1. photo:OlenaYakobchuk,Shutterstock.com
experience. This is a great metric
with which to measure brands.
While textures and touch are crucial
to the user experience, they don’t
feature prominently in our market-
ing and communication to consum-
ers – and in turn consumers don’t
place much emphasis on these sens-
es either. However, in Japan and
South Korea, advertising shows the
consumers enjoying the foam, the
bubbles, the texture on skin, show-
ing how quickly a cream absorbs,
C
onsumers are overstimulat-
ed and overwhelmed in view
of the growing product offer-
ing. Brands thus have to do even
more to stand out and engage them.
There has been a focus on scent and
aromachology, correctly, but here in
the West we have done less with
touch, textures and sounds. Trend
agency The Future Laboratory has
coined the term “sensploration”
(senses + exploration) to describe
using all five senses in the product
Is mousse
the new oil?
Product Development | Poly-sensoriality is
about using all five senses in the product expe-
rience. Helga Hertsig-Lavocah presents some
inspiring concepts.
AUTHOR: Helga Hertsig-Lavocah, Futurologist
and Trend Watcher, Hint Creative Consultancy
Dublin, Ireland
info@hint-cc.com
www.hint-cc.com
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Additional information at
www.cossma.com/qr00080
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GO FUTURE: NEW IDEAS
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2. photo:JiriHera,Shutterstock.com
scenarios such as dandruff or
acne – or men?
Change the texture,
change the experience
So Natural’s newest facial care
product is a “capsule cream”
which comes as easily squasha-
ble capsules, implying freshness
(key ingredients will not oxidise
and lose potency) and adding ex-
citement to the experience.
Skin’s Cookies & Hand Cream
contains “cookie-like bits that
give a moisturising yet silky soft
finish”, which is unique for a
hand cream.
We can also take inspiration from
other categories. Pique Tea Crys-
tals in the US is revolutionising
the traditional tea market, with
crystals rather than leaves. Could
you deliver crystals instead of a
liquid or cream? Or a liquid in-
stead of a powder?
Sounding off
The beauty industry can borrow a
lot of ideas from outside the cate-
gory. High end restaurants are ex-
ploring using music, sound
effects and visuals to enhance
the dining experience. It’s called
multi-sensory gastronomy. In-
deed, sound is an exciting new
frontier. The work of Professor
Charles Spence, the head of the
Crossmodal Research Laboratory,
and sensory architects such as
Condiment Junkie are inspiring a
new wave of product design for
the beauty industry. Again look-
ing to South Korea and Japan, we
see beauty brands using music on
their websites to instil a sense of
beauty and calm in the viewer.
Happy Me debuted sheet masks
with a difference: “Scan the QR
Code located in front of the Happy
Me mask pack with your smart-
phone and select the music thera-
py related to your feeling. Open
the mask pack, cover the face
with the face sheet, let’s start the
music on your smartphone and
relax yourself. These 20 minutes
are completely yours.”
The professional beauty sector al-
ready uses relaxing soundtracks
to help set the mood during treat-
ments, and this is evolving too.
Shiseido has designed a sound
track to enhance its beauty treat-
ments.
Equipment manufacturer Ghar-
ieni provides Spa.Wave system1,
which promises Dynamic Acous-
tic Stimulation. “Special music
and gentle acoustic waves with
binaural tones bring a completely
new anti-stress experience in a
30- or 60-minute sound therapy
session.”
The New York Times reports that
“sound baths” are also taking
off2. This phenomenon is at the
intersection of health and beauty,
which is an exciting area.
On a related note, JeNu uses ul-
trasound to increase the penetra-
how non-sticky it is and the play-
fulness of the cream between the
fingers. This can be extrapolated
to hair, body, underarms … And
it doesn’t only have to be bub-
bles. How about grains, and also
showing consumers how the
product changes the feel of skin,
hair etc.? What about the packag-
ing? Many years ago Bourjois and
Nivea had body washes with bot-
tles that doubled as massage
tools. It’s time to bring this back,
and that’s starting to happen. Ex-
amples include Dove DermaSpa
Uplifted+ Massaging Body Roll-
on.
The Future Laboratory also says,
“One of the key insights about the
new luxury consumer is that expe-
rience is not part of the luxury
package – it is the luxury package.”
This reaffirms the importance of
appealing to more of our senses to
create a bigger experience.
What is the next big
thing after oils?
Looking to textures, everyone
wants to know: what’s next after
oils? In South Korea, So Natu-
ral’s Skin Vitalizing Mousse
Treatment for women looks like
a shaving foam, but is actually a
new way to repair skin. Light yet
rich textures convey luxury and
efficacy. Smaller bubbles are
claimed to enable penetration of
vital ingredients into skin. Per-
haps mousses are set to be the
next big thing? Pantene has just
launched in-shower mousse con-
ditioners. As more mousses from
South Korea enter the West, we
expect renewed interest in this
format.
Fizzing our way to the top
One of the newest products from
ELF is a bubble mask. These fizz-
ing masks are common in South
Korea. Could this mean a come-
back for crackling body sprays?
Speaking of fizz, Vöslauer, an
Austrian mineral water, launched
an extra-fizzy water last autumn.
This could inspire extra fizzy
beauty products for challenging
Fizzing masks
and the comeback
of crackling body
sprays inspire
extra fizzy beauty
products for chal-
lenging scenarios
A LOOK ACROSS
THE POND
The beauty industry
can borrow a lot
of ideas from out-
side the category
Could you deliver crystals instead of a liquid or cream?
GO FUTURE: NEW IDEAS
www.cossma.com l 13

3. photos:YuliaMladichsh,Shutterstock.com;Dove
tion of active ingredients into skin.
How can sound enhance your brand?
More to be done with vision
Turning now to the most dominant
sense: vision and light. Light thera-
py is well established in skin care
(Harvey Nichols has a drop-in Light
Salon), but we can do more with it.
Italian researchers have boosted the
nutritional composition of leafy veg-
etables by changing the light intensi-
ty at harvest3. Extrapolate this to all
natural-derived ingredients and we
have a new way to boost perfor-
mance and tell a story that captures
the imagination of consumers. While
it’s true that some niche beauty
brands have the harvest of ingredi-
ents as their USP, e.g. harvested in
moonlight, this is still rather rare.
And of course, seeing is believing.
From chunks of fruit in a beverage
(Zpirit in Canada) to petals, grains
and peels in beauty products (Neo-
gen) to the cookie chips in hand
cream ( )… If we can visual-
ise the active ingredient and/or the
USP, we have an advantage over the
competition.
Turning the heat up or down
Warming and cooling also add to the
beauty experience. This is not new
or particularly innovative, but it
brings something unusual and there-
fore is growing in popularity. Cao-
lion in South Korea has two cleans-
ing foams – one cooling, one
warming. The Tao Wei Cool2Hot
Sonic Beautifier is a device with two
settings: hot and cold. “Hot will help
liquefy your moisturizing cream/se-
rum while soothing sonic waves cre-
ate maximum absorption into your
skin. Cold setting will help seal the
benefit into your skin leaving it soft
and luminous.”
Cryotherapy is gaining traction with
the beauty crowd, after starting out
as a therapy for sports injuries. The
prestigious Therme Marine Spa in
Monte Carlo offers cryotherapy,
claiming it has anti-ageing benefits4.
The next step is to leapfrog this to a
“diluted” form for home use. Think
of shower products that are more ef-
fective at lower temperatures, or icy
post-shower treatments to kick-start
the metabolism.
Poly-sensoriality impacts all
categories
We know a “trend” is important
when it cuts across many sectors.
Art galleries are also exploring mul-
ti-sensory experiences; last year,
two major galleries in London did
just that. The National Gallery pre-
sented “Soundscapes: hear the
painting, see the sound” and the
Tate’s Sensorium promised “experi-
ence art with all your senses”. Po-
ly-sensorial is now the norm and
products that don’t offer more risk
being left behind. □
This article on poly-sensoriality is an extract of the keynote
address for C.H. Erbslöh’s 4th European Cosmetic Forum,
held in Düsseldorf 18 &19 February 2016. It features one
of the three key trends dominating toiletries and personal
care in 2017: Customisation, Poly-sensoriality and
Health is Beauty. Customisation was covered in issue
12/COSSMA, page 36, see download panel.
The reference list and product photos can be found on the
Internet – see download panel
“Poly-sensorial is now the norm – so products
that don’t offer more risk being left behind”
Seeing is believing: visualising active ingredients
Bottles that double as massage
tools are coming back
GO FUTURE: NEW IDEAS
14 l COSSMA 3 I 2016 www.cossma.com

4. Dr Thomas Förster, Henkel
“OIL TECHNOLOGY
AND MORE”
GO FUTURE:
NEW IDEAS
Poly-sensoriality –
Is mousse the new oil?
SPOTLIGHT:
FRAGRANCES
Creating trends
for tomorrow
DR ALEXANDRA ERLACH
Delta-SR, talks
about an alternative
for palm oil
3 / 2016
COSMETICS | SPRAY TECHNOLOGY | MARKETING WWW.COSSMA.COM
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