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Trendspotting, 2010: Welcoming Moody Beauty

moody girl

 

Get ready to bid adieu to the "austerity chic" that ruled the beauty industry in 2009, and say howdy to "moody beauty."

Market researcher Mintel has issued its beauty forecast for the year ahead, and says that mood beauty -- the intersection of psychology and well being with beauty products -- will see marketers go beyond their tired aromatherapy tricks, and wade right into women's neurotransmitters. Based on new products from niche brands, the Chicago-based market research firm predicts new-product launches that use texture, temperature, color and sound to manipulate mood.

Among the trendsetters so far are a night cream from Six, a French brand that promises better beauty sleep; Linda Papadopoulos Psy Derma Enlightenment Day Moisturizing Treatment, a British product that claims to increase serotonin and dopamine, the brain's leading feel-good hormones, and Kroia Chromotherapy Renewal Active Foaming Moisturizer, a tri-color product sold in the U.S. said to create a vibration of color wavelengths that "gently harmonize body and mind."

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Another trend the Chicago-based market researcher sees emerging is "Nu Natural" -- products that concern themselves less with whether they may or may not be organic, and more with how well they work.

Traits like authenticity, provenance and local production will take a back seat to products with milder claims (such as "free from" and "sustainable") to be combined with high-tech ingredients with a distinctly science-y sell: Popular ingredients will include peptides, hyaluronic acid, ceramides and collagen.

"Beauty manufacturers will further explore simple formulas, such as infusions and fluids, but they will formulate them with a new generation of phytochemicals, anthocyanins and fermented actives," the Mintel report predicts.

Examples include Shiseido Future Solution LK Daytime Cream, sold in Japan. Although the product contains Uji green tea from Kyoto and is scented with rose, plum and cherry blossoms, its main selling point is Skingencell 1P, an amino acid.

A third trend, it says, will be an amped-up form of protection -- providing even more ways to keep skin and hair safe not just from UV rays, but from all the elements, even boosting the immune system by doing so. Products will borrow marketing terms from technology ("firewalls, for instance) and packaging devices like concrete and neoprene.

It expects many of these products to rely on ingredients from extreme environments -- arctic, alpine and desert, for example -- to sell their concept of extreme protection. Clarins Replenishing Comfort Mask, for example, promises protection from hormonal changes; Hormeta ARL Stress Capture Anti-Free Radicals Essential Drops in the U.S. is a "strengthened protection serum" against three different forms of free radicals."

Finally, it's predicting a surge of Turbo Beauty products, playing heavily on advances in biochemistry for super high-tech beauty fixes. Look for more quasi-medical results and "mix-it-yourself" solutions, like at-home kits and cures that offer alternatives to cosmetic surgery and non-invasive procedures. Marketing will likely be sprinkled with terms like pharmaceutical grade and nanotechnology, and clinical testing verbiage will move from prestige to masstige brands.

Among the trendsetters: In the U.S., Swiss Line by Dermalab Cell Shock Age Intelligence Cellular Recovery Complex, which sells for $248, and plays up ingredients like immunosomes, and perfluorodecalin, a medical-grade oxygen carrier.

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