Cosmoprof North America, the only all-encompassing, award winning, business-to-business beauty event in North America and the ultimate meeting point for beauty professionals, industry insiders and the most innovative brands in the world is proud to announce once again it exceeded projections and maintained its unique position as the largest and most expansive B2B beauty event in North America. The exhibition, which took place at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, in Las Vegas, on July 29th-31st brought together retailers, distributors, beauty brands and suppliers, from across the globe. For three days, participants fully immersed themselves in all things beauty and walked away with unparalleled business building tools and connections.

Held annually in Las Vegas, 40,000 attendees, (up 9% from 2017) engaged with record breaking 1,415 exhibitors (up 10% from 2017), representing 56 countries (up from 45 in 2017) and were able to see and experience several new programs, special areas and unique opportunities to engage in. The show floor space covered 311,150 sqf (29,520 sqm) of space with an increase of 8% compared to the previous year.

Staying true to its mission of providing unmatched brand-building resources necessary to creating healthy indie companies the event delivers unparalleled opportunities – from domestic and international business development, to providing insights and inspiration through education, to delivering connection to social media influencers, trade and consumer media and ultimately to allowing networking with the industry’s elite movers and shakers.

Understanding that packaging is a huge part of a beauty brand’s success, CPNA brought back the highly successful Discover Pack program, where innovative suppliers covering various facets of the supply chain were featured; these companies enjoyed a distinctive design and dedicated marketing along with guaranteed meetings from leading companies such as Estee Lauder Companies, L’Oreal, American Eagle and many more. To provide inspiration and recognize true creativity in packaging and contract manufacturing, Cosmoprof North America hosted Beauty Innovation and Design Awards (BIDA) with a total of 10 prizes given out to various companies including HCT Packaging and Express Tubes. Several sold out educational sessions were also dedicated to packaging trends and analysis. Cosmopack North America will be launched at the show in 2019 to expand the quality and scope of the packaging, contract manufacturers, private label companies, machinery and equipment providers and raw materials suppliers featured.

New at Cosmoprof North America 2018

New this year, both exhibitors and attendees had the tremendous opportunity to gain valuable insight from leading industry executives as part of the Ask the Expert series. Taking place on the floor for one hour each day, pre-selected industry experts were on hand to answer pressing questions related to merchandising, product stability and claims, exporting, SEO and much more. Attendees who were looking for a deeper subject dive experienced another impressive conference lineup which included speakers from Pinterest, Facebook, Barnes & Noble®, AVEDA, Nordstrom, and IPSY to name a few. The Entrepreneur Academy made its return, offering a day long series of workshops, not offered by any other industry event or trade show, focused on everything one needs to know to run a beauty business.

Those looking to accelerate their businesses were offered several new initiatives created to help brands scale up. Beauty Pitch: Angels, is one such program that kicked off this year to allow small to medium sized companies a chance to meet face-to-face with leading angel investors and secure potential funding. London-based accelerator and incubator Founders Factory, had a dedicated lounge in the Interactive Technology Area where attendees could stop by to apply for the program or speak to a representative to learn more. The area featured Founders Factory program graduates as well as several other notable technology solutions from leading companies like Perfect Co. Known for its award winning YouCam AR app, Perfect Co. was showcasing at the show a new feature which connects users to beauty advisors to get information, application tips and product demos.

The TV shopping platform is of particular interest to indie companies and as such there were several activations including live auditions on the show floor in front of key merchants from domestic channels (EVINE, HSN & QVC) and international channels (HSE24 Italy / Germany, QVC Global and TVSN Australia). Attendees and exhibitors alike also had a new opportunity to practice their live selling pitch with an actual on-air beauty host from QVC and HSN as part of ‘The Beauty of the Sell’ program. Qurate had a huge on-floor presence so all attendees could stop by to learn about doing business and meet buyers; part of a long standing collaboration with QVC a segment branded “Discovered At Cosmoprof” will air Q1 2019.

Online beauty influencers

Igniting the power of online beauty influencers, CPNA increased the span of its popular influencer programs and recruited 6 highly connected beauty influencers to engage with exhibitor brands through innovative programs and discovery on the show floor. This unique opportunity resulted in 164 Instagram posts for an estimated 1,283,500 impressions. CPNA also created original content through its own social sites resulting in 290 Instagram timeline / story and Facebook posts with over 500,000 impressions.

Press registration once again exceeded projections this year resulting in expansive coverage for Cosmoprof North America trends, exhibitors and attendees online, in print and on social media. To create value and PR opportunities inside BeautE Zone, 5 large online publications [AS/IS, BYRDIE, BUZZFEED, FASHIONISTA & RACKED] were represented by editors. Making its debut was a special collaboration with Sinclair Broadcasting Group who was setup in a designated space near the registration area with crews shooting on the show floor to provide content to over 150 local news stations.

Furthering in its mission to inspire, the event remains THE place where entrepreneurs can have access to top knowledge resources like Colombia School of Business, L’Oreal, HINT Water and research companies like Euromonitor, Mintel, Kline & CO, Tribe Dynamics and Material Connexion. Coupled with insights from coveted retailers (like Qurate Group, Nordstrom, Barnes & Noble, Credo), trend forecasting from international firms like Nelly Rodi and Riviter and leaders sharing business tips across the beauty spectrum, the 3-day event offered endless business building tools within the 39 unique sessions that involved close to 4,000 attendees.

Another distinguishing aspect of the show are the highly curated areas that are trend directional allowing buyers to quickly get a pulse on what is up-and-coming across different categories. Making up 15% of the show, the special areas returned including the flagship DISCOVER BEAUTY, DISCOVER BEAUTY SPOTLIGHTS and DISCOVER SCENT for specialty retail along with TONES OF BEAUTY for multi-cultural beauty and DISCOVER GREEN for organic beauty. Unique to the show are the curated sections where key buyers participate in timed face to face meetings with selected companies; for DISCOVER BEAUTY retailers included Bloomingdales, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Space NK, Barneys New York and Neiman Marcus; in DISCOVER GREEN LEAF green beauty brands met with key specialty retailers and chain spas focused on organic beauty such as Pharmaca, Follain, The Detox Market and Shangri-La Resorts, along with DISCOVER BEAUTY PRO where selected companies met with key national distributors like ULTA, JC Penney and The Sally Beauty Companies.

To provide small cool indies the opportunity to partake in the international exhibition in a relevant way CPNA introduced THE BEAUTY VANITIES. The section was brand new this year, and the 24 handpicked companies benefited from key placement in the main aisles along with dedicated marketing; unique resources featured included patented applicators, ingestibles, skin and body care products and on the go solutions.

Opportunities to meet with key buyers

Exhibitors outside of special areas were not left without opportunities to meet with key buyers on their own. International buyers like Rexall, Hudson Bay (Canada) and AMINCO Group Uruguay came as part of the International Buyer Program which is open to all exhibitors. Specifically to aid international exhibitors, the Domestic Buyer Program included buyers from leading retailers like Massage Envy and Sam’s Club and key regional professional distributors like Life of Riley. Before and throughout the event, all participants also had access to the free 1to1BeautyMatchmaking.com, a portal which allows attendees to connect directly with exhibitors of interest seamlessly online.

In addition to ample learning and quality exhibitions, CPNA offered several additional unique programs including BOUTIQUE where attendees could experience a one-of-a-kind sample bar featuring 20 products in exchange of a small donation that will go to PBA FOUNDATION charities. GLAMOUR ME, on-site beauty studio was open throughout the event to provide first-hand experience with products from featured exhibitors. The INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY area offered attendees novel digital business solutions so they can walk away with actionable information to increase profitability and visibility for digital marketing efforts.

CPNA also hosts PBA Beauty Week which included PBA Business Forum and the coveted North American Hairstyling Award (NAHA) where winners were recognized during a star-studded awards ceremony.

The next Cosmoprof North America edition will be held July 28 to 30, 2019. To continue and discover more products part of this year’s edition be sure to follow CPNA REVIEWS 2018 series on YouTube and view brief video presentations featuring select exhibitors who will demo their product. Social channels Instagram & Twitter (cosmprofna), and Facebook will also have ongoing updates with products that were featured at the past edition.