Dubai Beauty World Demonstrates the Latest in High Tech Health and Beauty

The much anticipated Beautyworld ME took place at the Dubai Convention Center 2 weeks ago. Touted as the second largest beauty tradeshow in the world, and the largest in the Middle East region, it did not disappoint.

A truly unprecedented and record-breaking success, the 22nd edition of Beautyworld Middle East delivered attractive opportunities, incredible insights, and a fascinating glimpse into the future of the beauty and wellness industry. The show welcomed over 42,000 visitors and featured over 1,570 exhibitors from 57 countries truly making it a global flagship event for beauty.

This year saw around 57 countries showcase their latest and greatest in beauty technology. Countries like Turkey had a whole section of the hall to showcase its brands and products. The USA had a presence one again with several brands making repeat appearances. I had the pleasure of sitting down one on one with various brands such as Ladyburd, Panrosa, Fliprazor and Keratincure and spoke to them about their experiences here at beautyworld ME.

The consensus seems to be that deals may be fewer but when they do happen, are larger. Having a booth here at the show is a Turnkey product and hence a more expensive investment, however it can pay off in the long run. Everyone I spoke to agreed that they have been busy meeting some fantastic leads, engaging with buyers from all around the world. But time will tell after the 3rd day what deals they were able to negotiate in the end.

This is a very different show than say Cosmoprof, in Hong Kong, Bologna and Las Vegas even. This is a highly lucurative market and a fairly open one so a solid brand can claim its fair share of the pie if it able to get its message across to its customers clearly.

Timing is a big factor here. Ramadan the holy month of fasting is less than a month away, so you may want to get your negotiations done before that as your middle eastern counterparts may be reluctant to talk business during Ramadan.

Peter Pan, CEO of Panrosa states,"We have been coming here for several years now and see the value of this region and this show in particular and it just makes good business sense to keep having a presence here at Beautyworld. I would highly recommend any US brand who feel their products are suitable for this market to attend the show. Sometimes it feels like there is a bit of down time and lack of traction but then suddenly you can get a big order or deal comes through".

One brand CEO, Kathy Saatsakis of Keratin Cure voiced out some of the deeper issues. She made a point that there is no government funding for any of the US brands present."The booths are expensive so these brands are only able to have booths that they can afford. As opposed to Europe and Middle East and some of the Asian regions too, where they are heavily supported and have these grand huge booths. This needs to change as a superpower as it may be, the USA does not have the flashiest presence at the show and this does affect customer traction in the end".

One may be surprised how open minded this market can be. Says Mohsin Mohamedy, managing director Studex, a premiere piercing brand from the US. We have had great success with the show and were pleased to know how liberal the market here is, for products including belly and nose piercing.

After speaking with the US Brands, I get the feeling it is a great opportunity in the end and it can be a great investment worth considering, trying to penetrate in o the growing ME region.

Apart from the US Brands, many international companies were making a splash with their sensational products.

I tried on several of these to find the most unique products of this year's show. Japanese brand Paninkret Japan has come up with a revolutionary new product; called the "BiosMist". This High-tech Nano Negative Ion Spray Beauty Machine is taking the Beauty world by storm.

The concept is to spray nano-sized lotion into the skin via ultrasonic technology. It is ultra- miniaturized to about 80 times smaller than the size of human pores so it moisturizes the skin very deeply and helps to attain its moisture. The design is sleek, uses LED technology and is one of its kind in the market. It is lightweight and easy to travel with and sure to be a big hit with consumers.

The brand also has a cutting edge face, hair and body mask called PEAT. This product uses Peat that comes from Finland and is the highest grade only found in the aquatic plants bred 5000 years ago at the bottom of lake Lehto-Suo. It is completely organic and contains a unique deposition decomposition which cannot be artificially produced anywhere else. It cleans the pores, moisturizes the skin, and provides gloss and elasticity to the skin. Its uses include not just moisturizing but also whitening, hair thinning prevention, pain relief and improvement against allergic skin.

There were other fabulous Glasgow based teeth whitening brand also made a splash providing on-site teeth whitening in only 15 minutes and German spa brands were at hand trying out their cutting edge spa treatment.

The celebrity headliner stylist, Guy Tang was welcomed with overwhelming excitement. He is a digital influencer and has inspired and touched the lives of so many young hairstylists as well as beauty lovers from this region. He was humbled by the welcome and really enjoying the experience of being in a city as unique as Dubai. "I like to look at the similarities we all share across the globe rather than our differences. We are all passionate, we love what we do and we love hair. I hope to come back very soon to this beautiful place again, hopefully with the launch of my color line, Mydentity".

To conclude Ed Connaghan of Olaplex International, one of the largest sponsors of the event and in charge of brining Guy tang to the show was very pleased with the turnout and success this year. We look forward to an even bigger and more prosperous year next year. So make sure you get your tickets booked for Dubai next year for this, not to miss Beautyworld ME 2018.