Premium Beauty News - The crisis seems to stimulate you, so do new regulations

Dominique Bouvier - That’s true. Let’s dare to say it: “Long live the crisis!” Actually, the shock wave of the sudden financial collapse is still impacting the general economy. By trashing out all given ideas, the crisis implies that we use some common sense again. That’s an occasion to develop more balanced business relationships and healthy partnerships between customers and suppliers, on a win-win basis and a mutual respect of each-others. Freedom is not just another word for jungle law, freedom implies that operators on the market be aware of the span of their responsibility.

That’s precisely the aim of the future European regulation, and of the recent French law for the modernization of the economy, which clearly stress solidarity and economic efficiency.

Premium Beauty News - Strand’s new collection reflects this optimism?

Dominique Bouvier - Yes. We’re strongly confident in our ability to guide our customers in the beauty world, and we have designed a collection of skin care and make-up products to generate strong emotions.

“Ritualis”, for instance, was born from questions regarding the meaning of our cosmetic rituals. Inspired from sacred rituals, pagans heritage or rites of passage, all our cosmetic habits aims at increasing attractiveness. The range features futurist formulations, evolving textures, all what’s needed to charm customers.

For the eye’s area, we developed:

 “Stay-on Eye Shadow” is a range of smooth eye-shadows, with delicate and bright colours, for mysterious and innocent eyes,
 “Energetic Eye Liner,” a product designed to highlight the eye with a virginal white line (great effect on a tanned skin),
 “Mythic Khôl,” inspired from oriental customs.

And also:

 “Skin Perfect Prep”, a transparent complexion enhancer that beautifies the skin,
 “Snow Flake Peeling”, white and fresh as the snow… to remove dead cells and impurities,
 “Voile Lacté,” that wraps the body into a moisturising veil that smoothes the skin.

And many other novelties combining innovation and pleasure…

Premium Beauty News - What about the next few months?

Dominique Bouvier - The general mood was really optimistic at the Cosmoprof tradeshow in Bologna last month. The companies we met have a lot of projects. Maybe there was less visitors, but their quality was better than on the previous years. After some necessary corrections, I think that innovation and quality will allow us to attract consumers again and our industry should be able to get out from the depression faster than others.

However, the quality of distribution networks is a key factor of success today. The new European regulation will lead to the creation of new retail channels, in particular regarding dermo-cosmetic products. We’ll be attentive to these major evolutions.

Premium Beauty News - What about your projects for 2009?

Dominique Bouvier - We recently achieved a period of strong industrial investments, and we are now working at the validation of additional quality certifications: in particular the ISO 22176, to complement the ISO 9001, and North America good manufacturing guidelines for OTC drugs.

Furthermore, Strand Cosmetics Europe has launched its own environment-friendly policy and all our staff has signed-up the company’s sustainable development charter, featuring various measures to reduce our environmental impact, in particular regarding energy and water consumption.

We are also about to get the Ecocert certification, which will allow us to widen our range of products and services and to step into the “green cosmetics” market. However, we are particularly cautious on the quality of all those new green operators that are contacting us. There is a real demand for transparency and health safety from final consumers, but deceptive claims are the big problem of this dynamic market segment, and companies should be careful about possible backlashes.

As far as new technologies are concerned, we have concluded several transversal partnerships this year, with the aim to develop innovative products, in particular in the textile area, and we’re also working on new dispersion technologies.