One of the unequivocal truths about being a woman interested in the beauty business is that your radar is always on alert for new products in the market. Now, it is not lack of choices we have to contend with but a multiplicity of them and sometimes this can be quite a daunting task. Do you stick to one brand and all its various offerings or do you mix and match and create your own unique, fiercely guarded beauty basket?

Ingredient stories and brand mythologies can be quite seductive. For instance, SK II, a Procter & Gamble brand, based its entire strategy on a 'magic' ingredient called 'pitera' which was supposed to have anti-aging properties and was derived from sake, the Japanese rice wine. Dove promotes 'one quarter moisturising cream' as its magic ingredient. Annick Goutal's éclat, vitalité and puretée (brightness, purity and vitality) come from rose sap - a key ingredient in this Paris line of products.

Dr. Hauschka, a strangely popular cult brand in the US, I am told, sells on the principle that the creators chant and meditate over each bottle of cream and lotion before it is shipped out into the international market. Onyx has launched a line of luxury cosmetics in Mumbai, based entirely on minerals.

On the other hand, there is very rational scientific data from the world of cosmeceutical-Q10 based on collagen was Nivea's big breakthrough a few years ago, Lancôme reinvented its luminous technology based on light refraction, L'Oréal has its omega ceramides for hair. Aloe Vera, soy, alpha hydroxy acids, algae, Dead Sea salts, glycolic peels, even botox, have all had their moment in the sun and manufacturers are still looking for the Next Big Thing. La Prairie does not reveal the magic ingredient in its skin caviar but something must be working if women are willing to be put on a waiting list for it.

I stumbled upon a magic formula from Clarins called Beauty Flash. I have not found it on the shelves of late. My friend Tish, a Filipina with creamy magnolia flawless skin, had recommended it. According to her, it was the ideal product for any career woman who was on and off flights. You just put it on your dull, ravaged, airline exhausted, jet-lagged face before making it to a meeting and voila, your face suddenly took on a tranquil serene glow that said you had stepped out of your boudoir, not off a 16-hour flight. Beauty Flash helped all of us and this had nothing to do with vanity - it was survival because we worked on a big beauty brand.