Cosmoprof Las Vegas 2023 and Latest Quarterly Trends and News

This was my 20th attendance at Cosmoprof North America. I was there at the Las Vegas Hilton when Bologna Fiere then called Sogecos merged with PBA ( They always had a Las Vegas-type Pro Beauty Show) Boy have I seen change since then. I actually worked as a consultant at the time with Laura Zaccagnini and Dr. Mauricio ( professor at the University of Bologna) were the founding management of the Bologna team. There were no seminars like today and a lot of disorganization yet even then the Italians with their 20 years prior experience managing Bologna pulled it off.

The show had better attendance than the last two during Covid. I would say about 10-15% more foot traffic. The Chinese were finally back and there was a continued emphasis on both Clean Beauty and minority start-ups. Cosmo Trends continues to be an interesting area to get new ideas and the1TO1BeautyMatchMaking is a great help to new brands. Beauty Education is an area that I brought to management when I helped 20 years ago and today it is the destination to learn about our industry and has something for everyone as beauty veterans talk about everything from launching a brand to supply chain management. There was even an Entrepreneur Academy.

As an OEM Manufacturer with Thai Ho Group, I am helping beauty brands and retailers. I am on the other side of the fence now helping create magic for the brand. Particularly in makeup, it's all about innovation and trends to entice customers to buy your brand. Although I was not in Bologna this year I can say that for our OEM stand we were very busy on day one, had 40% of the customers on day two and day three really no one except one or two came back. So having exhibited at Cosmoprof for over 20 years in Bologna, Las Vegas, and Hong Kong the first day is definitely make-it or break-it in Las Vegas, and Bologna normally has a solid second day. Same with Hong Kong. This is not only my perspective as an OEM manufacturer but I also experience this when I represented lots of brands there. I will say even with the 30 customers that visited our stand we are already working on quotes and business on many of them even after two weeks after the show.

My advice to Cosmoprof is to cut Las Vegas to two days it will suffice. The third day of sample trading among the stands does not add any value. It would save the manufacturers a lot of T&E expenses. The really good news is that the show is moving back to Mandalay Bay next year which makes it easier to access from the current Las Vegas Center which is a desolate three-block island in the desert with crazy access even from the Hilton hotels.

As a 43-year beauty veteran and still ticking I love the Beauty Vanities and Discover Beauty areas. Here is where the show helps budding brands present a small vision of their brand for a very reasonable cost. Kudos to Cosmoprof for always making space for entrepreneurs with only start-up funds. I always enjoy walking in these areas. In terms of who wins my award goes to Geske for making the most impact ( and Spending the most!) For stands I loved the Rude Cosmetics Stand for their licensing of Peanuts and Chupa Chups as the stand had strong visuals and what can I say I still watch Charlie Brown! So I can say without a reasonable doubt that Cosmoprof Las Vegas 2023 is getting better. They are adapting to change and always improving.

As I also use this space to write about trends I will discuss what I see as some major paradigm shifts in our industry as beauty, marketing, high tech, and private equity are slowly converging. About a month ago a new IPO was initiated but is was different than any other IPO. The company Oddity, already owned a number of beauty brands. What makes them different is besides owning a makeup brand and haircare brand in DTC they also bought a media content library and a computer vision company at the heart of the company is a new AI technology developed by a former Israeli defense official. The technology collects billions of data points from its millions of users.

What makes Oddity even more unique is its already impressive growth and profits already on the books! It was valued at 2.7 billion dollars fetching a 33 times multiple on its earnings which is more than legacy companies Estee Lauder and L'Oreal. The shift is not only this convergence between AI technology from the defense industry but the building of a new playbook for the beauty industry that leverages the old direct sales model used for over 100 years and creates a marketing powerhouse platform.