Cosmetics, beauty care, beauty or a thousand other terms: this is the personal and beauty care industry. It is not just a question of appearance but it is also often related to health and inner beauty. It goes without saying that the industry is focussed on personal physical care (skin, hair and body, etc.) and such care and treatment is required to express its potential via crafted copy and translations. The quality and success of a product being promoted depends on these factors.
The market is sophisticated and even the most effective and useful product risks undermining its positioning and perceived brand quality if the translation of product packaging and literature is second rate. Would you buy a product where the translation of its benefits is not up to standard? We don’t think so. Translating labels in Spanish or other languages it’s not that easy.
This is why it is so important to always count on a translation agency specialized in beauty who cooperate with experts that know the industry well and that are familiar with the terminology. LingoSpell’s best cosmetics translators are also consumers of the products for which they provide translations. They are real industry and beauty product followers and keep abreast of all new developments.
The market is constantly evolving and the attentive observer will have noticed that there has been an increasingly dominant trend to market cosmetics and beauty care devices not only to women but also to men. This means that terminology has shifted to a genderless form - extremely difficult to render in Latin languages, such as Italian and Spanish where gender is essential.
A further market evolution is the shift towards celebrating acceptance of one’s body and the aging process, rather than viewing changing body contours and the signs of aging as a battle to be fought: “wrinkles” are no longer a bane and cosmetics companies prefer talking about preventing the “signs of aging”. Instead of battling the aging process, copy focusses on celebrating 50+ beauty. For fuller-figure women, “curvy” now has positive connotations.
These are just a few of the many examples reflecting the special features of an industry that in recent years is enjoying a renaissance and boom, primarily thanks to e-commerce, influencer activity, skincare, make-up and contouring experts, etc.
The cosmetics industry is peppered by an array of English terms, some of which need to be translated (for example the “texture” of an eyeshadow may stay in English or be translated to Italian as “consistenza” depending on the brand’s style) but other terms have to stay as written. If copy were translated, it would read as less natural and would seem out of place and forced, resulting in the products being perceived as decidedly less attractive.
As a translation agency specialised in beauty, over the years LingoSpell has worked with many cosmetics companies, including mainstream brands, and we are expert at handling multilingual, more complex translation projects for beauty, thanks to the fact that LingoSpell can count on valuable and expert co-operation between Project Managers, translators and proofreaders, working on cosmetics-related content on a daily basis. In addition, we are aware of the strict European standards and legislation regarding claims, in place to protect consumers. For translation projects, this means it is extremely hazardous to make statements and claims regarding the specific effect and actions of cosmetics which cannot be proven; in compliance with such standards, no claims may be made promising complete or unobtainable results and terms such as “miraculous” and similar wording implying an unfounded promise should be avoided. Instead of saying “cancel the signs of aging”, it is better, for example, to say “counter the signs of aging”.
A translation of beauty products that fails to consider such aspects will not only be incorrect but it may give rise to sanctions being adopted against the company.
These are details - small and not so small - but they make the difference in the waves and waves of e-commerce offerings and products that are on-line today.
Over the years, LingoSpell has worked with many cosmetics companies, including mainstream brands, and we are expert at handling multilingual, more complex projects translation projects for beauty,
thanks to the fact that LingoSpell can count on valuable and expert co-operation between Project Managers, translators and proofreaders, working on cosmetics-related content on a daily basis.
