TRENDS IN COSMETICS
“Happy” cosmetics sound like a precursor to what is being called “mood beauty,” which is one of the overarching worldwide beauty trends that forecaster Mintel International Group predicts for this year. That and other Mintel-projected trends are detailed below.
Mood Beauty
These beauty products claim to induce a more positive mood or help you sleep better by acting on your neurotransmitters. As Taya Tomasello, Mintel’s director of beauty innovation for the Americas, explains it, “This new concept of mood beauty takes us beyond the ‘happy’ messaging and traditional aromatherapy” by using technological advances to improve product formulas so that they “really act on consumers’ moods and senses.”
Tomasello says that the Linda Papadopoulos Psy-Derma Enlightenment Day Moisturizing Treatment (available in England), created by a clinical psychologist, was first in the neurotransmitter category. The claim is that idebenone, a synthetic compound closely related to the coenzyme Q10, has the ability to increase nerve growth and boost production of neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine, creating a feeling of well-being and stress reduction.
Tomasello says there is also a trend toward what she calls “beauty ingestibles or ‘nutricosmetics’ ” -- food supplements, beverages or nutrition bars that some claim have beauty and mood-boosting benefits.
Nu Natural
These products combine organic and sustainable ingredients with synthetics, such as hyaluronic acid and peptides.
An example is Sjal Kashmir Saphir Perfecting Mask ($150, www. sjalskincare.com) created by the mother-daughter team of Karen and Kristin Petrovich to merge their studies of Eastern and alternative medicines with Western biotechnology. The mask is a combination of Chinese herbs, silk proteins, blue lotus, gold, silver, platinum, biochemical tissue salts, blue sapphire, ginger, sugar beets copper peptide and GABA amino acid.
Pro-Tech’t
There have been products with SPF to protect against the sun’s ultraviolet rays for decades. In this next evolution we’ll see products that protect the body against an army of would-be enemies including extreme weather, pollution, ozone, technology, smoking, heavy metals, artificial light and even your hormones. For instance, Arcona says its Desert Mist Protect AM ($32, www.arcona.com) forms a protective barrier that defends skin from free radicals, pollution and weather. Clarins’ UV Plus Day Screen High Protection ($42, www.clarins.com) claims to fight city pollution as well as the sun’s rays.
Turbo Beauty 4G
This category includes home kits with medical- or pharmaceutical-grade ingredients marketed as an alternative to cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic science continues to capitalize on advances in biochemistry, medicine and the use of next-generation nanotechnology. For instance, Swiss Line by Dermlab’s Cell Shock Age Intelligence Cellular Recovery Complex ($248, www.swissline-cosmetics .com) uses a medical-grade oxygen carrier that they say mimics the breathing of cells.
