Top Ten Spa Beauty Trends to Look for in 2009
Many of the trends I predicted for 2008 are still with us: skin-care gadgets, ingredients from the Amazon, an obsession with eyelash products. But there are many new spa beauty developments to look for in 2009—and one bonus trend now upon us that I just didn't see coming.
1. Brand-Name Facialists
Move over doctors Murad, Perricone, and Wexler and make room for a new genre of facialist-branded skin-care treatments and products. Fifth Avenue's Tracie Martyn just partnered with the new Fontainebleau Resort & Spa in Miami Beach; treatments designed by Los Angeles skin-health expert Kate Somerville are now available from Hawaii to Chicago; London's leading facialist Eve Lom has come stateside at Space NK; and the handmade holistic products of south Florida facialist Tammy Fender have reached retail big-time. Maybe 2009 will be the year that a female facialist breaks Sephora's glass ceiling; currently the chain doesn't stock a single one.
2. Gem Stoned
Silver, gold, and platinum are so 2008. Spas around the world are now boasting the benefits of beauty products infused with precious and semi-precious gems. New York's Cornelia Day Resort just launched Jewelry for Skin; Paris adores Lisa Simon's range inspired by India; and Dubai's spectacular yet soulful Shiffa range is used in spa rituals at the Peninsula Beverly Hills and the Trump Spa in Chicago. Whether gem extracts are as beautifying as the real thing has yet to be determined, but some spas swear by the subtle healing energies imparted by them.
3. The Skin-Care Diet
Recently "What are you eating?" not "What products are you using?" has become the opening gambit of three out of four facialists (a personal poll). This reflects a return to the inner-beauty mantra that a good diet begets good skin. Food, it seems, is the new skin care. Witness a rise in spa products with a good-for-you message: organic-derived ingredients; topical probiotics (the beneficial bacteria) in brands such as Bioelements and Nude; and a growing number of beauty supplement-like beverages.
4. Antioxidant Free-for-All
All manner of teas (Ole Henriken likes red, Fresh likes black), hearty alpine herbs like edelweiss (found in Les Fermes de Marie and Kerstin Florian), and rare fruit extracts (Priori's coffeeberry, SkinCeuticals's phloretin from apples) will be joined by more and possibly increasingly obscure sources of skin-benefiting antioxidants. Next up, suggests an article in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology: burdock fruit. (A request for 2010: a free-radical-fighting measurement device, so we can tell the effectiveness of one antioxidant over another.)
5. Sunscreen Controversy
Are mineral sunscreen particles too small to be safe? Are chemical sunscreens bad for you? Do some antioxidants boost protection from UV rays? When will the Food & Drug Administration finalize the rating system for UVA protection? More questions are simmering about beauty's most serious skin-care product than the industry can answer, at least in 2009. So expect a summer of mixed messages. (That doesn't give you a free pass not to slather it on every day.)
6. Suds-Free Shampoos
By popular demand, shampoos without controversial sodium laurel sulfate (SLS) or traditional foaming agents are hitting the shelves. Even though there's nothing in nature that can foam like it, brands from California's Sumbody to Paris's Leonor Greyl, which offers spa treatments for hair, say that this generation of SLS-free shampoos produces a soft lather or an emulsification, making washing without suds a more sophisticated experience than previous versions.
7. Organic Panic
While many beauty brands scramble for a USDA Organics logo, strip parabens from their formulations, or swap their packaging for something more earth-friendly to meet consumer demand, others will use 2009 to better define what shade of green they subscribe to and tout transparency as their angle. Call it conscious marketing.
8. Hammams Are Hot
Beautifying bathing rituals from around the globe and the treatments and beauty products based on them come and go in popularity. This year hammams are hot: Brand-new spas, from the Montage Beverly Hills to the InterContinental Montelucia in Arizona, are hearkening high-caliber hammams, the traditional Moorish-Mediterranean steam room, with rasoul-mud rituals and Beber body treatments. And look for beauty products with skin-nourishing argan oil (Cinq Mondes, Josie Maran, REN), myrrh (Aromatherapy Associates, In Fiore, and Rene Furterer's new anti-frizz hair-care range), and even black soap. These ingredients cite Morocco as their source, a trend that's hotter than, well, Morocco.
9. Hard Science Sells
There's nothing like proof that a product works to justify a cosmetic purchase or a higher price point. That's why science-backed products will be flourishing even in tough economic times. Look for the drug-company debuts of Botox competitor Reloxin in 2009, an injectable, and the much-anticipated eyelash lengthener Latisse by Allergan, along with more growth hormones, skin-penetrating peptides, and nanotechnology in over-the-counter beauty products. The marriage of science and beauty will also continue to strengthen because of the use of biology textbook terms (like cellular, epidermal, dermal) invading skin care and its labels, reaching a whole new level of skin-care marketing.
10. Multitasking (and Money-Saving) Beauty Products
Targeted skin-care products will give way to products that have two, three, or four beautifying uses, such as SkinFusion's brightening, anti-aging, protecting foundation with SPF and Joey New York's Quick CTSM2, an all-in-one cleanser, toner, scrub, and mask. Along these lines are what I'm calling "fully loaded beauty products," those that contain virtually every anti-aging ingredient on the market (Bliss's Youth As We Know It is a good example). These multitaskers are good for a drooping face and dropping dollar, so the thinking goes.
BONUS TREND (or the one I didn't see coming):
Niche Nail Polish
Essie, OPI, and CND aren't the only games in town. Deborah Lippmann has taken off as the bespoke nail bedazzler with the Lippmann Collection, and makeup artist Michael Marcus has partnered with the Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo. Even perambulating podologist (a European nursing specialty) Bastien Gonzales, lover of the bare-and-buffed nail, has caved, creating a rich, red polish for the One&Only Resorts.
January 7, 2009
