Latest posts by Martin Moodie (see all)
- Giesen and Strange Nature reunions; Aotea & Fushtagrammable experiences in Christchurch - March 21, 2025
- Finding a very New Zealand fault on the wondrous West Coast - March 16, 2025
- Back in New Zealand, Aotearoa, land of the long white cloud - March 11, 2025
It’s not often – in fact not ever – in these troubled times I am told by a travel retail executive that 2024 sales were up +60% year-on-year. And off a solid rather than post-COVID base.
Such is not only the case with Shiseido in Japan travel retail but 2025 is also shaping up as another gangbuster year (at least in sales rather than growth terms due to the higher baseline comparative).
The executive in question is Shiseido Travel Retail Japan Vice President Tatsuya Nagai, believe it or not a 33-year veteran of the Japanese beauty powerhouse – his youthful looks surely the best possible indicator of the efficacy of his company’s products and a reminder perhaps to me that I should adopt them.
As I may. More of that in a moment.
I met Nagai-san today in Japan Duty Free Ginza, the splendid eighth floor offering run in a joint venture between controlling shareholder Japan Airport Terminal Co, NAA Retailing Co and Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings.
I am on ‘Day Zero’ of a four-day visit to Tokyo to discover more about Shiseido’s much-anticipated new Ultimune Power Infusing Serum, described as a breakthrough in skin immunity research built on more than 30 years of scientific innovation.
The global launch is being hosted this week in the Japanese capital and I count myself privileged to attend one of the landmark beauty events of recent times.
I won’t go into the science too deeply here. Suffice to say this breakthrough formulation targets ageing’s root causes, reinforcing the skin’s moisture barrier to combat dryness and visible signs of ageing.
Wow. In me it may find not so much a sign but a Las Vegas-like strip of them, all lit up in bright (or not so bright) digital glow.
And while I may not exactly represent Shiseido’s key target customer, the company was brave enough nonetheless to send me a product sample a few weeks back, inviting me to try Ultimune Power Infusing Serum, and to analyse (and chronicle) the impact on my skin over a four-week journey in the run-up to launch.
So what happened? First, a disclaimer. My intense travel schedule of recent weeks meant I did not get to try the new Shiseido Ultimune Power Infusing Serum until a week or so before my departure to Tokyo. Mea (very) culpa.
Too short to gauge its effects, right?
But wait… there’s already a twist in this very short tale. Last Friday I met ex-TFWA CEO Andrew Ford – now heading his own successful Hong Kong-based consultancy firm Paccaya Resources (if you want expert advice on airport commercial revenue strategy, he’s your man).
Andrew is a straight shooter and not prone to false praise. But as we met outside our planned rendezvous in Aberdeen (the Hong Kong version, not Scotland), he looked at me with what appeared to be bemused, almost startled surprise.
“Wow. You look so young!”
“Yeah, right,” I replied with all the miserable self-deprecation of a man approaching the end of his seventh decade.
“No, I’m not joking. You do. You look so much younger.”
Could this much-anticipated breakthrough in anti-ageing be 1) Linked to my belated use of the new Shiseido Ultimune Power Infusing Serum? 2) Have coincided with a rapid deterioration in Andrew’s visual acuity? Or 3) Been because he was speaking over my shoulder to a beguiling young lady behind me?
“I’m serious, Martin,” Andrew insisted, the name confirming it was me he was addressing. “You look a lot younger.”
There you have it. Answer one rules.
OK, time to stop here before this belatedly curious case of Benjamin Button-itis gets out of hand. Shiseido advises using Ultimune Power Infusing Serum in the morning and at night. Heck, I might just throw in morning and afternoon tea and lunchtime treatments for I swear to whatever God there might be in the sky that it does feel amazing on my skin.
More seriously, look out for my forthcoming reports this week on what is seriously shaping as one of the most significant skincare breakthroughs in recent years. One that will continue to propel the Shiseido story, buoyed here in travel retail not only by the Yen’s continued weakness but by a fantastic innovation pipeline of which Ultimune Power Infusing Serum is the latest but by far not the only filling. ✈
You must be logged in to post a comment.