Dubai: Statuesque models, made even taller by their high heels, sauntered in the Dubai Exhibition Centre halls as women of varying shapes and sizes patiently queue up at the registration desks outside.
Inside the six halls of the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre where the 15th edition of the Beautyworld Middle East were held, women were being given foot massages, getting eyebrow tattoos or oxygen treatments on their faces.
A big draw was the ‘Walk of Beauty' in the Al Mutaqua Ballroom where loud disco music was playing as people sat around a stage.
It was not a fashion show. A professional hair dresser worked fast with a blow dryer and his fingers and styled a woman's hair to cheers and whistles as strobe lights zig-zagged around the room to the fast music.
"The extent of the beauty industry never ceases to amaze me," says Ahmad Pauwels, CEO of Epoc Messe Frankfurt, organisers of the event, in his foreword in the show's catalogue.
"Beauty is one of the few industries which is still growing."
Other than hair, the bigger attraction for women, some of whom could be seen in full niqab (face veil), were skin creams, which promised that their faces will retain their youth by applying the various concoctions.
"People have been trying since ages to stop ageing," says Christopher Quet, from the French firm 3chenes, which was marketing a depigmentation cream and lozenges which can turn your skin lighter. The lozenges are not yet sold here but are available in Kuwait, he says.
Asked whether such anti-ageing creams work, "Yes of course," he says emphatically. "You get great results in 28 days."
The cream reportedly reduces wrinkles by 21 per cent and makes the skin more younger looking.
The areas where wrinkles are more obvious are the forehead, near the eyes and around the mouth, the laughter lines.
Dr Rabih Al Hajji, president of Cosmedical Solutions, says that skin lighteners work for Type 4 skin people, who are Middle Eastern, Asians, Hispanics and Native Americans. Type 4 skin tans easily but burns less in the sun.
"Skin lighteners do not offer a dramatic change," he says, when asked whether changing your skin tone is unnatural.
"Putting on make-up, in contrast, is a more dramatic change," he says.
Bizarre
The beauty industry has some bizarre ways to make you beautiful. The creams on show included everything from snake venom to stem cells and diamond dust.
Some skin specialists believe that 87 per cent of skin lighteners do not work. But Perlita Dela Guce, sales manager at JS International which markets the Histomer treatment creams, says UAE women are "really crazy" about skin treatments. "When women reach 38 years there are hormonal changes and these [creams] help in the anti-aging process."
The beauty and grooming business in the UAE is bucking the recessionary trend and a number of international brands are seeking a foothold in this market.
According to Markus Reichenspurner, general manager of Dr Kitzinger healthcare, an Austrian company, says it is marketing a niche product and is seeking to enter this market.
The doctor, a specialist in burns, has brought his expertise in skin cell growth from the fields of plastic and cosmetic surgery. The creams apparently work by rejuvenating the existing cells.
Arab women are known to have the healthiest and youngest looking skin in the world, says an organiser of the event which ended on Thursday. It is estimated that Emirati women spend close to Dh1 billion per year on beauty products and treatments.
Grey zone: Not necessarily the cream of the crop
A specialist dermatologist questioned the efficacy of skin creams which promise to make you look younger, saying most of these products are in the "grey zone".
"There is usually no controlled, evidence-based research [to show they work]", says Dr Ikramullah Al Nasser, medical director of Dermacare Skin Centre. "The marketeers are cleverly exploiting desperate people who are dissatisfied by their looks," he said. "Looking good has become important in today's world where your business, job, promotion, depend on it."
He said there is no "magic solution" to looking younger and slammed the new trend towards "cosmoceuticals", an area where manufacturers have cleverly labelled themselves to bypass the long process of licensing. Regular moisturising creams are good enough for your skin, he said.
The regional coordinator for cosmetic and aesthetic dermatology said it is still a long way for stem cells to become a theurapetic product. (Some manufacturers claim their products have been derived from stem cell technology).
Do you depend on beauty products? Do you do your research about a product before you buy it? Or do you trust the brand?
