With cosmetics’ consumers constantly on the lookout for new products, speed-to-market has become critical for brands that want to appease their present fans—and draw additional ones, especially among the Millennial crowd. And as always, industry suppliers have pulled out all the stops in offering timely solutions to meet these goals.

At this past summer’s market-indicative trade shows—MakeUp in Paris and Cosmoprof NA (see reviews in this issue)—Beauty Packaging took note of a number of trends in this fast-moving direction, from suppliers touting newly launched full-service offerings, to exhibitors expanding their portfolios with expansive stock color cosmetics packaging components, all to keep up with demands in the rapidfire makeup category and to produce matching full “families” quickly and efficiently with one-stop shopping.

Combining speed with innovation is now the industry’s mantra. At Beauty Packaging’s panel on Whimsical Packaging at CPNA, Natalie Mackey, CEO of Glow Concept, which owns the two-year-old Winky Lux, spoke about the brand’s “covetable” formulations and innovative packaging, including lip pills, ice-cream-adorned lipstick tubes and the eye-popping Flower Balm lip balm.

Mackey addressed “the importance of creating visual magic when selling to a Gen Z customer.” She said: “The new customer is impatient and overstimulated, and highly passionate about beauty. At Glow Concept, we focus on using packaging to tell stories and convey magic all in a format that the customer can see in under two seconds.” What’s more, Mackey said they are able to go from concept to consumer in 45 days! Clearly, Winky Lux is on a winning path: In August, the brand known for offering “luxury experiences at an approachable price,” announced that it had raised $2 million in seed funding.

Online sales are strong at WinkyLux.com, but the brand is also sold in more than 1,000 global retail locations and will be an anchor offering in the “Riley Rose” beauty concept store created by Forever 21.
The omni-channel approach continues to be key to success, as noted in Kline’s report, Beauty Retailing USA. Naira Aslanian, the study’s project manager, noted: “While traditional department stores experience declining traffic and store closures, brick-and-mortar is not a dying breed, but a rising phenomenon of specialty retailers and vertically integrated stores that set trends, provide open-sell environments, offer solution-based approaches in digital formats, and enhance the overall consumer experience.”

In this fast-paced beauty world, stay tuned to Beauty Packaging and BeautyPackaging.com for the latest developments. Subscribe today!