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The most innovative beauty brands for Europe

Thirty-three brands in all beauty segments from all over the world were competing at the European Beauty Innovation Awards 2012 in Paris during the Beyond Beauty Show from September 10th - 12th. This annual event that celebrated its 10^th anniversary this year, is known for gathering young brands based upon unique brand concepts.

The Awards have been organized for the third time, initiated by the trio Beyond Beauty Paris, Beauty Alliance Germany and Merk Vision & Partners.

"We put in place the European Beauty Innovation Awards to allow leading selective retailers to find their future exclusive brands for their markets and also to enable young innovative brands to present their concepts in front of a high-ranking jury of top professionals from leading European retailers," Michaela Merk, CEO of Merk Vision & Partners, expert consultancy for the cosmetics industry and organizing agency of the Awards.

The best among all participating brands got the unique chance of negotiating with these retailers from 5 key European markets:

Beauty Alliance Germany - Christian Lorenz, CEO - "We are very proud and honored to be here for the third time because we really feel that we can find some impressive brands, which are looking for a successful entrance to the German market"

Beauty Alliance Austria and Switzerland - Eva Mayer, Marketing Manager - "It is very interesting to discover innovative brands that could give new inputs for the Austrian and Swiss markets"

Limoni Italy - Richard Simonin - CEO - "Through the concept of the European Beauty Innovation Awards we have seen during the 3 days the diversity and the richness of the brands. We discovered excellent concepts, products, innovations, which could even give new directions for the business."

La Gardenia Italy - Fabio Pampani - CEO La Gardenia Beauty spa - « "The future of cosmetics is innovation. We participated at the European Beauty Innovation Awards to identify innovations of tomorrow. Since so many countries participated from all continents, we could see what innovation means in the US, Asia and Europe."

Beauty Success France - Philippe Georges, CEO Beauty Success - "As we are a network of independent entrepreneurs, I really enjoyed discovering all those new cosmetic companies, new creative projects and having the possibility of exchanging with the finalists."

Very influential European journalists were also attending the final evaluation to discover the 6 finalists.

Maryline le Theuf, Deputy Editor Cosmétique Mag - "I have been pretty impressed by the level of the finalist brands. We discovered very creative, innovative and even crazy brands from various categories, which give a new breath to this very competitive cosmetics market and I truly hope that they will find a retailer."

Oonagh Philips, Editor-in-Chief of BW Confidential - " The concept of the European Beauty Innovation Awards is a great concept. It gives upcoming brands with an original concept a chance to enter different markets in Europe which is not easy in today's market place. This price has a real value, it's not just a certificate or a trophy it's something with a real price that can help these brands at the end of the day."

Susanne Stoll, Editor-in Chief of Inside Beauty Germany - "It was very interesting to meet with the teams that have developed these brands with greatest passion. With their participation they have truly identified the unique chance of presenting their concepts in front of a jury coming from 5 influential countries."

Out of the 33 brands 8 obtained the possibility of negotiating with at least one retailer that will be their starting point for their European expansion:

Eutopie,- a highly elegant, luxurious fragrance concept inviting to an olfactive journey around the world from east to west. This brand excelled and won the highest votes from the jury.
Gazelli Azarbaijan - a skincare brand inspired by the mysterious culture of Azerbaijan
De Vobis - a high tech fragrance incorporating digital technology
Absolution - a modern skincare brand in graphic design based upon tailor-made textures
Kaliom - skincare inspired by Aromatherapy and Ayurveda rituals
Algenist - skincare based upon biotechnological research
Britanie - a body care line incorporating all virtues of the ocean in Britany
Dahlia Naturals - natural skincare based upon healthy fruits and vegetables

Following the European Beauty Innovation Awards, every brand will benefit from concrete feedback about their strengths, weaknesses and will obtain recommendations for future strategies, which is the most precious information a young brand can get at this stage of development.

Laure Broisin, Vice President of International Algenist "We were finalist last year and we decided to take the comments that we got from the jury last year. We worked on everything to meet their exceptions and to represent our brand this year and this was a good thing to do as we delivered something even better and we were able to win negotiations this year."

The strong business sense of the Awards could also observed the day after the announcement of the winning brands: No time to lose - The retailers met with their chosen brands in order to start the negotiations.

Elodie Pollet, brand Eutopie and Winning brand of the European Beauty Innovation Awards 2012 - "I'm really happy, excited and proud to be here tonight, it was a tough competition between 33 participants. Today I won the right to enter into negotiation with Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italia which is of course a huge opportunity for Eutopie as a young brand."

Jamila Askarova, Gazelli Azerbaijan - "To me the benefit of this award was really to present the brand, share the brand, show our products in one room to very influential people. It was a unique opportunity that you cannot get anywhere else, it was absolutely incredible. I hope this will take us to a completely different level, it is very important for the brand, we are very thankful."

Christian Lorenz

General Manager

Beauty Alliance

Michaela Merk

CEO and Founder

Merk Vision & Partners

David Bondi

CEO

ITEC France