After attending the new Nails-Beauty-Tanning tradeshow in London last March, I flew on to Bologna, Italy, a city that claims to offer the finest cuisine in the world and is also the setting for John Grisham’s latest crime-thriller novel, The Broker. Bologna was the venue for the Cosmoprof Beauty Event held in early April – I attended that show, as well, and wrote the following story just for IST readers.

Italy’s Cosmoprof show is quite an experience! First of all, it’s enormous – the largest beauty show in the world. Held April 1-4 in Bologna, they almost doubled the size of the show this year. It covers a huge campus – bigger than most universities – and people come from almost every country in the world to sell and buy beauty products. It’s amazing to think that this event has been held for the past 38 years.

Secondly, after seeing the “sunless, sunless and more sunless” exhibits at the recent Nails-Beauty-Tanning Exhibition in London, I was stunned to see virtually NO sunless products on display in Italy. One company exhibited a sunless booth, and two companies displayed hand-held spray units – California Tan’s system and Natura Sun. Very few attendees got spray-tans, whereas folks in England ran from vendor to vendor to try every sunless spray product.

Another big difference in Italy: lots more skin is seen on the show floor! No one seems to mind undressing to a bra and thong for tanning. With no concern, lots of folks stripped to have a variety of gizmos attached to their butts.

Unfortunately, a lot of the “skin” showing at Cosmoprof was eyelids! Lots of tanning units were running and folks were tanning in them without eye protection. I was absolutely aghast, as I watched sales reps demo their big, UVA sunbeds with no eyewear on.

My estimation is that the smallest HP bed put out 30,000 watts; that’s a lot of UVA with eyes open and no protection. Really scary.

I ran into Scott Freeman and Terry Katz of Fiji Blend – they were busy looking for great new packaging ideas for their next season’s offerings. Cosmoprof also hosts “CosmoPak”, a show dedicated to cosmetics packaging machinery and products.

Leonard Keller, of Health & Fitness Concepts visited international tanning distributors and manufacturers, including Raul Vidal, of DRV, the Soltron distributor in Spain. Their exhibit was bustling, as DRV is the owner of Depileve, the largest leg wax company in the world, and everyone wanted to see demos of their new “painless leg wax.”

Sportarredo, a maker of gorgeous high-pressure equipment, is now moving into the U.S. market, opening offices in Chicago. I met the new president of Sportarredo USA, Andrea Bonavia. His father, Ferruccio, will continue to run the Italian operations. Their “stand”(booth) was huge and featured live entertainment all day long.

Fans of the Matrix high-pressure units enjoyed meeting the export manager for ISO Italia, Valentino Astolfi. ISO Italia is the manufacturer of the Matrix 360 degree tanning system. The Italians design beautiful beds, and many of the Iso Italia beds are breathtaking.

Equipment giant Ergoline does the U.S. tradeshows in a big way, and Cosmoprof was no different. They had their own tent in a parking lot loaded with beds and two bars serving drinks and sandwiches, as well as big screen TVs running exciting videos in every direction.

The JKteam turned out in full force; at the Soltron stand, I visited with Peter Kriesten, Managing Director for JK Global Service, Manfred Nagel, Managing Director of Soltron, and Jens-Uwe Reimers, Ergoline International Managing Director. In the Ergoline tent, I was greeted by Sven Wietbrock, Export Sales Manager for Ergoline International, who works closely with Jens-Uwe Reimers and their affiliate distributors in 43 countries.

Wolfgang Manz, who manages the accessory side of the business called JK Licht, (translates to “Light”) modeled the latest Italian fashion (take note, guys) a very loosely tied necktie that often ends about six inches above the belt. Nearly every guy at the show wore a suit and tie – a shocking contrast with the U.S. shows where a golf shirt and khakis are considered “dressed up”.

UWE had a very impressive stand; the long-time Italian distributor for these German-made beds is Fuar Schomberg. Representative Maurizo Ripani was assisted by his wife and two daughters. Visiting the show was Holger Weiss, the export manager for UWE and a familiar face at U.S. trade shows.

I was delighted to be invited to attend a gorgeous reception at the Royal Carlton Hotel for ICMAD, the Independent Cosmetic Manufacturers and Distributors organization. About 80 members attended the lavish cocktail party and enjoyed fantastic Italian wines and salmon. The event was hosted by Penni Jones, Executive Director of ICMAD.

As you can see from the photos, the Italian tanning industry loves big, high-pressure tanning systems. They take great pride and put a lot of stock in the beauty, aesthetics and colors of their beds. This is in contrast to the British market that doesn’t do a lot with high-pressure; but it was satisfying to see indoor tanning represented so well in Europe and with such diversity. n

“Grazie!” to Brenda Fishbaugh for taking the time to write this story for IST readers.

A Special Time in Italy
by Brenda Fishbaugh

In early April, I was in northern Italy attending the Cosmoprof Beauty Event when Pope John Paul II passed away. The first thing I found shocking was that there was no wailing in the streets or anything, no bells tolling. The TVs were all on and people were gravely watching, but there wasn’t any serious emotion like what was seen at St. Peter’s on TV. And the Italians are very emotional about everything, so it struck me as strange. Maybe it was because the city I was in is Communist and they don’t practice Catholicism? I don’t know. Bologna is a long way from Rome and Vatican City, but Italy is a Catholic country and her people take faith very seriously.

I was raised a nice, Catholic girl by an Italian immigrant mother and Italian grandparents who didn’t speak English. I attended Catholic school and went to Mass every Sunday until college. I’ve had the incredible fortune to visit Italy over a dozen times and hear Mass said in St. Mark’s Church in Venice and at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. Though I’m no longer a practicing Catholic, the first thing I do when I go to Italy is light a candle in church for my deceased mother – because she would want me to do that, and I find it comforting to do it for her.

I knew that my mom’s spirit would haunt me if I didn’t do something to honor a Pope she had loved, so I joined many of the believers in a pilgrimage to climb the mountain to San Luca Church to light a candle for the Pope. It’s quite a feat – my friend Pamela Viglielmo from Connecticut and I did this on Sunday afternoon (the Pope died Saturday night). On the way to San Luca, one passes through 600 arches and up several miles of steps leading to the church at the top of the “mountain” (really a steep hill).

I live in pancake-flat Indiana, so “vertical” is not a direction with which I have much experience. I spent my part of the pilgrimage thoroughly humiliated, as I panted like a dog while little old ladies with canes consistently passed me by. I tried to act as if I was stopping to enjoy the views (really great) and study the architecture – there are more arched porticos in Bologna than any other city in the world. In John Grisham’s new book, The Broker, the main character, Luigi, climbs to the top of San Luca twice with his love interest. (In the book, Luigi also has a tough climb; this gave me a little solace.)

As we passed thorough the last of the 600 arches, there was a cross; a welcome sight, as it meant I could stop hyperventilating. The church beckoned. It was quite full, and surprisingly, due to the special occasion, the tabernacle area was open to the public. Normally, only priests have access to the altar. A line of us walked past nuns saying the rosary, and threaded by the altar over which hangs a very old, very famous painting. A solid gold sheet covered the painting; only the faces of Mother Mary and baby Jesus were visible. So, looking at the painting was very surreal. I’m not sure whether the sheet was to protect the painting or enhance it, but it created the feeling that Mary and Jesus were watching us. As everyone passed the altar, they knelt on the gorgeous marble floor and blessed themselves, then threaded through some smaller chapels with amazing marble and artwork, and past the church gift shop, which was doing a brisk business selling scads of rosaries, medals and postcards.

Finally, Pamela and I were able to buy a candle from a nun for one Euro (about $1.30), and we then stood in a long line to light our candles. If you’re unfamiliar with this tradition, Catholics say a prayer and then light a candle to make it come true (like making a wish and blowing out the candles on your birthday cake). Most churches have racks in the back that hold thin candles (called tapers), but at this church, people crowded into a tiny concrete cell that was maybe 10’ x 10’. If I had to guess, I’d say this was where the anchoress once lived. In olden times, churches would lock a woman in a small room off the church, who was to be in constant prayer for the church and the community. She became the “cornerstone” of the church, but would only get food and water if people remembered her. (You may think I made this up, but most Christian churches practiced it until the 1700s).

This tiny room was absolutely dangerous – too many people and too many candles, and I’m sure a few folks caught on fire with all the Italians pushing and shoving (the national pastime). There were no spots left for our newly purchased candles, so we were forced to reach over a bunch of lit tapers to place them in the back (think arm singe!) My claustrophobia was in full swing – I was very glad to get out of there alive and hoped my mom was happy that I had lit a candle for the Pope’s soul.

The weather that day was just gorgeous. Outside the church, the whole town was very festive, having a picnic and watching their kids playing; really very celebratory as opposed to the misery you saw on TV at St. Peter’s. Pamela and I bought soft drinks from a vendor (there were dozens of mobile concession stands; we call them “opportunists”) and joined the crowd in enjoying the stellar views and spring weather.

The walk down the mountain was great – it actually hurt my knees “braking”, since it was such a steep decline. The pilgrimage was a neat way to interact with my roots and the Italian people; I no longer felt like a guest in Italy, but that it was my new home.