The 2008 event, which was the third to be held to date, took place on September 17 and 19 at the Bombay Exhibition Center.
Organizers, Reed Exhibitions, said that attendance of unique visitors to the two day event grew to 2,418, which represented an increase of over 1,300 people compared to the attendance in 2007.
Reed said that the Skincare Formulation Conference was a particularly big success, having been sold out before the program had got under way.
Skin whitening evolution
The key note speaker in this segment of the conference was Dr. Anjan Ray, who gave a detailed presentation about the evolution of the skin whitening market in India since the early 90s.
Skin whitening has evolved as one of the key drivers of the fast growing skin care market in India, driven by the fact that Indian women, and increasingly some groups of men, deign that lighter skin is more desirable.
Following on from the skin whitening theme, the product development program also included a presentation about product development and the issues that have to be addressed when marketing this type of product in India, while yet another presentation focused on a new skin whitening agent.
Other product presentations included workshops on consumer sensory perception, the demonstration of an advanced emulsion ingredient, as well as innovation seminars addressing topics as diverse as folic acids, gelling agents and encapsulation
Spectrum of color
The show also included a brand new feature, Spectrum, a showcase for color in the industry. This feature helped to highlight the ISCC’s color personality tests, market research player Mintel’s world map of cosmetics as well as color orientated innovations from companies such as LCW Sensient, Cognis and Laboratories Serobiologique.
A survey conducted at the event also revealed that attendees at the show were satisfied with the results, the organizers claimed.
Accordingly 99 percent of visitors said they were completely or very satisfied with the overall show, while of the show’s 73 exhibitors, 52 percent where from India, 34 percent from Europe and the rest from Asia.
However, it is interesting to note the absence of US visitors, particularly considering the fact that a number of US companies have started to make inroads into the Indian market recently.