Hello you beauties,

This December brings the last month of the whirlwind that has been 2020, and we are choosing to go out with a bang by announcing tomorrow our last beauty awards for the year: The 2020 Scandinavian Global Makeup Awards.

In this beauty magazine, you can read all the winners for 2020.  It is so much fun doing our makeup and beauty awards region by region.  In this year's Scandinavia region, we see the hottest brands from the brassicaly cold Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.

The Nordics opt for a cleaner, and more eco friendly type of beauty - with product packaging often being recyclable, and the products itself often organic, non toxic and also usually non harmful to the environment.  The products themselves are usually of extremely high quality and they tend to prefer a more minimalistic approach to beauty.  Less is more, and the Scandinavians tend to prefer less bottles over more.  Packaging, like the number of beauty products in their cabinet, is scaled black.  There is more monochrome, more simplicity and yet more style.

There was a myriad of entries in this years 2020 Scandinavian Global Makeup Awards and we had so many notable winners. For Hair and Body brands such as Rosenserien, to Sweden Eco, Eleni & Chris and Zenz Organic to makeup brands such as IDUN Minerals and Karmameju's beautiful new BB suncreams.  We were excited to welcome this year SkinChemists, Dr Botanicals and Esse to the skincare categories along side past winners such as Barr Sweden and FOREO (who have launched their incredible beauty gadgets BEAR and UFO2. 

Other notable winners are Icelandic luxury skincare brand Taramar - which uses algae at the forefront of their science.  Primex Iceland - which uses Chitosan as its unique ingredient (sustainable prawn shells from the Atlantic Ocean). Marina Miracle showcased their incredible range, from their lash and eyebrow serum which was a winner in previous awards as well as showcasing their skincare range - we loved their sweet and creamy oil cleanser.   Aiia was also a strong winner in this years awards with its high end skincare founded upon water based serums.

Winners in our beauty awards receive an entry on our website, an image and text in our online magazine and a certificate.  Brands can even choose to further promote their win with a perspex trophy.  The 2021 Scandinavian Global Makeup Awards will return September 15th 2021.  With over 300 entrants it's impossible to name them all in one post, but we hope you enjoy reading our favourites in Global Makeup Magazine.

Who knows what next year will have in store for us and the world.  We were so impressed with all the brands ability to go with the flow all with the backdrop of a global pandemic which impacted staff working from home, warehouse organisation and postage logistics.  In the face of such uncertainty, we know next year will be bigger and brighter as we saw such an impressive range of products entered.  Products that can provide that much needed pick-me-up for those who have had to close themselves up at home with lockdown after lockdown enforced.

To all our readers - Thank You!  We are so happy so many of you tune into Global Makeup Magazine, and we wish you the happiest of Christmas Holidays and New Years.  The Global Makeup Awards commences again from January 1st, launching with our biggest region for the Global Makeup Awards and then followed shortly after by Global Green Beauty Awards - which celebrates all green beauty and eco beauty award winners.

Wishing you a safe December
Dominique
Editor of Global Makeup Magazine

Good (early) morning everyone!

It's Dominique here from the Global Makeup Awards.  Today I'm up too early....3.45am because the sun is just rising, it's one day after the summer solstice.  That's not a regular habit of mine... more just being someone who once sees the sun is up, I can never get back to sleep again, anyone else like that?

A little quick update with where we are with the awards.  We currently have TWO awards open.  We have both the 2020 Global Green Beauty Awards open (a green beauty awards alternative) and the 2020 USA Global Makeup Awards open. (This is like the other Global Makeup Awards you know and love, but this time we've branched out into the fabulous American market, where the is so much beauty innovation and expertise.  We are so excited to be launching in the USA and for our USA beauty awards to be taking on a whole other shape and dimension.  Entries for the Global Green Beauty Award end July 15th, and for the USA Global Makeup Awards the entries close August 1st.  We don't normally have two awards running at the same time, but as you all know coronavirus has wreaked havoc on schedules and timings so we have had to have had a little reshuffle!

In other beauty related news, we have had delivery of our 2020 UK Global Makeup Awards trophies.  They are so beautiful.  We love our innovatively designed A6 perspex block beauty award trophies.  They look so cute on a desk to celebrate a win or placed on a shelf. 

If you have just entered our Global Green Beauty Awards or the USA Global Makeup Awards and would like to order one like in the picture, just let us know.  Why not try and collect one for each global region that we run our awards in, or one each year?  They cost £150 for one trophy celebrating one win, but be sure to let us know soon as you win as we have a short order window.

What do you receive when you win in our awards?
We really do try to add value in our awards.  Every winner in our beauty awards receives for free and entry in our Global Makeup Magazine, and for the moment that includes an image too. You also receive a paper certificate posted to your door and of course our iconic awards logo and a mention with back link on our website.  But, if that's not enough for you and you would like something physical on your desk, then an additional perspex trophy is exactly what you are looking for.  

We also announce the winners in Diary Directory.  Have you signed up to it yet?  It is such an amazing beauty tool to find out  what is going on in the beauty events calendar, and their daily email is really interesting.  You'll also never miss out on our awards dates this way either!

Will you ever run a gala?

A gala for our beauty awards is something we are so keen to do.  What better event is there for networking, socialising, having a good knees up and of course for finding out the winners to the beauty awards with a celebration gala.  However, for the moment with the coronavirus pandemic we need to keep things safe.  As soon as things return to pre-apocalypse (kidding! but you know what I mean) then it is definitely something we will put on the table.

The sun is really coming up now and it's already time for another coffee.  If you have received your UK Global Makeup Awards trophy please do send me a picture of it so I can feature on the website and social media.  Our next UK awards isn't until January 2021 so let's keep the ball rolling and news about the 2020 awards hot hot hot!

Peace and love
Dominique x

.Hi Everyone, 

We thought we would look into and explore what is happening to the beauty industry during the coronavirus pandemic.  There's some pretty scary stats out there about the economy in general - four days ago the BBC reported that the economy has drunk a record 20.4% in April.  The big question in our industry though is, how is the beauty and cosmetics industry being affected?

Firstly - some products are not only on the up, but are spiralling into the stratospheres of success - bars of soap, liquid soap, hand sanitiser and disinfecting products.   We have also seen beauty brands help out - one of our winner's in the UK 2020 Global Makeup Awards, the L'Occitane Group, has manufactured over 70,000 litres of hand sanitizer for health officials.

As spas and salons have been forced to shut by government mandate (Treatwell is currently suspended), we have also seen a huge rise in home treatments.  That includes home face masks, box hair dye kits and home hair removal kits. At this point we of course want to mention our favourite hair removal kit, and winner in the UK 2020 Global Makeup Awards - No Mo-Stache's No Mo-Unibrow.   

On the other hand, the beauty events calendar has been thrown into the air.  Beauty Awards with galas have had to cancel the galas of course and stream them online or to announce them online.  Beauty Expos such as Bologna's Cosmoprof has been postponed until next year and will be Spring 2021.  People are also looking after themselves more in lockdown  - we are seeing 40% of high income earners looking to actively manage their stress, including with at home spa treatments.

Brands have been forced online, and have been selling through their website, facebook, Instagram and other online channels. Many, who haven't been able to adapt to selling online, have ceased business for months,  It's not all doom and gloom for the beauty industry though.  Euromonitor international predicts that the beauty sector, both luxury and non luxury, is set to fall by just 2% this year.  It is a negative fall, but it could have been much worse.  For example, comparatively, the luxury goods market will fall 18% this year globally.  As a side note, Switzerland is seeing a fall of 25% for the luxury goods market, which is a whopping fall of 1 in 4.  We are also expected to see an economic bounce back, and we are hoping some consumers have experimented with new beauty brands during lockdown.

In addition to the above - we thought you might want to see closer to home our own experiences and expectations for the beauty industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of course we have seen business struggle with warehouse issues, particularly at the beginning of the outbreak when there were no organised ways to manage social distancing, but that now seems to almost have disappeared.  People have more guidance and know how to work appropriately.  We are also seeing people want to use marketing more than ever to promote their brands online.  We have seen a monumental number of entries in the Global Green Beauty Awards.  This awards is green and clean, and it seems the coronavirus outbreak has also led people to be more environmentally aware.  This has been the perfect backdrop to enter the 2020 Global Green Beauty Awards.

Though we had to postpone Asia as a beauty awards which was due to launch, regrettably, during the Chinese coronavirus outbreak, as a whole the other regions haven't been affected and are going ahead as scheduled. As an online beauty awards and makeup awards, we are online only so thankfully we have not had to cancel any galas and therefore on a personal level haven't been too affected by the crisis.

We hope everyone is slowly getting back to normal and looking forward to nominating their brands in our upcoming USA Global Makeup Awards (An American Beauty Award) and the Global Green Beauty Awards (an environmentally friendly green beauty award).

Best wishes the GMA team xx

The 2020 Global Green Beauty awards is aimed at beauty brands who are trying to bring out more green beauty lines or clean beauty lines.  The idea is to educate and to move towards a more eco conscious direction for beauty brands and to celebrate those brands which are already greener and cleaner.

There are many ways to be green and clean, for example being plastic free, zero waste, natural, organic, vegan and cruelty free.  But being one doesn't necessary mean you are the other.  So in today's blog post we thought we would go through some environmental and ecological terminology as it isn't always that clear.  It is one thing when you're in the supermarket picking up organic eggs, but another thing when you are browsing for the latest beauty products.

What is Vegan beauty?

Vegan beauty products by definition contain no animal products or animal derivatives.  That means, no lanolin, no beeswax, no honey, no collagen, no gelatin for example. 

Vegan cosmetics does not necessarily therefore mean it is not tested on animals.  The term purely means it contains no animal products or derivatives.  Saying that, many many ethical brands try to tick all the boxes and they will often be both vegan and cruelty free beauty products.  However, saying it is Vegan is not enough to ensure it is cruelty free, it also needs to state that too in order to be certain it is.  Often this is written on the packaging, or on the website, otherwise you can check with the manufacturer directly.

What are cruelty free beauty products?

Ok, so for a brand to be cruelty free, it needs to not test the products on animals at any stage. 

That sounds easy, so where does the gray area begin?

Often companies say they are 'required by law' to test on animals.  This is more often than not for global brands where in some countries it is necessary to test on animals for the product to be able to be sold there.  That means, those companies are not cruelty free, as at some stage (to sell the products in some countries) they have to test on animals, even if it is through a third party.

So is my cruelty free product vegan?
As we said above, being cruelty free does not equate to the product being vegan.  This is as though no animals may have been tested on, the product may still contain a product like honey, and therefore not be considered as vegan as the ingredients include animal derivatives.

That's quite a lot of information when looking at vegan and cruelty free cosmetics brands, but we hope that cleared up some questions for you for when you are next browsing for your next beauty purchase.

We celebrate all brands that are making efforts to support the environment, whether in its ingredients, ethics, testing or more.  Slowly slowly, we are all becoming more aware about the environment and our impact on it, as well as its impact on us.  We look forward to sharing the winners showcase with you for the 2020 Global Green Beauty Awards on the 10th August when we announce the winners in the Global Makeup Magazine.  This awards is for all brands who have products which are in some way, ethical, green and of course clean.

Have a great day, 
​The Global Makeup Awards team xx