Hey guys! How are you all doing? My Saturday has been way too long. Instead of the usual stay at home, lounge on the couch, go for a walk routine, today was full of stuff, but I'll tell you about it tomorrow.
One of the things I did today was visit the biggest local beauty expo, Baltic Beauty. It runs for three days and attracts a lot of people, both the participants and the onlookers. I used to go every year, but I haven't been in the past five or so years - the all looked the same etc. Last year my friend invited me to go but I just couldn't be bothered, and later regretted it. So this year I told myself in advance that I had to go. I spent a couple of hours wandering around.
The exhibition is held in two huge exhibition halls. One focuses on the "World of beautiful face and body" and the other on the "World of beautiful hair". In general the exhibition focuses on four things - beauty products, professional nail products, equipment, and education.
If I had to describe the whole exhibition in one word, I would go with either rubbish or pathetic. Yeah, not good at all. There were a lot of people, all dashing back and forth maniacally. There was little logic in how it was laid out and how the shops/companies were grouped together.
Yes, I am picky (which earned me the nickname Picky Vicky) when it comes to shopping, and there were a few things that annoyed me. For one, how is it possible for a company counter to run out of product half way through the busiest day????? I left at 3pm, while the exhibition is open till 8.
Secondly, I loath with a passion bad customer service of any kind. So when a sales person starts arguing with me that they don't have glow in the dark polish (Ghoulish Glow I'm looking at you), it just leaves a bad aftertaste. Also at the Misa stand I was told "go there" with a vague hand gesture, when I was interfering with the sales girl chat with some friends. That just makes me not want to spend any money there ever again.
Usually the prices are also lower at trade fairs that in the shops, not this time. The difference was so insignificant ~1$ that I'd rather pay more and get the polishes in peace and quiet at the shop.
Below is the stand for the shop where I get most of my nail polishes and other supplies. They had by far the biggest floor area and a lot of sales people. There were a few things I wanted to get like the China Glaze Ghoulish Glow and some acetone. It was a pity that they did not manage to get the OPI Touring America collection, but I knew this is advance (they couldn't get it through customs in time). The range of polishes that were there was also smaller that in the shops. I understand that the whole event is targeted at ordinary people who might buy a polish or two, still it means that I walked away with just one polish instead of ten like I could. One thing that was selling like hotcakes were the shatters. The majority of conversations went like this "oooh, what is that??? How do yo use it?" and ended with women walking away with shatter polishes.
They had these shelves for different brands to showcase different products, which I thought was really nice. They had one for each brand they sell - OPI, Orly, China Glaze, SpaRitual, Nail Tek and Color Club (no polishes, mostly just design etc.)
Also, judging by the majority of participants and businesses, we are stuck in 2004. Fake nails, fake hair and fake tan rules the world, apparently. Also they we dozens of places were selling all sorts of shiny things like nail files, hair accessories and jewellery, a.k.a.
rhinestone puke-fest.
There were very few interesting or nice looking stands. It seems weird to me, as not only can you attract more people this way but also it is the "face" of your business.
The photo below sums up the whole event perfectly - crazy hair & the kid's face is precious.
In the end I only got a few things. I wanted the nail wheels, because I can't find them in any shops here. I also got the China Glaze glow in the dark polish, had to fight for it more likely. I was disappointed that Inglot did not bring any flakies, I was looking forward to getting a few that I haven't got yet. Instead I got #342, a wine purple shimmer. I also stumbled on a shop selling some Jessica polishes. They had only about 30 polishes, mostly pinks and reds, so I chose two that were more interesting - Blue Diamond and Sunshine. These are my first Jessica polishes, I like how heavy and substantial they feel in the hand. Also the price was good, approximately 5$ for each. The nicest thing that came out of the whole thing, is that I found a new shop that carries some Jessica polishes, so I will have to check it out some time.
