As many of you know I attended Cosmprof North America last week in Las Vegas. I'm going to cover the practical side of my experience as well as the personal. I like to keep it real with you guys, and sharing my personal experiences and emotions is equally important to me than just telling you the basics!
I went into this experience with a bit of hesitation. I'm a hobby blogger. Painting my nails and my blog is something I do solely as something for fun. This whole event seemed intimidating for me because I'd knew I'd be interacting with people who are in this industry as a professional and it's their career. It's very hard for self doubt not to make me feel inadequate in comparison to the people I'd thought I'd encounter there. Then again, I had to tell myself I've been an active nail blogger for 5.5 years. I worked hard on my blog, loved blogging, and of course loved nail polish. I was just as deserving as any other blogger there regardless of what type of blogger I am.
I'm forewarning you. I am a horrific multi-tasker. Conversing, note taking, picture taking all at once is a massive fail for me. I wish I could of taken more pictures, but I was so in the moment many times talking to people that it was hard to stop and take photos.
Cosmprof for me was spread out through 4 separate events.
- Shine & Social (a little getting to know you event for nail bloggers and indies)
- Cosmoprof (the show/show floor itself)
- Cocktails & Colors (an event for nail bloggers to familiarize themselves with indie brands)
- Tips & Sips (an event hosted by Nail It! Magazine and Katie Cazorla for nail bloggers to familiarize themselves with some mainstream, new, and indie nail brands)
Cosmprof North America:
The next morning I went over to the Mandalay Bay where the show as being held. I went to the press room to pick up my press pass first (oh, how fancy!)
This show was HUGE. I can't even tell you how huge it was because I could figure out how to walk through the entire thing it was a massive maze. I first hit up the Discover Beauty section which featured a bunch of up and coming brands. This is where I was introduced to
Ella + Mila brand. I think I'd consider them a boutique brand who creates 5 free polishes who have excellent branding! I love their logo!
Next up was
Londontown which is nail care brand who has recently branched out into making Lakur their own nail lacquer line.
Then I got distracted by glitter....
I forgot what brand this was because I'm a dimwit, but it's glitter. Look at the glitter!
My favorite stop of Cosmprof had to be
Color Club. They had a massive booth with a lot of friendly and easy to talk to reps. They had displays of all of their upcoming collections for fall and winter.
Fall 2015 Cabin Fever Collection
This is an atypical fall collection for sure and that's why I love it. This isn't your standard vamps or shimmers. This a great collection of mid-tone and dusty shades that do have a pop of color.
Winter 2015 Frostbite Collection
This collection doesn't really do much for me, sadly. There are lot of very metallic frost shades in here that are not really my cup of tea. There is an awesome black, white, and silver glitter though that definitely sparks my interest!
Matte Rouge Collection
This is the collection that really sparked my interest. I'm not really into mattes at all, but these looked amazing. They're not as flat as other mattes. I'm going to try to describe this as best as possible, but they look like frosted glass. Some of these colors have a jelly-like quality that looks like it's been frozen? Yeah, that doesn't make sense. They're awesome, and I will be purchasing this entire collection. It's supposed to ship out 8/1, so it should be available soon!
They also had this cool Oil Slick collection duochrome/multichrome collection. The display of it was really high up and at 5'1" I was unable to get a photo of it. I did snag a pic of the swatch wheel though!
Now for the most oogled over collection the release of 7 new Halo Hues shades. I don't know the exact release date, but I'm assuming sometime in the next few months before the new year.
Ooooh ahhh!
After this I stopped by the Zoya booth. Zoya had their upcoming fall collection displayed. I could take pictures of it, but I can't share them until August 1st. Ho-hum. I will say that it seems like fall collections mainstream this year are not focusing so much on vamps this year. Bold cremes and jewel toned shimmers seem to the focus with some muted, metallic, and vampy colors mixed in. That's all I will say.
That is it for my pictures from the actual show floor. I'm sorry! The issue I came across is I started to venture on my own were some of the booths were not really open to people to just go in a look around. Orly had a booth with a sign on their displays saying "No Photography". Booths from OPI and China Glaze were completely blocked off and you had to have an appointment to go in. Plus, the whole self-doubt inadequacy combination kicked in and I felt a little over my head. I feel really intimidated approaching what seem like fancy important brand reps on my own. I did another walk through and headed out for In-n-Out burger. Yum!
I did sincerely enjoy all that I saw there and my experiences walking through the show floor. I'm so not great at these types of events. I'm kind of a goofy "Oooh look at the pretty colors and glitter" person when it comes to nail polish, or a let's talk about what make the world go around deep intense conversation person. I don't really have a middle ground with small talk and networking, and I'm uncomfortable approaching strangers on my own. I really appreciate the experience and the opportunity to see so many great things
Check my post out tomorrow where I share one of my favorite parts of the show. The Cocktails & Colors event where I had an AMAZING time meeting and interacting with other bloggers and indies. I felt like I was with my kind there!
Happy Wednesday!
