Australian Beauty Expo 2007 - Botox, Fake Tans and Oh my God…

Why did I go to the Beauty Expo? To check out all the new and improved beauty treatments there are out there - so that I can tell you all about what’s going to be showing up next at your local beauty clinic and let you know whether it’s any good. What I mean by any good is whether or not they measure up by the Gorgeous Things standards, our core values of -

1. style & substance
2. continuing education
3. natural approach first
4. nurture yourself & others
5. nurture the planet

Firstly, there was a hell of a lot of style and not so much substance - the glimmer of light here was Brett Pattinson from ‘bod’ who gave a seminar on the future of natural products and organics in the beauty industry. It was great to hear that as the cosmetics industry stagnates in growth, the organics industry powers ahead with over 20% growth per year. This means for you - more great products, more readily available.

On the topic of continuing education - the funniest moment of the expo for me was when a male model in his early twenties sauntered up to me and offered me a voucher for $100 off my first Botox treatment - to see it’s amazing benefits! This seemed wrong to me on so many levels, but mostly it just made me laugh - the cheek of him! There were various other companies showing their latest cellulite reduction treatments (more about this in the August newsletter - simple ways to reduce cellulite that wont cost you thousands) and ten minute fake tans. All very interesting but nothing revolutionary.

Taking the natural approach - well it’s debatable how natural many of the so-called natural/organic/botanical products are that are on the market today but I think there is a fine line between being true to nature and being commercially viable so I wont be too hard on any of the companies who make a genuine effort to be all or at least some of those things.

Nurturing yourself - this is what I thought the whole idea of the expo should represent, the reality though is that it was full of people pointing out what was wrong with other people and showing them the miracle way of fixing these problems. What I did enjoy was celebrity make-up artist Linda Jefferyes demonstration and her comment that everyone has at least one feature that is beautiful and it’s the job of make-up to enhance that feature.

Nurturing the planet - well, what can I say here - petrochemicals & unsafe practices still rule the cosmetics industry - but there are many companies out there fighting the good fight and trying to make the world a better place. Yay for them! The rest of them - vote them out with your purchases and let their sales tell them they’re doing the wrong thing. We live in a free market economy where supply and demand are the main forces at work - you have the power to make a difference - use it wisely. As I mentioned before natural skincare product sales increase by at least 20% per year while the cosmetic industry stagnates - it’s already working!