‘Mixologiste’ Trend Shaping Beauty and Beyond

Here’s a new word to add to your vocab list: mixologiste. Mintel Beauty & Personal Care (BPC) says it is a key trend set to impact global beauty consumers this year.

Mixologiste, defined by Mintel as blurred lines between beauty technology, is becoming increasingly common, with overlaps between skin care, hair care and color cosmetics. Combining the most exciting technology and marketing from more than one category, manufacturers are creating new combinations with new products, packaging, marketing and merchandise.

“Mixologiste is fast becoming the stand-out trend that spans all beauty and personal care categories,” noted Jane Henderson, global president of Mintel’s Beauty & Personal Care division.

 “This is a key megatrend, in development for the past year or so, but we are set to see it really accelerate in 2014. While manufacturers have worked with multifunctionality for a number of years, we are now seeing them take inspiration from completely different categories to create new products and marketing messages. The huge success of BB creams has led manufacturers to think about how they can build on their existing portfolios and add excitement to sometimes saturated sectors. New combinations will continue to evolve, resulting in new products, packaging, marketing and merchandising. This will add a new sense of excitement to the market and will drive innovation in the year ahead.”

Hybrids are now popping up outside the beauty category, according to Henderson.

“Recently we have seen food and drink catching up with beauty,” she said. “First there were BB creams and then there were cronuts. Of course we saw this trend several decades ago with 2-in-1 shampoos, but these new hybrid products are becoming more ambitious and exciting. The success of hybrids such as BB creams has inspired manufacturers to explore different ways in which they can bring categories together to create something exciting for consumers. Instead of cannibalizing sales, these products are acting as ‘add on’ products and not simply replacement products.

And Mintel contends it’s not just multi-use products set to impact the future, but also complementary categories.

 “New technology will offer even more exciting hybrid products going forward, innovation will come not only from beauty but from complementary categories such as textiles, devices, sensors, 3D and 4D printing, food and drink and automotive. Of particular interest are new delivery systems and packaging, both of which will see significant advances. These will impact most beauty categories, but the sharpest focus will be on skin care, hair care and fragrance,” noted Vivienne Rudd, director of insight, beauty and personal care at Mintel.

More info: www.mintel.com beauty-personal-care