BEAUTY TRENDS 2010

It's almost time to say farewell to 2009 - it's been a super year for beauty in terms of strength, vision and innovation - but it's now time to say hello to what 2010 might bring us in terms of trends.

Nica Lewis, director of Mintel Beauty Innovation says: "While 2009 brought its challenges for the industry, beauty brands and suppliers have continued to seek creative new ways to merge science, nature and sustainability for better results and more eco-friendly formulas and packaging. In 2010, we will see more consolidation in the beauty industry and the evolution of old trends, as well as new ones, as consumer confidence returns."

According to Mintel research, the trends below are just some of the things we'll be seeing in the coming 12 months:

1. MOOD BEAUTY
Make-up has always been about making the wearer feel better (and look better, I suppose), but in 2010 you will be able to enhance your mood through make-up and skincare in a way you never thought possible. By creating products that offer psychological benefits and "act on people's neurotransmitters", manufacturers will use texture, temperature and sound to affect your mood, as well as make-up that literally switches on and off.

The process and benefit of sleep (previously written about in Vogue) will also be the focus of night creams - will this mean we will sleep better? Who knows.

2. NU NATURAL
Slightly moving away from the certification side and concentrating more on "results, efficiency and safety". Apparently we will move forward from organic and instead take a closer look at things like authenticity and local production.

"Mintel Beauty Innovation expects claims like "free from" and "sustainable" to appear in products that simultaneously contain synthetic actives like peptides, hyaluronic acid, ceramides or collagen."

I'll be very interested to see how this works - it's a really exciting development.

3. PRO-TECH’T
This is building on the 'protection' foundation that is already in place for hair, skincare and colour cosmetics. Moving forward from UV and environmental protectants, wording will be more extreme - think "firewall" and the like. Packaging-wise, we'll also see things like concrete used alongside traditional glass and plastic.

Furthermore, Mintel expects "immume-boosting and skin-defending claims" to be highlighted, as well as new ingredients from extreme environments like Artic, Desert and Alpine.

4. TURBO BEAUTY 4G
A stronger advancement towards higher-tech beauty products (I imagine due to such high consumer demand) - think "mix-it-yourself" solutions and at-home kits and cures as alternatives to surgical procedures (at a higher level than at-home microdermabrasion kits possibly?)

Clinical testing to "substantiate claims and results" as we've previously seen in the luxury market will move to the "mastige" section of the market (about time too), meaning that it's affordable for everybody, but positioned as a luxury item.

I don't know about you, but if all this comes to pass then 2010 is going to be a very exciting year in the beauty world.