The head of global personal care and beauty research delivered a presentation at the show in regards to global paradigm shifts in beauty.
In it, Barbalova highlighted the area of premium sales, revealing it to have nearly matched its pre-recession growth in 2007, largely due to support by North America and sustained growth in Latin America.
Here, the Euromonitor expert also reveals how the industry saw a definitive shift in product positioning, seeing a lot of "category cross overs, multitasking, multi-functionality and generally a more holistic approach to anti-ageing."
Barbalova also reveals nail polish as being another major trend in 2011, taking over from what used to be the lipstick effect. "Nail polish was one of the fastest growing sub segments in 2011, in the US alone it grew by 30 per cent and the category is now close to 6 billion globally."
Finally, the future looks bright for the sector according to the industry expert as, "premium brands will continue to lead innovation and set the bar very high in technology and scientific innovation while retail channel shifts will create opportunities not just for online sales but increasingly so for mcommerce, which is a completely new opportunity zone for many brand owners."