A Glimpse of Some of My Fav Finds at ISSE
Happy Monday Beautacious Babes! Yesterday, I attended the International Spa and Salon Expo in Long Beach for the very first time. I was there scouting beauty trends and looking for new and inspired products to share with you. This is the largest professional cash-and-carry beauty exposition and educational event on the West Coast. It was a crazy energetic event with professionals from all aspects of the beauty biz on the hunt for the latest and greatest products and bargains. The show floor was packed, lively and filled with lots of colorful characters, and I really enjoyed it.
Some of the trends that I noticed were hair extensions galore, hair bling, all things argan oil, fun bright pastel colors in make-up and nails for spring, lots of variations of Brazilian hair straightening, several instant results skin care products, and a plethora of enhanced features and upgrades on heat styling tools and hair appliances.
Here is a list of the products that caught my eye (and that I am planning to conduct the standard Romy Raves in-depth trial and share my favs with you at a later date):
Stamp Me Fabulous Eye Brow Stamps: You select a stamp that best fits your own brow shape, cover it with semi permanent eyebrow color and stamp it on your brow. This is especially great for someone with sparse eyebrow hairs (like me). I thought this was a very inspired idea and I can’t wait to try it!
Belvada Cosmetics Mascara and Lipgloss: This company has a patented one handed mascara and lip gloss package that gives you more control of your product application. It also has a two layer wipe system to minimize product clumps and excess. I’m intrigued.
Macadamia Natural Oil Hair Products: YUM! Hair care products made out of macadamia nut oil, count this foodie in! I love the gorgeous brown floral and lime green packaging on this product line and can’t wait to try these beautiful sounding products. Oh, and they had the most insanely delicious tasting macadamia nuts to nibble on at their expo booth–great branding!
Essie Chinchilly Matte: Uber chic new taupe-y grey color by nail industry leader Essie, and its bundled with an on trend matte top coat. Very cool and different, I cannot wait to try it!
Genie Instant Line Smoother: This is an instant results product that is supposed to immediately and visibly smooth the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and the demo was impressive. I can’t wait to take this product for a spin myself, stay tuned.
Dermasurface Surface Bright: This is a face brightening product with a new ingredient that I haven’t heard of called tranexamic acid which is supposed to reduce the activity of melanin (brown spots). I new face brightener, count me in!
Velana K Lip Gloss in Jennifer: All I can say is that she got me to try a pink color (I am SO NOT a pink girl) and it looked really good! This beautiful looking and feeling gloss has a unique golden seaweed mixture that moisturizers and fills in the lips. And she has also added to the appeal by naming each gloss after a woman who is important in her life (can you say Romy Red 
). I likie!
What is Romy Raves Up To?
Inquiring minds want to know what this fabulous trend maven is up to and where does she get her latest scoops and insider information? Lucky you, here is a glimpse of events that I have recently attended or am planning to attend, all in an effort to share the latest and greatest with you:
I attended this all-things-green and eco friendly this past weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center. I must admit that I find the trend towards all things green very encouraging, and like that many companies in all categories are creating products that showcase the best of the green movement. A few of the products that really caught my eye at this expo were:
A completely collapsible reuseable water bottle, that is designed to be rolled and tucked away. It is perfect for airline travel cause you can fill it on the other side of security. What an inspired eco friendly idea and I love the pink color!
Both the beauty maven and the foodie in me was pretty impressed by this fully sustainable beauty product concept. This yummy smelling lotion is made out of used vegetable grease that is sourced from restaurants like Mario Batali’s Mozza (can you say squash blossom pizza? ). Basically, this used oil is turned in biofuel (which is used to drive cars BTW) and glycerin happens to be the byproduct of the biofuel distillation process. This glycerin then becomes the base of this citrusy green lotion thus taking the recycling process further–too cool!
A quick-drying, reusable personal hand towel that you carry with you and it is made of lightweight, 100% organic, fair trade cotton. This is an inspired green alternative to paper towels in public facilities and I adore the LOVE design (what a perfectly green V-day gift).
Bag Lady Promotions Los Angeles: Kick Off Your Heels and Network Event
This is a members only local networking group geared towards women entrepreneurs. It attracts a diverse assortment of women who all have the common goal of growing their business locally and I always meet amazing women at these events (like my new soul sista SavvySassyMoms and the addictive S’muffins created by Carmen at Gotta Have S’more) This months event was held at Focus Self Defense Fitness in Culver City and we had a lot of fun learning Krav Maga and schmoozing.
The International Salon & Spa Expo (ISSE)
I am SO excited about attending ISSE in Long Beach, California this weekend because it is the biggest professional cash-and-carry beauty exposition and educational event on the West Coast. I cannot wait to scout the latest and greatest beauty trends and products. And please make sure to follow me on twitter @romyraves for my real time trend updates from the expo floor. And stay tuned for exciting blog posts in the near future about my newest discoveries.
Natural Products Expo West March 2010
Natural Products Expo West is the premier trade show for the healthy products industry, it is attend by over fifty thousand industry leaders and it is ranked as one of the top 100 shows in the US. This is a huge intense, overwhelming and amazing show and I love every minute of it. The foodie and healthy gal in me loves discovering the latest and greatest in the natural food world. Stay tuned for more discoveries after the expo.
