At the weekend I managed to dust down my wheely trolley case and hit the town. My friend Caroline and I headed to Edinburgh where we met up with Sara Crawford & Kristina MacIntyre from Famous Pout in Prestwick. We planned to hit the Scottish hair and beauty show held annually in Ingilston at the Royal Highland Centre. It allows professional brands, distributors and training companies to showcase new products, trends & courses available. There are 2 live stages showing demo’s over the 2 days covering different aspects of the hair and beauty trade supported by a good seminar programme. It meant I could pull the excuse to my husband ‘it’s for my work’ (but really I cram in as much drinking and giggling girl time I can).

All you mums out there  will know, going away for an overnight is a BIG deal, and takes weeks, even months of military precision, timing and organisation. Pre preparation took a week’s worth of beauty treatments (and yes – I even got rid of the winter coat & waxed my legs!!)- hair colouring, tanning and a new outfit to boot. I asked my hubby to get me a wheely case, to which request he proudly responded by presenting me with a huge trolley case suitable for a week’s stay abroad. A minor disagreement ensued as I whined ‘that’s way too big for just 1 overnight, I’m  not trailing that round Edinburgh’. He insisted I would need it. I soon had to hang my head in shame as I managed to fill it. Whoops. I managed to wave off my hubby and the  children without too much of a drama, although my middle child was slightly huffed that I was getting to stay at a hotel and she had to stay at home, so she kept telling me that ‘her and daddy will have a ‘jama party and your not invited’.

Below is a few captioned pictures of what I had on my nails for Edinburgh. Hover over the picture for more information on the products I used.

For those interested I used ink ilac i104 & i42 on my nails, and topped with Lecente silver holographic and firefly.

I finished off #blingky with Swarovski pixie dust, think super sparkly caviar beads

My Edinburgh nails. Brisa sculpts finished with ilac and Lecente glitter.

Ink fortify and gel brush. The brush is very sparkly and pleasing to look at. I used this soak off gel which is similar to Gelish structure or Brisa Lite Smoothing gel to set the pixie dust in.

Edinburgh was busy and vibrant, the trip there was enjoyable. We arrived at our hotel to discover it had been overbooked, so we ended up staying in The Sheraton, which was beautiful. We got complimentary breakfasts and taxis there and back. We spent lunch at an authentic Italian eating home-made pasta, and finished off the afternoon having a few too many drinks, while catching up with Hayley, my husband’s cousin who part-owns a lovely coffee and cake shop called Strumpets on William Street. If you’re ever in town check it out.

Hayley from Strumpets in Edinburgh

Like most mums who  are out of practice, I had to give up on the cocktails around 9pm as I was feeling a little worse for wear. By 9pm when we arrived at Thai resteraunt Dusit on Thistle Street, I had shamefully switched to water. My cousin Katie is studying events management at uni in Edinburgh, and she joined us for dinner and dancing. She was telling me about a football festival she is organising for July and wanted to know if I possibly would come and do nails for a day or 2 over the length of the festival. I quite enjoy these kind of events and its a good excuse to go back so I’ve earmarked it as a possibility.

My cousin Katie and I

Kristina and Sara from Famous Pout in Prestwick, Ayrshire. Enjoying their meal and cursing me and my pictures lol.

My lovely friend Caroline at Thai resteraunt Dusit. Well worth a visit, I’m still dreaming about that meal. It was so tasty.

I was feeling quite proud that I switched to water at 9pm, I was able to stay up dancing until 1am. Apart from getting up for night feeds, its the latest I have been up in a very long time. I was hyper aware I had to work the next day, although if you asked my friend Caroline, she would tell you I wouldn’t shut up and go to sleep, at 1.30am I was still up chattering. Whoops.

After a lovely breakfast at the Sheraton we headed to St.Andrews Square to catch the free bus to the Beauty show. It runs backwards and forwards all day ferrying vistors to and from the show. I didn’t find the bus busy, which is a shame as it is a lovely touch for the organisers to provide.

Upon entering the show the first 2 stands that caught my eye was Lycon and Fake Bake, both of which were doing a roaring trade. Lycon spent most of the day doing live demos with their hot wax, which really did look less painful than strip wax. The models did not flinch and it seemed to be lifting even really short hairs. Apparently it can lift hairs as short as 1mm. Amazing! Although you could purchase Lycon wax at the show, to be able to have an account with them you must do their training and learn the ‘Lycon’ way. I am currently looking into hot wax training for this year , and after seeing them at the show it will be a toss up between Lycon and Waxperts. If any of you have done the training or have any experiences of any of the above wax brands that you would like to share please comment below.

Fake Bake were doing a roaring trade. The stand was never quiet, the girls there were all super friendly and welcoming. It was a very eye catching stand with dashes of pink to match the logo. There are a lot of very exciting things happening at Fake Bake HQ just now. I plan at a later stage to write another blog piece about it. The team were offering slots in their ‘VIP’ lounge where customers could come and discuss with their experts ways in which Fake Bake can help them further their business.

The Fake Bake stand was busy and eye catching.

The VIP lounge area where you could meet the experts and get advice. I loved the concept, but unfortunately ran out of time to chat to them. One of the team, Laura, has kindly agreed to have a catch up at the end of the month.

I stock Eve Taylor products and use them for facials, so I quickly stopped past the stand to have a quick chat with Matt Taylor. They were not selling at the show, but were giving out a code that could be used to order online from your registered account.

A rising trend at shows is to demo the products, but not actually sell , this is to try and avoid the general public being able to purchase them. I can see why you would want to protect your brand and keep it exclusively for professionals but its not the same going to the show and not excitedly getting to unwrap your purchases at home afterwards. Is it just me or is some of the fun missing when you can’t purchase your fave brands at a show?

Talking the hind legs off  Matt Taylor at the Eve Taylor stand. I hope I didn’t scare him too much.

The Ink London stand was buzzing. I got to meet the lovely Joanna MacIntyre and Chrissy Scott, both ladies have a real passion for the brand and the nail industry, which shone through as they chatted about the show, products and recommending colours to purchase to add to my collection. I would say the Ink team was by far the most friendly. The girls were smiling and chatty and willing to help. I’m going to ear mark Ink London as ‘the one to watch’. With an amazing Facebook following, a fab price point and an amazing range of colours, Ink is definitely a rising star within the industry.

I  have been a hardcore CND girl for the last 6 years, but have recently added a small collection of Ink London ilac polishes to run alongside  CND Shellac. My clients have been loving the new colours available, and I have enjoyed experimenting with brighter colours and some lovely glitters from the range too. My only complaint here is that I never got to meet the ever talented Tracey McGoogan from Notorious Nails in Coatbridge, whose work I have been following recently thanks to her #blingky (bling pinkie) trend that seems to be everywhere at the moment.

The Ink stand was buzzing

I stopped past to watch the nail tech competition area, which seemed to have a good turn out. Winners of the competitions can be found here. The boxed nail art competiton theme was ‘Ibiza’. I’ve attached a few of the entries, some of which were all singing  all dancing, with lights and lots of detail, all of which were amazing. I can’t believe the amount of work that must go into them. It is without a doubt a form of art.

My purchases included ilac colours , ijel, Rose cuticle oil, some lovely neon dots, cuticle nippers and a mermaid glitter all from Ink London. I also bought a Moyou stamping kit which I cannot wait to play with. I got to pick 6 plates, 6 polishes including diamanté, scraper, stamper and a pen for tidying round the cuticle. It all came presented in a cute box which is perfect for my mobile work. The girl at the Moyou stand took her time demoing the stamper, and she didn’t seem to mind having to repeat herself when Sara and Kristina arrived to have a look too, so kudos to her for that. I also purchased a new tunic from La Beeby which had some very pretty colours and styles in. They had a clever way of marketing, they collected your email address via an ipad at the cashier’s desk. While she rang up my purchase I entered my email address which instantly sent me an email with a 10% discount code for La Beeby and entered me into their database. Very clever. A trip to the show wouldn’t be complete without a consumer novelty purchase. So glitter lips it was.

my haul.

Sara uses a mixture of Gelish, CND Shellac, and more recently Ink London so her purchases mainly consisted of a mixture of Acrylink, Kinky Glitters and Ilac, all from the Ink London stand.

Sara @ Famous Pout’s purchases

Kristina‘s purchases included an Adam & Eve hot wax kit (not pictured). She had spied them at last year’s show and the range of different and unusual scents had caught her eye, so this year she took the plunge and bought a starter kit. Her other purchases included some Lauren’s Way tan, the Moyou stamping kit, some Acrylink from Ink London and a Revel lash salon stand which featured an array of strip lashes in different lengths and thicknesses.

Kristina @ Famous Pout, Prestwick’s purchases.

Sara said ‘I thought the show was a great first experience, being able to see first hand how many brands there are available & how passionate people are about hair and beauty. Next year I would like to see some bigger named brands within the make up industry and more tanning brands’.

Kristina also felt a few key brands were missing such as NSI. I myself miss the little bus that used to ferry us up and down to the Fingertips Centre. The show doesn’t feel complete without my CND purchases.

The hair side of the show seems to be getting bigger every year. Between the competitions, the live stage and seminar programme, there was plenty for the hair professional too.

Next year I would like to see some more of the missing nail brands we love, and more food carts please. The queue for food was long and tiring when you’re slightly  hungover and needing a carb fix asap. The prosecco and cupcake bar was a nice touch but I needed bread. The panini and chocolate brownie I did have was lovely (when I eventually got it).

I think we should stop writing off the Scottish show as ‘small’ or  ‘irrelevant’ and start promoting it. Scotland can be a forgotten part of the UK when it comes to the beauty industry  but with some amazing training venues, and exceptionally talented professionals available right here we should not be ignored!!! In fact I will make it my mission that we shall not be ignored!! #mummysonamission

The show was fun, well organised, and friendly. I struggled to get round it all in one day so shall be stretching my stay over 3 days next year if I can.

Special mentions go to: Steve and the Team at Dreamweave, his passion for his brand is amazing. He was filling me in on a few very exciting things that are happening at his HQ, some of which include a TV advert and an amazing lip gloss that will be an excellent retail opportunity for salons. Another special mention goes to the staff who actually ran the event. Every single one of you that I met from car park attendants, the bus drivers , to the ticket booth clerks were exceptionally helpful & polite.

Did anyone else attend the show? What did you purchase? How did you find it compared to previous years? Leave your comments below.

Until next time, sparkle on

Jo x

mummy moments:

listening to hubby trying to get the toddler to say ‘mum’. Instead he kept making mooing sounds like a cow. #mummyproblems

hiding in the kitchen eating wotsits while the kids eat their healthy snack of fruit #badmummy

getting home from Rhyme Time to discover what suspiciously looks like baby boogar stuck just above my eyebrow #mummyproblems