Earlier this month over 240 beauty brands set up shop at Pier 94, a massive event location on Manhattan’s west side, at the fifth annual Indie Beauty Expo. Over the course of two days, retail buyers, journalists and bloggers, among others in the beauty industry met the people behind the brands, tested their products and mingled among their industry cohorts.
The brands represented at the event ranged broadly, from CBD-infused skincare lines to cruelty-free cosmetics to an all-natural charcoal toothpaste. But what they all had in common? They’re all—as the name of the event might have you expect—independent brands.
The Indie Beauty Expo was founded in 2015 by Jillian Wright, an aesthetician, and entrepreneur Nader Naeymi-Rad as an arena for brands that are ready for expansion but not quite yet at the point of being acquired by one of the world’s big beauty conglomerates, such as L’Óreal or Estée Lauder.
It’s a gap in the market Wright herself identified in the early days of her own skincare line, Jillian Wright Skincare. She didn’t see the right place for a new, emerging brand—but one that was logistically ready for commercial expansion—to connect with the rest of the industry in person.
“One specific problem she had was there was nowhere in her mind that she could exhibit her brand to the right buyers and press,” Naeymi-Rad said. “Other trade shows are either too big, with 1,400 exhibitors in Las Vegas, or there was a farmers market.”
The answer was to team up with Naeymi-Rad, her friend and a business executive, to create the Indie Beauty Expo, an event that would hit that sweet spot between massive convention and mom-and-pop product stand. It started with 40 brands in 2015 and as of this year has grown to nearly 250, and has expanded to other cities in the U.S., including Dallas and Los Angeles, as well as Europe, in London and Berlin.
Beyond the brand-led booths, this year’s event at Pier 94 also featured trendy neon lights, millennial pink-hued couches and a café serving snacks and lunch.
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