Sandie Jaidane, SJC Consulting

Premium Beauty News - The market of natural and organic cosmetics now seems to have reached a turning point?

Sandie Jaidane - The market share of natural and organic cosmetics in Europe hasn’t stopped growing for ten years, but consumers and their expectations have changed considerably. Our aim, during the Natural Beauty Summit is to have a better understanding of these changes.

To help us, we will present many exclusive market researches, on consumers and semiology and perception of the press, conducted in France and in other countries. RISC International will present in particular, the results of a survey started in 1992 in ten countries and will analyze consumers’ high expectations for natural ingredients and science. Furthermore, IPSOS will present a survey carried out on 4000 consumers in four different countries (France, United Kingdom, United States and Italy).

Premium Beauty News - Retail for instance has changed a lot?

Sandie Jaidane - Today, the whole of retail is significantly positioned around natural products. Specialized networks are developing everywhere across Europe. Online sales amount for nearly 30% of turnover. Retailers are launching their own natural brands. For many brands the first question is: where to sell? How to conciliate demand with current referencing?

Premium Beauty News - And what about the organic cosmetic product?

Sandie Jaidane - Today, the big question for the female consumer is: are natural and organic products efficient? Because actually marketing of fear, based on concerns related to some ingredients, has left marks.

The consequences are, that for not having advertized on the ingredients present in cosmetics instead of those that were removed, natural products are too often perceived as neutral, with little or no efficiency at all. On this topic, the Ephyla company will be presenting the results of its survey on luxury cosmetics. and will also explain the significant progress of third generation natural formulae.

Premium Beauty News - This raises the question on the efficiency of new "green ingredients"?

Sandie Jaidane - There is a large number of issues on the subject: are green ingredients true palliatives to synthetic or petro-chemical ingredients? Can we really substitute everything? What are the limits to "everything natural"?

Premium Beauty News - You also address the issue regarding controversial ingredients. It is a sensitive subject.

Sandie Jaidane - It is the first time a conference deals with such a tricky topic. The aim is to take stock of scientific knowledge on some cosmetic ingredients that led to media controversy involving their safety. It is a well known expert in the world of cosmetics, Pierre Perrier of Essential Consulting, who will try to put the various surveys in perspective for us.

We will also talk about the palliatives used as substitutes for these ingredients: are they as efficient and in what quantity? What hindsight do we have? Are their manufacturing process more environmentally friendly?

Premium Beauty News - You will obviously raise the subject regarding labels and certifications. What is the situation today?

Sandie Jaidane - In recent years there has been a increase in the number labels and logos delivered by certifying bodies, stamped onto the packaging of cosmetic products. For France only, we will name Cosmébio, Coméco, Nature & Progrès, Ecocert and Qualité France. BDiH and Demeter for Germany. The Soil Association in UK, AIAB, ICEA for Italy, Ecogarantie for Belgium, BIOSCI for Switzerland…

More recently appeared, Natrue and soon there will be Cosmos Standard, two new European labels.

Of course consumers do not perceive the exact meaning of these labels or their differences. The result is that everyone is lost, even the brands who would like to choose a unique label for their country but also in order to penetrate international markets.

The Natural Beauty Summit Europe will be held on November 23rd and 24th 2009 in Paris. For further information please refer to: www.naturalbeautysummit.com