The five biggest trends at in-cosmetics Latin America 2019

Last week the Cosmetics Design team attended the in-cosmetics Latin America event, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Brazil is by far the biggest consumer market in the region, so it is not surprising that it is a hub innovation and new industry trends.

This year was the sixth annual in-cosmetics in the country, once again offering a window in on what consumers are looking for and, by default, what is making the industry tick.

Although many of the countries in the region continue to be economically volatile, over the past decade much of the region has also experienced a great deal of progress and growth.

In countries like Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Chile, this is manifested itself in the number of middle class consumers swelling, as well as big rise in the number of women who are in employment.

What this has translated into is a growing consumer market wanting to experiment with more sophisticated, safer, more natural and more sustainable products, which in turn has led to an explosion of brands and extensions to some of the bigger more established brands.

In this article we look at the biggest trends to impact the in-cosmetics Latin America event. They are all trends that have been seen in other leading global markets, but this region is still in the earlier stages of development compared to markets such as a Europe and North America, but there are still plenty of unique specifics.

Personalization​

The personalization trend was being discussed by many of the big players on their stands, demonstrating both the way the consumer beauty market is expanding and the fact that Latin America has such a racially diverse population with very diverse beauty needs.

One example of this was the Givaudan booth, where this active ingredients specialist was demonstrating its expertise in actives for hair care by making up hair conditioning bottles that were tailored to individual needs using a variety of different active ingredients form the company’s portfolio.

Brazilian natural ingredients provider was also demonstrating a range of butters for hair care based on its Amazon sourced raw materials, providing an insight into both the different needs of Latin hair types, as well as the vast range of natural ingredients the country has on offer.

Sustainability​

This is very much a global trend and it has taken the entire industry by storm over the past couple of years, as fears of climate change, dwindling natural resources and pollution prey on the minds of consumers more and more.

Evidence of natural ingredients players implementing more sustainable and ethical practices have long been upheld by Beraca, which continues to work with local communities in the Amazon and other regions of Brazil to ensure that its ingredients hit both of these notes.

There were also several presentations that touched on the topic of sustainability as part of the educational program at the event, including a talk by Maria Valeria Robles Velasco of the University of Sao Paulo, about how biodiversity can be bused to favor photoprotection.

Likewise, a well attended presentation was given by L’Oreal Brasil’s Fabiana Munhoz, who detailed the company’s approach to sustainable innovation, which has continued to have an emphasis on the sourcing of sustainable ingredients.

Indie beauty​

It is still relatively early days for the indie beauty industry in Latin America as a whole, but in Brazil in particular, market conditions have led to a spike in the number of homegrown brands being launched in the past couple of years.

Part of this is down to government policies, which tend to protect home-grown businesses and places tariffs on international businesses.

In recent years a number of international beauty brands, including Lush and Khiels, have pulled out of the market in the space of the last year.

On the formulation side this means that Latin American ingredients companies are slowly having to adapt to the different formulation requirements of smaller brands, including lower batch volumes, something that Juliana Bondanca of Kline discussed in her marketing trends presentation giving insights into the indie brand trend in Brazil.  

Hair care​

This continues to be the leading category in the Latin American region as a whole, a phenomenon that was reflected in the huge range of hair care ingredients being platformed and launched by different players during the event.

In the show’s Latin America spotlight areas, several concepts were highlighted specifically for hair care, including Chemyunion’s Sunsoveil Soft, a formulation designed to protect the hair.

Likewise, the innovation zone highlighted a number of new ingredients targeting different hair care needs, including Clariant’s Genadvance Life, an ingredient that is marketed as a conditioning and protecting agent, something that many Latin American consumers are actively seeking from their hair care regimes.

The educational program also highlighted the hair care trend, with a packed marketing trends conference given by Euromonitor International’s Morimitsu, which highlighted on the various trends and opportunities in this category throughout the region.

Sun care​

The trend for sun care also made a big mark at the event, with both a number of educational programs as well as ingredient launches that were targeting the growth potential in this category in the region.

Indeed, the marketing trends conference featured a whole afternoon track devoted to sun care, which included a presentation given by Arthur Joao Gradim, of AVISA Technical Services, who discussed the harmonized search for sun protection, as well as a presentation titled Sun Protection and Skin Health, given by Denise Steiner of Clinica Denise Steiner.

Meanwhile, a significant number of sunscreen ingredient launches included Gattefosse’s Emulium Illustro, a sun protection ingredient designed for a range of categories including skin care and color cosmetics, together with Agen from Chemyunion, another sun protection ingredient designed to boost protection using naturally derived botanical extracts.