Finally we value healthy looking skin over younger looking skin!

Last week we hosted the fourth Philips Global Beauty PR Summit. Influential beauty media had the chance to attend expert sessions in an interactive demonstration area, hosted by Philips ambassadors such as cosmetic dermatologist Dr Stefanie Williams and celebrity hair stylist Ilham Mestour. We discussed the current trends influencing the beauty industry and how these are shaping Philips vision for the future, while the findings of this year’s Philips Global Beauty Index were revealed.

It is the fourth year Philips has undertaken the Philips Global Beauty Index, which offers unique insight into the perceptions of over 12,000 women worldwide– about their own beauty and that of others. I feel strongly that as a beauty brand we need to be continually engaging with women and the Philips Global Beauty Index gives us the perfect means to do this. The resulting statistics not only help to inform our business, but ensure that we are evolving our product and service offering to meet women’s unique needs so we can realize our vision of empowering women and get more out of their beauty routines in ideally less time (no. 2 priority for women after effectiveness). An insight I can personally identify with very much juggling the different roles I have both professionally and privately (being a mum of two).

In addition, I was specifically excited to see that women increasingly feel that there are lots of ways to be beautiful and feel less pressure to conform to the traditional definition of beauty which is mostly focused on outer appearance. More women than ever believe that how you feel is more important than how you look. In that light when probing on what is important in the area of skin, we found that 63% of women would prefer that their skin looks healthier than younger.

In addition to the Global Beauty Index findings, Philips vision for the future is also informed by emerging beauty trends and how we predict the industry to change over the next few years. These trends are often reflected in our Beauty Index findings, for example personalized solutions are a key emerging trend this year and the Index correspondingly found that 53% of women globally are feeling excited about personalized advice on how to keep hair and skin healthy, based on consumer data. Similarly, developments in technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality (AR) are leading to a wealth of smart and connected devices and women globally predicted they would see more interaction with technology in the beauty industry over the next five years. We touched upon both of these trends at the summit as it’s hugely important for Philips to recognize and act on these developments. Our priority is to ensure the individual woman is at the heart of everything we do and that her desires are shaping our everyday work at Philips.

With this in mind, Philips has been using our wealth of experience in the category, to deliver integrated products and services that are both holistic and personalized to enhance women’s daily routines. Examples of this are the demonstration of our vision regarding connected daily routines, interactive user guidance for IPL hair removal and the Skincare Assessment tool, which were showcased to media at the Philips Global Beauty Summit. These propositions, I feel are testimony to how Philips is at the forefront of connected personal care solutions, listening to wants and needs of women to deliver the solutions they deserve. 

 Together with my highly diverse team at Philips Beauty we are on a mission to improve the lives of 100 million women by 2025 through making our everyday beauty routines more effective and ideally more time efficient too! We are on it!