At this year’s 11th edition of Cosmoprof NA (CPNA), the popular and massive B2B beauty show most recently held July 28-31 in Las Vegas, there was a noticeable focus on “speed to market” offerings by beauty packaging exhibitors. In this digital age of social influencers, constant newness and overnight blockbuster products, cosmetic brands are under increasing pressure to launch ahead of the competition—and industry suppliers are doubling down with innovative solutions to accommodate urgent customer requests.

This new market invigoration along with the rising number of small brands—and global icons as well—that want to get in on a possible big beauty payoff played an increased role in this year’s CPNA attendance figures. The packaging arena drew a larger-than-ever number of exhibitors—and visitors—while the finished product and specialty areas overflowed with attendees.

According to Daniela Ciocan, marketing director, CPNA, “Cosmoprof North America has seen 11 years of consecutive growth with this year surpassing a milestone bringing together over 1,400 exhibiting companies and 40,000 attendees.”

The packaging sector has also seen equal growth in the exhibit space along with an uptick in the quality of buyers and suppliers participating, said Ciocan. This year, the Discover Pack program attracted new suppliers who were guaranteed face-to-face meetings with key buyers from companies including L’Oréal and The Estée Lauder Companies.” To help recognize package excellence, CPNA, in collaboration with Beauty Packaging magazine, hosted the Beauty Innovation and Design Awards (the winners of the BeautyID Awards are featured here. Finalists were exhibited in display cases on the show floor.

During the show, the CPNA team also issued an exciting announcement concerning the packaging sector. Ciocan explains, “To continue the momentum, next year the packaging sector will see a re-branding under the Cosmopack name with many new initiatives to be announced soon.”

Trends That Caught Our Eye

Beauty Packaging’s publisher, Jay Gorga, and I spent our time at Cosmoprof NA walking the show floor, and visiting with industry suppliers and brands. (Be sure to check out video interviews from the show -- including a chat with Premi Beauty, new paper compacts at Compax, and a 'green' line by Cosmopak.)

As always, it was a vibrant exhibition and conference space filled with discoveries of small and large trends and keen insight on

Until then, you can get your fix at Cosmoprof & Cosmopack Asia Hong Kong (November 13-16, 2018); and Cosmoprof & Cosmopack Bologna (March 14-18, 2019).