Beauty Store Business provides solutions for better retailing! New products, industry news, savvy business moves and important trends affecting both brick-and-mortar and online retailers are included in each issue.
Issue link: http://beautystorebusiness.epubxp.com/i/701052
78 August 2016 | beautystorebusiness.com THE SKINCARE CULTURE "For Korean women, their daily beauty regimen is as sacred as a daily visit to Soul Cycle is to many of us here in the U.S. Going to the gym is actually a perfect analogy—many Americans can relate to the satisfaction and efficacy of a rigorous workout regimen. K Beauty adheres to the same principles," Lee says. "In order to see maximum results, effort and work must be put in daily. And by this, American women are inspired and learning to approach skincare as taking care of oneself." It's no surprise that many skincare trends are coming out of Korea because it is an important part of the culture. "Innovative Korean beauty products are changing the American consumer's per- spective towards skin care. Skin care is deeply ingrained in Korean culture— many women consider it a means of demonstrating respect towards one's body. I grew up watching my mother use multiple products, delicately applying each and patting onto her skin as part of her daily morning and night routine. It's not an obsession with the youthful skin, rather the philosophy that if you respect your skin, it will respect you back and reward you with a radiant and healthy complexion your entire life," Lee says. NATURAL BEAUTY K Beauty is gaining so much recognition because Korean products are not only groundbreaking in how they are made but they are high quality, too. But, that doesn't mean you should make the assumption that all Korean products are natural. Padgett states that while many include "amazing ingredients, gorgeous oils and fine botani- cals," they often contain petrochemicals used as fillers, preservatives to make them last longer or fragrances that take the products out of the "natural" category. "If you took out two or three ingre- dients [from some Korean products], they would be natural—which is unlike American products where you'd have to take out 20 or 30 ingredients to have a couple botanicals left," Padgett says. "With many Korean products, they're almost natural, but if they could tweak one or two things, 90% of the skincare from Korean brands would be natural, inherently, because they use such quality ingredients." Today, the fastest growing category of makeup in the beauty world is organic products, expected to reach $16 billion by 2020. This booming industry's biggest market (when measured by country) is in the United States—so it's important for consumers and wholesalers to know the difference between "organic" and "natural." GOING GREEN "There's a macro element and there's a micro element," Padgett says. "The micro element looks at how [cosmetics] affect you and your health. The macro element is what cosmetics do to the environment." Padgett, a makeup artist, created a green beauty kit back in 2005, when it was harder to find natural and organic products. "'Natural' is not regulated, you cannot trust that word," she says. "You really need to know the brand and know your criteria for 'natural,' and your crite- ria for chemicals. For me, I don't need [the products I use] to necessarily be all natural, because a lot of things that people think are natural are not." Take tocopherol (vitamin E) or ascor- bic acid (vitamin C), for instance, which are made in a lab before added to skin- care products. Minerals and iron oxides are also not mined—and are therefore not technically organic. "Everyone has their own criteria of what is natural and what they will and won't allow in their ingredients," Padgett says. "For me, if there are one or two petrochemicals in a cosmetic, they have to rank low enough on the Environmental Working Group's scale for me to even consider using it." As a business owner or consumer, you have the ability to affect green beauty trends. "The biggest thing that will make the most change is by voting with your dollars and buying cleaner products," Padgett says. "Newer trends with advanced tech- nologies and creative concepts are being introduced from Korea to the U.S. mar- ket on a daily basis, and the market is responding and implementing them. American brands are adopting these Korean technologies for their own for- mulations and contributing to build these new categories," Lee says. "It's incred- ibly fulfilling to play a role in introducing the American market to this brand new yet already established world of Korean innovations." With large retailers like Sephora even joining in on the K Beauty craze, let's delve into the hottest trends to get that flawless face and sought-after glowing complexion. 1. BB, CC AND DD CREAMS From big brands like Jane Iredale to drug-store options like Maybelline jump- ing on the bandwagon, an endless slew of suppliers are now stocking their inven- tory with BB, CC and DD creams. It's a no-brainer to say that BB creams were the catalyst for the K Beauty movement in America, which led consumers to be curious about other Korean products too, Padgett says. BB creams, short for "beauty balm" or "blemish balm" creams, are tinted moisturizers with SPF and anti-aging properties that can sometimes act as a primer, moisturizer and foundation all rolled into one. CC creams, or "complex- ion corrector" creams, on the other hand, are similarly fortified with nutrients like BB creams, yet are more for color correcting. Paige Padgett, celebrity makeup artist and author Sarah Lee, co-founder of Glow Recipe "Skin care is deeply ingrained in Korean culture—many women consider it a means of demonstrating respect towards one's body." –Sarah Lee THE TOP 12 K BEAUTY TRENDS TO TRY Image of Paige Padgett courtesy of Paige Padgett; image of Sarah Lee courtesy of Glow Recipe