Highlights of ISSE Long Beach 2015: Debut of The Blogger Cafe & Exciting New Product Discoveries

A couple of weeks ago, I was in beauty heaven at the International Salon & Spa Expo (ISSE). This show is the West Coast’s largest and most influential professional beauty event, with over forty thousand beauty professionals in attendance this year. ISSE is a fabulous comprehensive beauty show featuring the latest and greatest in hair, nails, cosmetics, esthetics, wellness, massage and advanced education. ISSE has also become a wonderful launch pad for new beauty products and services, and this year’s event featured more than 350+ exhibiting companies promoting a plethora beauty brands.

One of the highlights of ISSE Long Beach 2015 was the New Blogger Cafe, which yours truly was honored to be chosen as one of a handful of beauty influencers to be part of. I was given my own special “office” to hold one-on-one meetings with exhibitors and brands to discuss their latest and greatest products and how social media can help their brand.

In addition, to consulting and meeting with all these fabulous passionate brands, all of the beauty influencers also had a chance to walk the floor and vote for their favorite new discoveries in hair, skin and nail categories to determine the winners of the ISSE “Best Of” awards.

The Winning brands at ISSE 2015 included:
Hair – Best New Product: Glam Palm Simple Touch Flat Iron; Best Established Product: Color Wow Root Cover Up
Skin – Best New Product: Glycelene Rejuvenation Cream; Best Established Product: Daily Concepts Konjac Sponges
Nails – Best New Product: Caption by Young Nails; Best Established Product: MoYou Nail Stamping Kits
Best of Show: Daily Concepts Konjac Sponges

I just love walking ISSE inch by inch, on a scouting mission to discover exciting and inspired new beauty products and brands to share with my followers. This year I was incredibly moved by all the rich stories each brand had to tell about the development of their products, the research that goes into creating them and what sets their products apart from others on the landscape.

There were so many wonderful new products and brands at this years show, it was hard to narrow down to my favorites. While several of the ‘Best of ISSE’ winners were among my favorite new product discoveries, others were a little bit more under-the-radar. Following is my personal list of brands and products that ‘WOWED’ me at this years show:

Glycelene I discovered Glycelene at ISSE last year and have been smitten with this inspired handcrafted luxury skincare line ever since (the founders Kim & Eric are some the nicest, most passionate people you have ever met!) Each and every new product that they come out with is better than the next, and right now I am obsessed with their new The Rejuvenation Creme which plumps and firms your skin with unexpected ingredients like red and brown algae (an anti-inflammatory and increases skin resiliency) and I am also having a love affair with their Eye Repair Oil which Brightens, Tightens, De-puffs and Decongests the eye area (Rumor has it, Eric created this gorgeous eye roller especially for Kim when she was crying about a family members illness – now that’s true love) – it’s totally amazing!

Glam Palm Simple Touch Flat Iron is the world’s first motion activated flat iron; You simply tap the plates together once to turn it on and then tap it two or three times to get the desired heat setting (up to 390°) The state of the art technology allows this flatiron to heat up in just ten seconds, and Simpletouch has a brilliant 35 second auto-shutdown timer! This intuitive, easy to use flatiron is my absolute new favorite styling tool. LOVE!

Norvell Dancing with the Stars Sunless Tanning Collection Norvell has partnered with ABC on a fabulous new “Dancing with the Stars” collection, especially designed to provide flawless, foolproof self-tanning at home, just like the gorgeous pro dancers and stars have on the show. This quartet of bronzing products will waltz onto the shelves of spas and salons just in time for the 19th season of DWTS. I LOVE the Dazzle Shimmering Mist that you can spray over a tan to add some sparkle!

Crown Brush Exposed Eyeshadow Palettes OK seriously, these new nude eyeshadow palettes from Crown Brush are dabomb! They are an amazing bargain priced dupe for Urban Decay’s Naked Palettes and the quality and color payoff are equally as good. The Exposed Palettes come in Pure, Over and Under Exposed and they are all FAB, and for a little over $20 each, why not get all three!!

L’eclisse is a beautifully made mineral cosmetic line designed to work with even the most sensitive skin. The make-up also contains anti-inflammatory ingredients to soothe irritable acne and rosacea skin types. I totally fell in love with the gorgeous elegant vintage feeling compact packaging as well as the silky smooth mineral foundation that has wonderful buildable coverage. Sweet!

HairArt Remi Full Head Clip-In Extensions It’s not everyday that you get to sit in the chair of a genius celebrity hair stylist like the charismatic and uber-fab Ron King, yet during ISSE I was lucky enough to have that privilege. And even luckier, that HairArt happened to have gorgeous 100% human hair clip-in extensions in a dark brunette and red ombre combo that matched my current hair color to a T! Ron effortlessly put these fab extensions in my hair and styled it with finesse and ease using the H3000 Heat Brush Pro styling tool. I felt like a goddess and my hair looked and felt almost like my own, OBSESSED!

EyeMajic Instant Eye Shadow is a brilliant little makeup product that transfers perfectly paired color combinations of eye shadow onto the eyelids with heat transfer technology. The warmth from your body activates the powders and transfers the eye shadow from the patented soft foam applicator to your eyelid in one simple sweep. The back of the applicator can also be used as a finishing tool for blending the shadow for a softer look/to smooth imperfections. So simple and easy, I’m wondering why no one thought of it before this!

Disclosure: As a member of the blogger cafe, I was given an assortment of the above products for editorial consideration, but all opinions and beauty obsessions are my own.