Product profiles: Top stories on the new product innovations in the APAC beauty space

1 – Make or break: Kao hopes new Essential range will save hair care business from stagnation – CEO​

Japanese personal care conglomerate Kao Corporation has announced a new hair care range under the Essential banner, which it believes will help revive its hair care business.​

The new range, Essentials The Beauty will debut on the market on August 28 and is said to help improve the texture of hair.

Kao developed this line in response to the growing interest in hair treatment products, especially now during the pandemic when people are looking for high efficacy products that can be used at home.

The key ingredient in the new products is 18-methyleicosanoic acid (18-MEA), which Kao says is an essential ingredient to even hair texture and beautiful hair overall.

2 – Brand renewal: Sinn Purete taps into regenerative powers of starfish for new anti-ageing skin care line

Japanese-based Sinn Purete has rebranded itself as a mindful beauty brand complete with a new anti-ageing skin care line that taps into the regenerative powers of the starfish​ to care for the skin.

Sinn Purete was founded in 2005 under John Masters Organics. In 2020, the brand was transferred to Japanese companies Anais Co. and Jimos Co. that jointly operate the brand today.

This year, Sinn Purete underwent a rebranding and was relaunched in June as a mindful beauty brand.

This led to a revitalisation of its skin care portfolio. Among the new lines, the brand developed a new premium ageing care series.

3 – The eyes have it: Shiseido promises to offer ‘new experiences’ with Second Skin tech launch in October

Shiseido has confirmed plans to launch Second Skin on October 1​ – a technology that can diminish undereye ageing signs without make-up, in a move the firm says will offer “new experiences” to consumers.

The SHISEIDO Bio Performance series will consist of the Second Skin and a trial kit will be launched in Japan on October 1 and will retail from JPY3,850 (U$34.87) to JPY35,200 (U$318.82).

This technology was acquired in 2018 through the takeover of Olivo Laboratories, a US-based start-up that created the patented XPL Second Skin tech, a breathable, flexible, and nearly invisible artificial skin.

After its acquisition, the company spent three years to ready the technology for commercialisation, testing the product on around 4,000 people in the US and Japan.

4 – Strengthening Decorté: Kosé Corp aims to revitalise brand with new serum and online initiatives

Japanese cosmetics firm Kosé Corporation is working to rejuvenate the Decorté brand with a new product launch​ and e-commerce platform to capitalise on the global luxury beauty demand.

Founded in 1970, Decorté Cosmetics is a cosmetics brand under Kosé’s high prestige beauty portfolio, which also consists of brands including Jill Stuart and ADDICTION.

To capitalise on the potential of Decorté, Kosé has announced a series of initiatives to boost the brand globally.

Coming September, the company will mark the debut of a revamped version of Decorté’s Liposome serum.

5 – Activated apples: Biotech firm Renovatio claims new APSKIN products have retinol-like effects ‘without the downsides’

Australian firm Renovatio Bioscience has launched two new cosmetic products​ with an enhanced formula that it believes can rival retinol products in terms of efficacy without the tricky side effects.

Renovatio was founded in 2016 and has a range of health, wellness and beauty cosmetic products that contain activated phenolics extracted from apples.

This ingredient is extracted using a technique developed by Renovatio founder and technical director Dr Vincent Candrawinata, which extracts the phenolic antioxidants with water. The result is an antioxidant that is water-based and not chemically synthesised.

The company offers cosmetic products under the APSKIN brand which previously consisted of a single skin cream. The latest products to join this August are the APSKIN Face Ultra Antioxidant Cream and Body Ultra Antioxidant Cream.