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Our CEO, Laurence Newman, talks the latest and greatest in the industry, and the their place in the future of beauty technology.
As the home use beauty device sector continues to grow and revolutionise our daily routines, the influx of new products has inevitably multiplied too.
My own personal collection of weird and wonderful health and beauty ‘tools’ has taken over our meeting room at CurrentBody HQ and is always a talking point for any visitor. Despite many making the shelves, it is safe to say that manufacturers set to become household names developing the next generation of devices still remain fairly limited. To lucratively access this new, competitive but still relatively complex space requires an organisation to tick the appropriate boxes that have substantial cost implications both pre and post market entry. That significant initial and ongoing investment will more often than not help secure their longevity and success and ensure that the consumer has the choice of the most effective and safe units available.
A quick fix of clever marketing and PR will only last a certain time and that is why we have partnered ourselves with device manufacturers that tick what I consider to be those key boxes. Commitment to the future growth of this sector is at the core of any affiliation we form.
Step forward Iluminage Beauty. Their entrance to the UK was actually a fairly ‘soft’ one, but any device that initially, often exclusively, sits in the techno-beauty section at Harrods does inevitably gain a little kudos. With a high price tag, stunning packaging it can often carry more than a little early mystique too before inevitably it becomes more widely recognised.
As by way of a short introduction, Iluminage Beauty Inc. is a joint venture between Unilever Ventures and Syneron Medical. First box ticked - Solid foundations from one of the largest aesthetic device manufacturers in the world. Covering and supporting the latest in hair removal, anti ageing and vascular applications in 80+ countries, their professional underpinning is practically unrivalled. When researching home use devices the knowledge that a particular product stems from this miniaturisation of globally recognised professional equipment is what attracted me to this niche over 7 years ago. It provides the safety profile that should always be our number one priority and starting point when deciding to stock a product.
Unilever need little introduction, but the support from one of the largest consumer goods companies on the planet shows their significant interest in this emergent sector and provides further comfort (if it was still needed) that this is an operation committed to current and future R&D as well as customer service and warranty fulfilment.
Understanding what women (and increasingly men) want and providing unique solutions is the second box. Whilst industry data still remains fairly limited Iluminage have perhaps resisted taking on big beauty companies and remained loyal to their well known professional aesthetic / medi-spa roots. Their devices provide a range of solutions for the problems we know women look for on visits to salons and clinics. Although facial cleansing is the largest segment for hand held devices, hair removal has rapidly caught it up and is now close to 30% of the market. Iluminage have the only FDA cleared device for all skin types so we can be sure of the rigorous regulations adhered to pre-market.
We continue to search for solutions to look and feel younger and whilst (not unsurprisingly) Asia maintain the biggest growth rate in anti ageing devices, Europe is quickly opening its eyes to new effective and now affordable techniques and Iluminage have clearly recognised that this is one area that will never slow down. Whilst understanding the problem, they have added an appealing twist. Their skin smoothing laser doubles up for an ornament you would want in your bathroom. How many times has somebody said “that will end up in a bedroom drawer?” Not this...packaging – tick.
Box 4 – Looking to the future. Iluminage have recognised one of the few issues with using home use devices. They do require a little of what none of us have, time and patience. Intelligent textiles that work without us having to hold a unit to the problem area for 20 minutes before bed might seem a little farfetched. A brief look into how and why they were made and it is not difficult to be convinced of their place. The anti-ageing pillows, masks and soon to be socks and gloves are without doubt one of the most forward thinking and attention-grabbing additions to theirs and any range on sale at the moment. They have captured the imagination of the beauty press and the British public, neither easy to do. It took some soul searching for our own CB team to add these to our evolving range - no batteries, no mains supply, so not truly an electrical beauty device? We feel that the type of technology rolled up in these unique copper infused inventions we can bend our own rules as they provide the perfect add-on to the range.
A final more personal thought if I may. I consider Iluminage more than anyone in the market at this time reflect my own vision on why I set up CurrentBody as the destination for home use beauty devices. The concept is to supply safe devices that enable consumers to achieve professional results at home. To present results over time that mirrored and could eventually better results we see in a salon, spa or clinic. It was to be at the cutting edge of the futuristic miniturasation of clinically proven aesthetic technologies – That is exactly what Iluminage have done to date.
Importantly for CurrentBody as a partner, they look set to continue to innovate, ticking all the right boxes along the way and that can only be a good thing for everyone.
