This past week I attended the biggest (easily) beauty trade show in my usual lineup: Cosmoprof North America. Literally hundreds of vendors from all over the world gathered together to meet with buyers, educators, salon distributors, and of course – ME. [Read more…]
China Glaze Hologlam Collection
I posted a sneak peek of the China Glaze Hologlam collection ages ago, and it’s one of the most popular posts on the blog of all time. Sooo I guess y’all like some HOLO POLISH! Well now that I have the collection in my hot little hands, here are some more pictures. Because who doesn’t love some good nail polish porn yeah?
March 2013 Favorites
You know you love my pictures of random crap on my favorites posts. In fact, I think you secretly wait on bated breath every month to see what weird quirky image I will post.
Or not. [Read more…]
Sneak Peek: China Glaze Hologlam Collection
Who loves some holographic glitter? Uh, just about everyone. Using the same sparkly wonder-technology of the beloved China Glaze OMG collection, they’ve developed Hologlam for 2013. They were nice enough to let me take some pictures. Sooo…how excited are you?! Sorry the pictures are so huge, but they’re so sparkly I wanted to make sure you could see the beauty!
Cosmoprof North America 2012
This year was my first COSMOPROF! I’ve attended lots of beauty-related tradeshows, but this was the first year I was able to attend Cosmoprof North America, which is held in Las Vegas.
What is Cosmoprof?
Cosmoprof is a business-to-business beauty trade show that covers hair, nails, skin care, private labeling, spa/wellness, packaging…you name it! It’s all at Cosmoprof. It’s not like IMATS or The Makeup Show as it’s more geared toward retail buyers, packaging decision-makers, etc. In fact, they aren’t allowed to do cash & carry sales! Talk about a difference! But it’s a great place to see what innovative fabulousness has just been released or will be released in the future!
Another thing that is great from Cosmoprof, but also a little frustrating as a beauty junkie, is seeing loads of awesome brands from other countries. These brands come to Cosmoprof hoping to find buyers to have their products sold in the US – but many of them aren’t yet available for “normals” for me to go out and buy! *pouts* But at least I was able to exchange information with them so when they DO come to America, I’ll be able to tell you all about it.
Highlights
Cosmoprof is huge. It’s pretty much the entire Mandalay Bay Convention Center, which is enormous. There are literally hundreds of booths. It makes IMATS look tiny. I was not able to see every single booth. Because it’s so huge, most of us press people made appointments to meet with the brands and see what they have going on. Since I was (and still consider myself to be) a Cosmoprof noob, I made very few appointments and just kind of wandered. Yikes! Going to plan it way better next time. But these things are a learning experience. :) There were a lot of awesome things that happened.
I went over to Jesse’s Girl and met with the fabulous Julie G. I don’t get starstruck over meeting gals from Youtube, but I gotta say meeting Julie was awesome. She’s a really nice person and took time to hang out and chit chat with me & Mr. Boyfriend as well as show us her line, talk about new things to come, and just generally what it’s like going from a girl with a hobby to having her own nail polish line sold in mass. I really enjoyed meeting her, and if you ever get the chance I suggest you do! She’s so sweet.
I also had a really fun time with the gals of AII Beauty. AII is the parent company for China Glaze, Seche, Ardell, and a ton of other brands. I saw all the current and upcoming collections – unfortunately some of which I’m not allowed to tell you about just yet. I saw Halloween ’12, Holiday ’12, and some spring & summer ’13 goodies. I wish I could tell you more! But they promised as soon as I can, they will give me all the details to pass on to you! The lovelies of Ardell also put some big ole’ false lashes on me! I don’t wear lashes usually so it was definitely an experience I had to get used to!
When experimenting with lashes in the future I probably won’t go with such big ones, but I figured hey – it’s Vegas! Go dramatic! After a while I got used to them and almost forgot they were there. I even fell asleep in them (not on purpose – I don’t recommend sleeping in lashes!!) but my eyes weren’t at all bothered. Taking them off was a simple and pain-free process too. Don’t be scared of lashes! I’m not anymore. And in fact, Ardell has some new lashes that are self-adhesive, which I’m very excited to try.
Another highlight was meeting a brand new to me, Hola Lola! Hola Lola hails from Colombia. They have bath products, and underwear! But everything is beautifully packaged, stunningly presented, and smells amazing. Okay, so I don’t know how the undies smell. But that’d be weird. I’m going to assume it’s just fine. The bath products and perfumes smelled fantabulous. The first thing they did was tie a ribbon around my wrist that was fragranced. I’m. Obsessed. With. It. It lives in my purse now, scenting it. The fragrance is Lychee Rose, but to me it smells strikingly similar to Bath & Body Works Winter Candy Apple, which is my favorite (but discontinued) B&BW scent. The products don’t seem to be sold stateside just yet but mark my words I will get my paws on the Lychee Rose body splash so that I can bathe in it every day. I need that fragrance in my life. Seriously. And they were SO nice – they even gave me a gift! It’s a zebra print shower cap. I’m excited, because honestly does anyone look good in a shower cap? No. But now that the shower cap is zebra print? YES!
This blog entry is getting soooooooo long. SO! I’m ending it now, but there were over 800 booths…so there is much, much more to talk about. :) Stay tuned!
China Glaze Island Escape Collection Review
I recently got the Island Escape collection from China Glaze in the mail, and it really lends itself well to a bright, summery skittle manicure! So here’s what I did, and my thoughts on the collection…
China Glaze Island Escape Collection
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Papaya Punch – vivid orange creme
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108 Degrees – berry punch w/ microglitter
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Senorita Bonita – purple shimmer with pink microglitter
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Blue Iguana – sparkly blue
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Cha Cha Cha – shimmer green
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Electric Pineapple – lime green creme