2008 beauty trend prediction: trust in the ingredients

2007 may be chalked up as another chapter in the loss of innocence for Americans as we learned we were selling, gifting and providing poisonous toys to children.

To add insult to injury, we just got news that dangerous ingredients infect all types of products:

Investigators have seized brake pads made of kitty litter, sawdust, and dried grass; power strips, extension cords, and smoke alarms with phony Underwriters Laboratories (UL) marks; medical test kits that give faulty readings; toothpaste made with a chemical found in antifreeze; and cell-phone batteries that could explode.

Let's hope that findings like these give a spa director or medispa owner a moment of pause before starting a private label skin care product line or placing a purchase for discounted Botox. 

My prediction for the beauty industry is that these stories will begin to affect the way consumers buy beauty products and cosmetic treatments.  2008 will be the year in which trust in what's inside a beauty product begins to matter just as much as other attributes like brand, packaging, and formulation. 

Surely packaging shall remain a critical way to capture a consumer's attention (better put: to spark emotion and fuel a connection).  And label reading will continue to rise even if they're less trustworthy (and are hopelessly confusing).  Why less trusted? Witness the introduction of Made in Hong Kong.

But trust in ingredients is on the way to becoming a new quality measure for beauty consumers just like the paint on Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway began to mean something to us starting this past June.

Those standing to benefit from this new trend are trusted retail outlets and purveyors of natural products like Wholefoods, well-established brands like Olay, and providers such as green spas. 

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