The screen as a mirror

Trastocó el mundo, y también la industria cosmética. La pandemia no solo ha afectado económicamente, ni solo para mal. Si el informe How covid-19 is changing the world of beauty (Cómo la covid-19 está cambiando el mundo de la belleza), de la consultora McKinsey, estimaba hace un año que el sector dejaría de ingresar unos 175.000 millones de dólares (149.000 millones de euros) —esto es: una caída de un 20% de facturación—, los resultados reales han sido menos negativos de lo que se presagiaba. En España, la Asociación Nacional de Cosmética y Perfumería (Stanpa) confirma por correo electrónico los datos definitivos. Tras cinco años de crecimiento ininterrumpido, la facturación cayó un 10% respecto a las cifras registradas en 2019. En total, los españoles gastaron 7.761 millones de euros durante el pasado año, lo que según cálculos de la organización supone 154 euros per capita.

This 2021, the forecasts improve significantly, although the health crisis and many measures and restrictions are maintained."Beauty is reactivated and consolidated an upward trend that makes a year closure in positive," says Stanpa Fuentes."It highlights the significant increase in the selective or luxury channel - which increases by 10% -.In addition, traditional categories grow again: perfumes increased 24.7% in the first quarter of this year;skin care products, 7.7%, and color cosmetics - to the exception of lipsticks - rises for the first time from the beginning of the pandemic, ”they explain.

These hopeful figures are, in part, to an increase in concern about the physical aspect, motivated precisely by one of the impositions of the health crisis, the teleworking.“Before, when you talked to the rest, you looked at them in the face.But with the video calls, we also saw ours.The dermatologist Ana Molina corroborates this theory: “There is no talk of anything else in congresses;Against all forecast, we have lived a patient rebound ”.

The facial care category recovers land thanks to that constant exposure to the mirror that are the screens.But another market niche, without still settled data, makes its way.When spending more time at home, people have wanted to create a more pleasant atmosphere.Or, as Raymond Cloosterman, CEO and founder of Rituals, says, turn the house into a home."In that sense, COVID has reinforced the popularity of our brand and its products, and is evidenced in our results.".Other luxury brands, such as Dior or Loewe, also offer candles and flakes oriented to a high -end sensory experience.The gels, hand soaps and disinfectants are, for obvious reasons, another category of expanding product, as confirms Cloosterman.

This maintenance of the sector would not have been possible without the digitalization of companies.The closure of physical shops forced firms to look for alternatives to continue their businesses, and the sale online reached the rescue.

Natura Bissé, a Spanish reference of the luxury cosmetics - which confirms that his turnover fell 8.5% this year but trusts himself in figures in 2019 at the end of the current exercise -, he gives an account of this paradigm shift."The digital sale has increased by 70%," says Verónica Fisas, general director and CEO of the company.If before, on the total percentage of the firm, the digital channel constituted only 20%, now reaches 35%.In its presentation of results, L’Oréal also highlighted similar global growths: telematic transactions rose 62% on average in all divisions and regions, already representing 26.6% of the total sales.Pandemia, different agents of the sector affirm, accelerated the digitalization of the industry, a path that was already traveling, but that was in need of expediting.

On the Internet not only concentrated commercial efforts, but also transferred - and adapted - many of the experiences that companies offered in their physical spaces.Thus, for example, chains such as Douglas or Sephora brought to their web pages the attention of beauty experts to guide, respond and help their potential clients.The first proposed video calls with its beauty consultants, while the second enabled a chat from Monday to Friday with a similar service.

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To overcome the impossibility of trying physically makeup - another work with which the sector has had to face - there are several firms that have created virtual tools.L'Oréal Paris and group brands such as Lancôme or Maybelline, Clarins and Nyx have them on their web pages, as well as the English Court, either through video or the taking of a photograph to which theDifferent tones of lipsticks, shadows ... Sephora has created the artist virtual application with the same objective.Chanel, on the other hand, has a tester in his space in El Corte Inglés de Serrano, in Madrid, that through a camera and a simulator allows to check the effect of makeup on the skin, with quite realistic results.

Does all the above mean that users must give up personal experience?According to studies, no.Data collected by the consultant Mintel indicate that 40% of Spaniards are still interested in customization.Individualized attention is an attraction for the client at a time when they are demanded more than ever careful.Luxury firms are aware of this, and with the COVID still around, some have opted for opening spaces dedicated to the client, with all possible security measures.

This is the case of Chanel, which, in the same space of El Corte Inglés Madrid where they have the virtual makeup tester, has opened a cabin in which it offers exclusive facial treatments, as well as private makeup courses.After its opening, the waiting list already exceeded the month.Caudalíe did the same with his boutique on Calle de Claudio Coello in the capital, where he also has cabins to give himself the pleasure of taking care of the face or body."We have opened an oasis in the city," Mathilde Thomas, founder of the brand, who understands that customers, more than ever, seek pampering and attention, a moment of disconnection in the current maelstrom, said at its inauguration..

However, another crisis has become even more evident with this pandemic: climatic.The obligation in the use of protection material such as masks, costumes or gloves has generated a large amount of waste.The Marine Oceansasia Conservation Organization has calculated that in 2020 about 1.560 million facial masks have ended in the oceans, which is an extra pollution of more than 5.Additional plastic 000 tons.

Sector agents have been working for a long time to reduce their impact on the environment.When the first draft of the Spanish law against single -use plastics and microplastics were announced (widely used in exfoliating products, especially), Stanpa hastened to communicate that since 2018 the signatures have voluntarily eliminated 97, 97,6% of these microparticles in the products that are clarified, and that, therefore, end at sea.This would mean more than 4.250 tons of this ingredient replaced by others of natural and biodegradable origin.The actions of the different brands are wide and difficult to cover.For summarizing some, Caudalíe or La Roche-Posay have launched projects to recover and protect the marine coral;Natura Bissé's new headquarters is energetically efficient."In addition, the Diamond Well-Living range containers are made with recyclable materials such as glass and paper of forests managed ecologically," insists Fisas.Rituals has marked as an objective "that 90% of the ingredients in articles that are clarified are biodegradable by 2023 and not generate waste by 2025," says Cloosterman.

The aesthetic centers, which require the use of mask by their professionals and other security measures, have it more complicated, as doctors Paloma Borregón and Ana Molina lament.Diana Montoya, with a homonymous center in Madrid, confirms the difficulty of shortages of the first months for the sustainability of the center."Now we care about recycling and, for example, we have eliminated the role to provide information about our services and offer a QR code," he explains.Paz Torralba, director of the center The Beauty Concept, which has opened the spa of the Mandarín Eastern Ritz Hotel, has opted for sustainable materials, even for the masks, although this involves an additional cost.“At the hotel, we have eliminated all plastic: water bottles come in recyclable cardboard;The food wrappers are made of potato starch;The masks, the caps and the epi costumes, of biodegradable cellulose ... ".

Nothing will be the same again in the beauty industry.And many of the news are good.