What’s a better sport than trend watching? Perhaps none.

Beautypress hosted a gala event of editors meeting beauty brands in New York, where I was also invited, and subsequently fascinated by the progress of the beauty industry. Receiving first hand insight into new brands and what makes their creative juices trickle was a refreshing break from the daily drama of established brands clamoring for shelf space in a retail leading environment. Which requires a framework of its own in other chapters of life.

With every brand offering a new niche in the world of beauty, my favorites fell easily into relevant categories of interest.

Spotlight: Celebrity Chef Fragrance

As a launch party for Bravo’s Chef Roble’s fragrance Clique by Roble, in partnership with Brands for Purpose, the event hosted a plethora of edible perfume foods and drinks. The caged bottle itself was a golden pyramid vial with black etching, set for a Spring 2014 launch. The French toast crispy bites were ethereal sweet morsels drizzled with milk and white chocolate, served alongside pink and orange cocktails by SX Liquors.

Aloe Vera Beauty Line, with a Drink!

Aloesource, based entirely on the goodness of aloe vera, was a refreshing green line that launched on the day itself. With organically grown aloe, the founders enlightened many awestruck folks on the qualities of aloe vera. The most impressive element in it’s array of products was the gigantic aloe drink, riding on the notion that if it’s so good on the outside, it’s bound to be as good on the inside too.

A Menu for Beauty by a Food Beauty Line

Placing whole beets, pomegranates, lemons, and chunky pieces of chocolate atop rice, was the food inspired beauty line BeFine, with an inventive tagline: Is your skin hungry? With nothing less than a skin regimen menu, this was definitely the most visually enticing lineup of recent times. My favorites were the cucumber eye cream and lemon based dry spot balm.

A Luxury Men’s Spa Line

Finally a luxury, spa men’s line dedicated only to men; i.e. not a spinoff from a female line. Australian brand Vitaman boasted of exclusive partnerships with high end hotels and spas, giving men’s grooming the pedestal it much needed. With a recent switch of moving its water base to white tea, the pure, heavenly scented line had a plethora of comforting products. The best was a petite candle dish where the molten “wax” was actually moisturizing massage oil!

Re-shapeable Hair Styles

Gatsby, a leading Japanese styling line, showcased its Moving Rubber collection made of hockey-puck-like styling gels in neon colors, all for a distinct hold that allowed one to reshape the hair all day long, from corporate to club. Slated to roll out in November 2013, it was a bonus to have stylist BeScene use the products to style my unruly mane!

The Anti-Frizz Solution

Uberliss was an anti-frizz hair care line, primarily for Brazilian hair and located in Sao Paolo, and with offices in Chicago. It claimed to provide voluptuous hair for the Latin American market, and was attractively bottle din catchy purple holders. Plus, the model in purple was a welcome endorsement.

Everything-Proof Lips

Vouched for by Christina Aguilera, SeneGence was a succulent smudge-proof, kiss-proof, and everything-proof lip line with gorgeous packaging. The celebrity’s favorite hues were a mix of the cranberry and blue red, making it a tempting red for the season.

MD Approved Lash Care

GrandeLash-MD was a phenomenal eye care line, proven to boost lash growth with clear formulas and simple steps. With logical line extensions into mascara, my favorite was the UV hair brush for GrandeHair, poised to revolutionize the process of combing.

Bespoke Fragrances

A bespoke fragrance line, Memoire Liquide had a captivating logo design with equally evocative packagingn, with scents encapsulated in vintage jars or placed in crispy hard cover paper books to add to the bespoke appeal.

A Social Beauty Network

Pampadour was a community based social network that combined the traits of lookbook into a Pinterest style format, making it easy for users and brands to access beauty trends. The platform was impressive, as was the intentional effort of keeping conversations organic and devoid of brand promotions. Definitely a must for social media addicts!

And so concluded a day of inspiration and trend watching in an industry that never tires of innovation. What better place to trend-watch?