Shahd Alhamdan
Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — The Kingdom market for cosmetics and beauty products is the largest in the Middle East. Estimations of the annual spending on cosmetics in Saudi Arabia are around SR60 billions, according to ‘Euromonitor’.
The growing market has lured many local and international beauty businesses to focus on the Saudi market. For those businesses, ‘Saudi Health and Beauty Exhibition’, which started on Nov. 25 and ends Saturday, is fundamental. This occasion is an opportunity for many businesses to introduce and market their products and services.
More than 15 countries participated in this exhibition at Jeddah Centre for Forums and Events. It was open to visitors from 4.00 p.m. until 11.00 p.m., for a fee of SR50 per visitor. Several beauty competitions were part of the exhibition such as, makeup and nail art, as well as, hairstyle competitions.
Visitors had the chance to know more about all the diet centers in Jeddah and benefit from the exclusive offers that are only available in the exhibition. Many sports businesses and gyms are also showcasing their services.
Some of the businesses believe that participating in this exhibition will give them the chance to educate new customers about their products.
Seham Kurdi, a saleswoman for ‘Water Therapy Shower’, had the chance to explain to people about the business products and persuade some of the people to buy during the event.
She said the shower has an advanced shower filtration that eliminates chlorine and other contaminants like rust and limescale (white deposits inside pipes). After using the shower for a while, the user will have a better skin tone and hair sheen.
In the sports zone of the expo, Saudi disabled champions were available. It was their first time in this show. They were invited to present to people their success stories.
According to the Public Relation and Social Responsibility arm of the General Presidency of Youth Welfare Jeddah, Jeddah Special Need Club spokesman Mohammed Afees said, this is a suitable event for this group to present themselves to the society and prove to them what they are capable of. Some of their stories inspired to visitors.
Ekram Fouad, a Saudi female visitor said, “Appreciated efforts to present new products. I liked that the exhibition took care of the disabled and gave them the chance to showcase their achievements to people and receive more encouragement. I liked the idea of health care and presenting health businesses products. However, there was not any special offers to attract customers to buy like other exhibitions.”
Many of the social media celebrities visited the place and promoted it through Snapchat and other applications. During the second day several Saudi TV and radio presenters marched between people to a stage while they sang the national anthem. They were wearing soldiers t-shirts, too.
Women not only enjoyed interacting with the cosmetics and make-up saleswomen, but also experienced their services in ‘ Beauty Me’ zone. In this zone women had the chance of having their, hair, nail, face, and make-up done for free, to know more about the products before buying it. Women really enjoyed this zone’s services.
Some of the single males visitors did not like the exhibition very much because they are only allowed to enter small areas of the event since the rest was either zoned for only families or women only.
A 15-year-old Saudi female, Tala, was annoyed because she was not allowed to visit the exhibition since she was under 15. She said, “She is not a child anymore and she is interested in such businesses. She wanted to go with her family to the exhibition so she can meet the social media celebrities. She also wanted to do her nails and hair in the women zone, yet she couldn’t because of the age restrictions.”
