Beauty goes global
‘Inequality is written on the body.’ ‘If we want to be a global brand, we have no choice but to adapt our products to different cultures and skin types,’ says Dr Olivier Courtin-Clarins, one of the two...
View ArticleA face in the crowd: finding a niche
‘Our ambition is to be the Apple of the beauty industry.’ As Anita Roddick seemed to suggest in Chapter 11, red wine is good for you. It is the central pillar of the French Paradox – the familiar...
View ArticleBeauty from shelf to street
‘The service that the customer receives in-store is a massive part of the value proposition for our brands.’ It’s the height of the summer tourist season in Paris, and the giant Champs- Elysées branch...
View ArticleDigital beauty
‘Today’s big thing is tomorrow’s cautionary tale.’ The digital world evolves so rapidly that I had two meetings with the man who agreed to be my informant about what beauty brands were doing online....
View ArticleUnder the knife
‘Quackery was outlawed in medicine over a century ago, but it is in danger of returning in the cosmetic surgery industry.’ Of all the global beauty industry trends, the rise and acceptance of aesthetic...
View ArticleThe new male order
‘We have lived through the era of emancipation for women; now we’re witnessing the emancipation of men.’ If you’d lived in 19th-century Paris – and you’d been a gentleman of a certain substance – how...
View ArticleEthical, organic and sustainable
‘From an idealistic fringe notion into a mainstream concern.’ I first came across the Body Shop as a child, walking in the streets of Bath, appropriately enough, with my parents. I was attracted by the...
View ArticleThe needle artists
‘We’re tattooing doctors and lawyers.’ There didn’t seem to be much tattooing going on at The Smile, a hip coffee shop on Bond Street in Manhattan, where I’d heard you could get some skin art along...
View ArticleThe future of beauty
‘As human beings yearn to improve themselves, they will be attracted to solutions that give them an edge.’ The Beyond Beauty exhibition in Paris is a beauty bazaar. Or perhaps I should say a ‘beauty...
View ArticleThe consumer is not a moron – she is your wife
It would be easy to paint the beauty industry as an outright villain, trafficking unrealistic images of youth and perfection that have blighted the lives of millions of women – and not a few men too....
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