Beautyworld Middle East Awards Week 2020 announce winners over a three-day digital programme celebrating 14 winners, including surprise Lifetime Achievement Award for Nazih Group founder.
The regional beauty industry’s finest were honoured at the inaugural Beautyworld Middle East Awards Week, which concluded virtually on (15 December 2020) after a packed programme of delighted winners, industry expert insights, and capped with a surprise award for one of the region’s most recognised industry figures.
Nazih Hamad, Managing Director of Nazih Group, one of the Middle East and Africa’s (MENA) largest distributors of professional haircare products, skincare and cosmetics, received a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his outstanding industry contributions over a career spanning more than 40 years.
Mr Hamad first started distributing high-quality hair and beauty products in the Middle East in 1980. Shortly after, he founded Nazih Group, developing it into a market leader that now distributes dozens of premium beauty brands in more than 15 MENA countries.
A shortlist of 66 awards finalists from 280 entries contested 13 categories at the Beautyworld Middle East Awards Week 2020, with the event programme comprising 30-45 minute videos streamed over three days; day one for Marketing & Innovation, day two for Exceptional Products, and day three for Game Changers.
American company Terra Beauty Bars took home ‘virtually’ two awards; the first for its Soy Plant-Based Polish Remover in the Innovative Beauty Product of the Year category, and the second for its Floral Infusion Multitasking Oil in the Natural Beauty Product of the Year category.
Elsewhere, the highly competitive Homegrown Talent of the Year category – for the best brand conceived and launched in the Middle East – was awarded to LYN Love Your Nails, a new nail polish with a propriety permeable formulation allowing water and air to flow through the nail lacquer and contact the nail.
The virtual Beautyworld Middle East Awards Week was hosted by Messe Frankfurt Middle East, organiser of Beautyworld Middle East, the region’s largest international exhibition for beauty products, haircare, fragrances, and wellbeing.
Simon Mellor, CEO of Messe Frankfurt Middle East, delivered the welcoming address for the online viewers: “It is almost a year since we conceived this inaugural awards event, designed as a glittering gala dinner with friends and colleagues recognising the very best of our industry. That plan, like so many in 2020 was not possible, but we wanted to deliver the results and close the year in celebration.
“The virtual Beautyworld Middle East Awards Week allows us to do this. This is a celebration of resilience, innovation, foresight, and friendship. A celebration not just for the finalists and winners, but for professionals within the entire beauty industry watching our programme from wherever you may be, whether from your place of work or home.”
The complete list of the awards’ inaugural winners can be viewed Online. Replays of the video programme, which also included presentations and opinion pieces from experts sharing their vision and trends shaping the industry’s future in a post-pandemic world, can be viewed on Beautyworld Middle East’s Website.
Beautyworld Middle East meanwhile will take place as an autumn show from 2021 onwards, with the 25th edition set to take place from 5-7 October 2021 at the Dubai World Trade Centre. It will cover the six product groups of Hair, Nails, and Salon Suppliers; Cosmetics and Skincare; Personal Care and Hygiene; Machinery, Packaging, Raw Materials, and Contract Manufacturing; Fragrance Compounds and Finished Fragrances; and Natural and Organic.
