adds Khanom.
So, if you haven’t yet settled on new product categories to stock for 2015, tween beauty might be a good place to start…
Julia Zaltzman is a freelance writer and editor of The Natural Beauty Yearbook
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