Inventing Indie Beauty

Inventing Indie Beauty

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Thinking outside the box can be difficult, especially for product development professionals who live, and breath, and work inside the box—which is perhaps why indie beauty brands are so often credited as disruptive and innovative engines in the cosmetics, personal care, and fragrance world.

At the recent Indie Beauty Expo in New York City, these 4 inventions were on exhibit (alongside featured products from some 200+ other brands vying for the attention of media, consumers, and retail beauty buyers).

Lilu Lipcare​

This brand made its official debut at IBE NY 2018. Meg Meranus, the founder and designer behind Lilu Lipcare has developed what she calls Liliu Lip Balm Pearls—tiny lip care sticks packed in cleverly functional and recyclable plastic pods. The pearls fit neatly into jewelry and accessories so that the product is always close at hand.

“After all,” ​Meranus tells Cosmetics Design, “you can’t use your lip care if it isn’t with you.”​

Yubi Beauty​

The makeup tool brand created by Adiya Dixon Wiggins also launched at last month’s IBE event here in New York City. Dixon Wiggins has developed a fingertip device that neatly holds either a brush or a sponge for applying color cosmetics.

Yubi Beauty tools went through a long process between Dixon Wiggins’ hand-made prototypes, industrial design trials, and finally new tooling for mass production and manufacturing at scale.

Dixon Wiggins tells Cosmetics Design that the applicators work well for not only color products but for skin care and sun care as well. And she suggested that there are already plans to expand the brand (brush cleaning products and gift sets are likely to come next).

Alkaglam​

What Michelle Vidal has invented with the Alkaglam mineral facial spray​ is truly remarkable.

Speaking about innovation in the beauty industry at this week’s ADF&PCD event in New York City, Stowaway cosmetics brand president Kristen Perry said that, “smart women want smart solutions.” ​And while she was firstly referring to her own brand’s mini-sized makeup products; her sentiment applies just as readily to Vidal’s invention.

The Alkaglma mineral facial spray in a filtration system in bottle. Consumers add their own filtered water and compressed vitamin and mineral beads diffuse nutrients into the water that is then misted on to the face (and body). Alkaglam spray bottles can be refilled and used for up to one year before the beads dissolve entirely.

LBK Nails ​

Tony Kemeny, founder of LBK Nails, recently patented a new bottle top design that lets consumers test nail color in the store or salon without ever opening the product.

The new cap incorporates a polished nail tip that flips out from the bottle cap for testing and neatly folds back to a flush position so that product application is unaffected by the new design.

Lean more about his invention in this Cosmetics Design video interview with Kemeny​.