This weekend Aveda hosted its annual Congress event in Minneapolis. Five thousand stylists and artists from around the globe turned out for creative performances, trend workshops, and educational seminars. I seized the rare opportunity to chat wtih Aveda’s Global Creative Director, Antoinette Beenders, about beauty trends for fall/winter and what Aveda has up its sleeve.
Beenders believes that “hairstyle trends are a derivation of fashion trends.” She is translating fall’s English Country plaids and tartans into shorter, texturized hair. She says the ladylike trend toward tweeds and skirt suits will be rendered as beehive updos—thankfully, a more toned-down version of Amy Winehouse’s.
On the beauty front, Aveda this month relaunched its Uruku makeup collection, inspired by the Yawanawa peoples of the Brazilian Amazon. The tribe decorates their bodies with annatto, a rich red 
pigment derived from the the seeds of the urukum shrub. Aveda saw urukum as an opportunity to create makeup with 100 percent naturally derived colorants, which the tribe now grows and processes, certified organic, for Aveda. In return, Aveda purchases the urukum seeds directly from the Yawanawa, ensuring profits go back into their community. The new Uruku collection includes Lip Pigments, Eye Accent creme-to-powder shadows, Eye-Lip Color Liner, and Cheek/Lip Creme—one of those in-a-pinch, dual-purpose products that also happens to add an instant, fresh glow to lips and cheeks.
Up next for Aveda? “An extra-firm hold, humidy-fighting hairspray will launch next July, exactly when its needed most!” says Beenders. She also whispered about a skin brightening product line in the works. Yes, please.
