Polish Union of the Cosmetics Industry Celebrates 20 Years In Business

On Sept. 5, the Polish Union of the Cosmetics Industry invited over 270 guests from cosmetic companies, state and European Union (EU) institutions, and partners to an event held in Józefów near Warsaw to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the largest cosmetic organization in Poland. 

 

The jubilee was opened by President Wanda Stypułkowska and organization founder Henryk Orfinger. It was his and the dreams of 14 other companies that made it possible to establish the Polish Union of the Cosmetics Industry at the turn of the 21st Century. The organization continues to develop and strengthen its position with the addition of new companies. It is the diverse and synergistic community that the organization claims its greatest strength, as emphasized by MEP Elżbieta Łukacijewska in a recording addressed specifically to conference participants. 
 

According to Director General Blanka Chmurzyńska-Brown, the organization currently has over 240 member companies.
 

“At the beginning of our journey, we worked on one legal act. Today we are working simultaneously on about a hundred documents, strategies and policies,” he said. “Only together are we able to ensure that the cosmetics industry gains as much as possible from them.”

In the first panel, the moderator and invited guests assessed how the sector has evolved over the last 20 years. Much time was devoted to discussing the challenges that companies faced in the beginning. Małgorzata Wenerska-Craps, minister counsellor and head of the economics and trade section at the permanent representation of the Republic of Poland to the European Union, emphasized, however, that diplomats would strive in Brussels to ensure that new legislation for the cosmetics industry would not be unreasonable.
 

According to the union, the draft revision of the cosmetics regulation is published by the end of 2022, will place enormous pressure in the EU institutions to complete the work during this term, spelling little time for negotiations. All participating companies declared readiness to act.
 

Essentiality of cosmetics dominated the second panel, which appeared in the public debate thanks to the European Commission and raises much controversy in the industry. The advantage of this portion of the meeting was the opportunity to put a direct question to the representative of the Commission, Hans Ingels from the General Directorate and Unit F2. Both the panelists and the conference participants took advantage. The Director General of Cosmetics Europe, John Chave, also took an important role in the discussion, presenting the results of a pan-European survey on the perception of cosmetics by consumers in everyday life. 
 

MEP Janina Ochojska spoke about the essentiality from the perspective of providing humanitarian aid while Professor Marcin Napiórkowski, a cultural semiotician, spoke about understanding the topic of security and essentiality. Agnieszka Gościniewicz, a beneficiary of the Beautiful Life Foundation, an oncological patient, recalled the perspective of women struggling with cancer, assessing the essentiality of cosmetics from this very different, emotional perspective. It moved everyone by making them aware of the importance of cosmetics, restoring a sense of dignity and femininity, and giving patients the strength to fight the disease.
 

The final topic was devoted to transparency in running a cosmetics business. This section opened with a recording prepared especially for the conference participants by MEP Róża Gräfin von Thun und Hohenstein and Andrew McDougall, director of the beauty and personal care department at Mintel— the conference’s exclusive partner. 
 

McDougall talked about changes in consumer behavior, perception of beauty, and assessments of entrepreneurs' actions over the past two decades, as well as current and future beauty trends, which are ever-evolving due to social media. 
 

In regards to global warming, over the next few years, Mintel expects consumers to pressure companies to be more effective on issues such as climate change, while achieving simultaneous clear and tangible indicators of ethics and sustainability. This topic was also discussed by Marta Marczak, a branding expert advising companies on the processes of change, as well as speakers like Małgorzata Cieloch, spokeswoman for the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, heads of small and large cosmetic companies, and Agnieszka Plencler, President of the Consumer Forum. All agreed that successive EU directives do not guarantee success without the consumers and their conscious choices, which help shape real change.
 

Given that September 5 was International Day of Charity, the guests of the Polish Union of the Cosmetics Industry who attended the conference and evening gala participated in the fundraiser for the Beautiful Life Foundation – the Polish edition of the Look Good, Feel Better project, which celebrated its 15th anniversary last year.