Product Development Tips: Building your Skillset
/Building Your Beauty Product Development Skillset
in-cosmetics 2019 N.A. is behind us, and we continue to relish the memories and learning moments from the conference!
Below is a fun, video highlight, from the Sensory Bar featuring science and beauty YouTuber, and new friend, Trina Espinoza. (Trina hosts a YouTube channel called Ms. Beautyphile. Read more about her at the end of this article.)
Re-watching this video featuring formulas that sparkle, bounce-back, and transform, emphasizes the importance of innovative technology and how to create a sensorial experience that connects with the consumer.
Click the image to view the video.
The Importance of Beauty Product Aesthetics
Products are designed to delight, enhance, and beautify the body while creating an enjoyable product engagement experience for the consumer. Aside from product performance, product experience motivates the consumer to return and repurchase products time and again.
Research backs this up. Facebook IQ hired Accenture to study the shopping habits and preferences of American adults that purchase beauty products. When asked how they research and evaluate beauty products, 61% of make-up and 55% of facial skincare shoppers reported relying on physical locations for in-person evaluations. Although consumers are active with online purchasing, real time product and textural engagement is key. And in the digital age, we have yet to offer a real life textural and sensorial experience through a screen that goes beyond the visual.
The Art of Aesthetic Product Development
Evaluating beauty products tactilely is an art. It’s a talent that is developed through years and years of working with hundreds of product textures, and from learning from cross functional team members.
Cross Functional Teams:
Chemists: Understanding how raw materials work within a formula requires developing products alongside seasoned chemists. Chemists offer education on how ingredients will affect the product’s aesthetics and performance.
Consumer Science: Developing desired claims with consumer science teams brings an understanding about how aesthetic texture and product performance will translate into claims based on the appearance and sensorial engagement of the product.
Raw Material Suppliers: Reviewing new raw material product launches and new textures with suppliers will keep you current to industry trends.
Learning from these teams, tracking and evaluating hundreds of products, and understanding aesthetic product development language will create a visual aesthetic library in your mind.
Develop the Aesthetic for The Final User
When developing a product from an aesthetic perspective, the final consumer is who the product developer has to keep in mind. It doesn’t really matter much if you, the developer, personally “love” the aesthetic of the product you’re developing. Put yourself in the mindset of the final consumer and make decisions based on that perspective.
For example, if the final user that you're developing a product for has very oily skin, and the product is developed with a thick, aesthetic texture, that leaves behind a rich, dewy after feel, that person is most likely going to be turned off by the product aesthetic. The formula will need to be adjusted if it doesn’t rub in to their liking, transition quickly, and dry down in accordance to their desired after-feel.
The Love Language of Aesthetic Product Development
Aesthetic product development is also attained through very technical guidelines and language in the laboratories. When speaking with chemists, we use specific terminology to communicate about the texture and performance that needs to be achieved for the final consumer experience. Dedicated chemists will go the extra mile and apply the product on their own skin to experience the product and determine if it is in alignment with the aesthetic requirements set forth from the marketing brief and product benchmark.
Below is a short list of aesthetic terms. You may want to practice using these terms in order to enhance your aesthetic development skill set. As a quick lesson for yourself, line up 15 different cream textures. Then label the aesthetic descriptors to each product using the below terminology.
Image copyright: BeautyEdge LLC
A Technical View of Aesthetic Qualities
Did you know that Gattefossé, a designer and provider of innovative technologies, has an expert sensory panel of evaluators? Yes, it’s true!
Their 15-person panel, established in 1996 and headquartered in France, continually touches, feels and evaluates finished skincare formulations. What an awesome job! If evaluating only 100 products per year, someone on the panel since the founding would have evaluated approximately 2,400 products to date! Now that is how you build a mindful aesthetic library: by constantly sampling and experiencing hundreds and hundreds of products.
The graph below is just 7 out of the 18 or so criteria that the Gattefossé expert panel evaluates against.
Image Copyright: Gattefosse’
My friends at Gattefossé sometimes offer a half-day evaluation session at their Paramus, NJ location. You can contact Lauren DelDotto to inquire about any upcoming evaluation dates for 2020.
It’s OK to be a Beginner
I recently had a moment of deep empathy for a young makeup artist. From a distance, I was watching her apply makeup on a customer in a department store. Both she and the customer appeared to be enjoying this time of makeup application. However, when 30 minutes of application turned into 45 minutes, a second makeup artist came in to apply makeup to the customer. Out of curiosity, I stepped over to where they were to see why the switch in artists.
The young artist was beside herself and immediately blurted out, “I did a horrible job. I know my own facial structure and how to apply cosmetics, but I don’t always know how to apply cosmetics to other people’s facial structure.” She was obviously being overly critical of herself and her talents. To ease her stress, I put my hand on her shoulder, did an imaginary motion of brushing something off her shoulder and advised her to shake it off.
All was not lost. The second artist was able to remedy the issue. This young artist was in the beginning stages of developing her make up artistry skills and was experiencing growing pains. Should that makeup artist step away from her skill set of artistry? No. Does she need to practice more on applying makeup on other people? Yes! Would it have been a better experience for her, and the customer had she asked for supervision and assistance from a senior artist before it became an emergency? Definitely.
Seeing her experience was a reminder for me that we all continue to evolve with our talents. This applies to all careers and it’s the same with cosmetic/beauty product development. It’s not something that anyone can just jump into and expect to instantly succeed with no prior experience. To evaluate a product well without experience is impossible. Just as it’s impossible to become an Olympic gold medalist on your second day ever playing tennis.
If you’re looking for more information on product development, or need the guidance of a seasoned expert to help you with your process, contact me at cherie@beautyedgeinc.com. We can work through your development needs together.
Until then, keep mastering your craft!
About Trina Espinoza: Trina shares the science behind beauty and personal care products that appeals to a consumer-based audience. Her accomplishments include being featured on Mashable as one of “six YouTube channels that make learning about science fun”. She has been nominated for a Regional Emmy and has made guest appearances on the American Chemical Society’s Reactions series.
If you want to know more about Trina, you can find her on FB, YT, Instagram, and Twitter @msbeautyphile.
