Our french contact takes a look at what 3 Paris-based style companies predict for 2007/2008 in beauty. Overall, the natural beauty trend is headed for a sophisticated turn and inner will grow.

Sophistication and spirituality

According to the stylist we meet, the natural beauty trend is the biggest. This will be reworked to have a more sophisticated edge. Spirituality and emphasis on inner beauty will become increasingly important as products cater to body rhythms and energy cycles, in ergonomic or eco-friendly designs. To the other extreme, the surgically inspired trend will become more laboratory-like and translate to new applications such as treatments in syringe-shaped packaging; colors and textures will be more advanced, lastly, we will see a return to a Retro 1940s look. But colors will be more audacious, and textures more brilliant.

From tweed to gouache

A french trend forecasting agency proposes 4 dominating themes in beauty. In a nod to the 1960s, the Playtime theme predicts a very graphic approach to cosmetics with bright colors, new shapes, and fashion merging evermore in makeup giving rise to jacquard and tweed patterns. From the realm of science fiction, Mutations probes into the stranger side of nature. It involves a play on contrasts, colors that change, and unconventional textures from sticky glosses to jelly-like elixirs. Natural beauty, under the Origins theme, goes ultra-modern: Colors become earthy, and textures take on a gouache or pasty aspect. Finally, the Epure theme suggest harmony and softness inspired by the Japanese art of living, with pure white products, porcelain-like sunscreens and snow-like powders.

Osmosis of the interior and the exteriorBeauty is so vast that it is turning to the more fundamental aspects—staying vital, staying healthy. Nutrition, wellbeing, emotions, and new parts of the body—like the skeleton or nervous system—will be key elements addressed in beauty. Skincare and makeup products that restructure and sculpt the body will translate to a new beauty ritual where the user is the artist. Surgically inspired beauty will become more refined, and more laboratory-like in its applications. Neutral shades (plasters, marble, metals, minerals, burnt blacks) with nuanced or light- effects will figure largely in the palettes.