Premium Beauty News - You will lead, as part of the In-Cosmetics Paris trade show, a seminar on anti-aging. What will be its main lines?
Dr. Alain Khaiat - The objective will be to address the whole range of themes surrounding this topic to provide a comprehensive update resulting from everyone’s knowledge on the latest discoveries in this field. We will review the latest developments concerning ingredients for anti-aging treatments; we will also take an interest in the development of scientific knowledge concerning the physiology of the skin during the aging process. We will examine the signs of aging as they can be observed on the skins of Europeans and on the ones of Asians. The seminar will also include an update on the latest techniques for the measurement of products efficiency, and also a presentation provided by Johnson & Johnson on the formulation of anti-aging treatments.
In addition, the organizers of in-cosmetics have also asked me to participate to the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Cosmetic Science 2013, of which I was the laureate in 2010.
Premium Beauty News - Are there really big differences between the aging of Asian skins and that of Caucasia skins?
Dr. Alain Khaiat - I have been living and working in Singapore for the past 17 years now. This experience helped me understand how incomplete the vision of Europeans or North Americans was on Asian demand for cosmetics. We are aware that 80% of the market for facials consists of whitening products, but eventually I had to wait to be in Asia to perceive what it was all about exactly. This specificity of Asian markets is in large part due to differences in the skin’s aging process.
When a European or North American person tries to make a first-hand evaluation of the age of an Asian person he is often wrong mistaken by 10 or 15 years. We’ve all experienced this. But it’s also true the other way around with Asians people trying to evaluate our age. On European people, the first signs of aging appear from the age of 20 in the form of small wrinkles that form around the eyes. With Asian people, they appear from the age of 16 in the form of pigment spots on the cheekbones.
Premium Beauty News - This can be explained by different habits in terms sun exposure?
Dr. Alain Khaiat - Undoubtedly habits from that standpoint habits are very different. Europeans and North Americans tend to expose themselves frankly while Asians are much more cautious, and will even try to avoid any sort of exposure. This obviously has an influence since sun exposure damages collagen fibres thus encouraging the appearance of wrinkles. But genetic factors also come into play. In any case, these differences obviously have an influence on the sunscreen market. In Europe or North America, they are seasonal products while in Asia they are systematically included into everyday products.
Premium Beauty News - Asia is definitely emerging as the main market of the future for the cosmetic industry. What are its main issues?
Dr. Alain Khaiat - First the picture must be qualified. Asian markets are complex. Hence, behaviours in Japan, Korea and China differ from one another and also from the ones observed in India, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. They are the result of very different psycho-social behaviours. But there are also some similarities, and I think the psycho-sociological factors explain the boom of the market for face masks in several Asian countries.
Another important feature of Asian markets: a young population. Of course, there too there are big differences between aging countries like Japan and conversely very young countries like Vietnam. The main consequence is that in a number of these countries there is a very important market for teenagers, which is not so much the case in Europe or North America. In China, where the age distribution is showing its first signs of aging, still 22 million babies are born each year, which is the equivalent of the Australian population! And in India, the figure is even bigger.
Apart from these aspects, I do, however, believe, that the main issue right now is the Chinese regulation. It is a major obstacle to the development of the cosmetic industry in this country: it hinders innovation, slows the launch of new products and challenges investments in both research and marketing.
