Out of the blue (seemingly), Clarins has invested in UK brand, Pai, which is obviously great news for the UK beauty scene. This is an interesting pick for the private investment part of Clarins (Famille C Venture) because it’s mid-price, skin care only and known for organic and wholesome ingredients. My thoughts are that perhaps it will – eventually – be the replacement sister brand that My Clarins has failed to be. Pai speaks to an entirely different audience to the Clarins consumer and is in line with an uptick in search for more natural and ethical beauty products. The Clarins fund has invested £6.4 million in Pai who is now due for expansion at its London site.

It’s strongly rumoured that China is about to place a blanket ban on any cannabis related ingredients across beauty products. Given that CBD and cannabis related product has been an enormous growth area in beauty this will be a blow to many brands. A quick search brings up Paula’s Choice, Milk Make Up, Votary, Eve Lom, Sol de Janeiro, NYX, Chantecaille – the list goes on and on – as all having cannabis extract products. China is the one of biggest global beauty markets and growth continues across all beauty areas so if this ruling takes place, it’s going to be especially hard on fledgling brands who had hedged their bets on selling to or in China. I’ve looked hard to see what the reasoning for this could be (because currently, cannabis related ingredients are allowed) and I can’t find anything. China’s mandatory animal testing on cosmetics ends on May 1st this year.

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The Estee Lauder Companies has taken the decision to wind down Rodin, which was acquired in 2014. However, it’s reported that Rodin will appear in a capsule collection under the Jo Malone London banner in October and that some Rodin formulas will be used for Jo Malone in the future. This can only mean that Jo Malone is set to up their skin care offerings. My money is on a face oil to kick things off and a wave goodbye to Vitamin E Gel.

A company to watch is New Mexico based aluminium free deodorant brand Taos AER. It’s backed by brand builder Ancora Holdings where Nicky Kinnaird (ex SpaceNK) is a Principal. Think plants, minerals and essential oils in delicious sounding scents such as ginger and grapefruit. Taos started life as a partner brand to Vapour Cosmetics (also Ancora Holdings) but is now separate. This is a good example of the trend for elevated essentials that we saw take hold over the last year.

As I’ve mentioned before, waterless beauty has been on the agenda for some time – it’s been a matter of waiting for the right inspiration and inventions to make it more of a reality in a bid to reduce global water waste. A product that’s looking promising on this front is Plus (HERE) waterless wash squares that are about hand palm size, producing a foaming wash that disappears, along with its dissolvable packaging, down the drain of your shower. It’s a bit to cut out shower gels and body washes which use a lot of water. At the moment, it’s US only, and comes from the brains behind Starface spot patches, available at Superdrug in the UK (which would make the perfect spot for Plus). If waterless piques your interest, a new waterless hair care brand that uses powder (imagine a dehydrated shampoo) to create suds and conditioner (you need to be in the shower, it’s just the product that’s waterless, not you!) take a look at Susteau HERE. It was formerly OWA hair care and has recently appointed UK PR so availability should pick up soon – generally, a brand doesn’t take on PR in any country unless stockists are lined up.

Kim Kardashian has apparently filed trademarks for a skin care brand called SKKN by Kim, said to incorporate skin care, nails, make up and fragrance. I can see this would be complimentary to her SKIMS body wear range (above) – I eye-rolled at first but if there’s a wellness aspect rather than a 24 colour eye palette that nobody needs vibe, maybe it won’t be terrible.

Beautyindependent.com, globalcosmeticnews, reuters.com, forbes.com, happi.com.

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All products are sent to me as samples from brands and agencies unless otherwise stated. Affiliate links may be used. Posts are not affiliate driven.