Attracts Top Tanning Market
by Brenda Fishbaugh
Editor’s Note: Once again, Eye Pro President/ IST International Correspondent Brenda Fishbaugh offered to spend some of her time “across the pond” at London’s Professional Beauty event taking pictures and writing a story about her experience there. Enjoy!
As you may know from my previous coverage of this event, the British
tanning market is huge – rivaling the U.S. market in size. The Brits can
be fair skinned and the often-gloomy weather leads to pallid complexions.
Their tanning tradeshows, like ours, are under constant change.
“Right now, England has stopped having only-tanning exhibitions and we
are instead aligning ourselves with the beauty market and fitness market
shows,” commented Chris Wilson of Bliss, a leading UK tanning product
distributor.
This is the second year that the London Professional Beauty show was held
at Excel, a venue on London’s east side. “Excel is a much larger facility
than the Olympia location in downtown London where the show was held for
years,” explained Chris Bartel, editor of the UK’s Tan Biz magazine. “The
move has allowed for fitness, tanning, beauty, spa and nails to all have
their own areas on the show floor, but visitors can easily move from one
area to the next. So often nail salons have tanning, and this allows the
“cross-over” factor to really work well.”
SO, WHAT DID I FIND IN THE TANNING ZONE?
“Sunless continues to be huge over here,” stated Rick Norvell of Norvell
Sunless. “It’s really shocking how the ‘Tanning Zone’ isn’t tanning at
all, it’s sunless spray units. Very few are sunless booths; they really
like the cost effectiveness and customization they can achieve with hand-held
spray units,” Norvell commented.
“The UK market continues to enjoy their UV stand-up units,” said Scott
Freeman, VP at Fiji Blend. “Stand-ups continue to be a much larger segment
of the tanning market here than in the U.S.”
Brandon Cardinal of Fiesta Sun, said, “The salons in England really like
American tanning lotions. There are a few European and UK based companies,
but for the most part, we still see all the large U.S. companies dominating
the UK lotion market also.”
Tanning education is also gaining an edge. Gary Lipman, managing director
of Ergoline- UK and a member of the TSA (The Sunbed Association) held
an educational seminar on the positive medical effects of tanning. Lipman
cited numerous UK studies that are either showing positive health benefits
of vitamin D, or problems in the methodology of the negative-tanning studies.
Lipman reported that TSA distributed a “pro tanning” brochure and was
attacked by the UK’s Advertising Standards Association, because a doctor
filed a complaint. “They are completely in the wrong and we are going
to continue to distribute our leaflet,” defends Lipman.
“The market has definitely been slow in tanning for several years,” commented
Josh Yardley of Blue, a leading UK tanning product distribution company.
“Everyone is guardedly optimistic about 2006, as it is starting out to
look a bit better. But we are seeing many companies diversify into other
areas—for example, we have moved into beauty and aesthetic equipment.”
INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR
The show definitely attracted many key players from around the globe.
I met with tanning principals from Germany, Canada, Australia and an enormous
eastern European segment. Representatives from most key U.S. companies
were there, working along with their European distributors at their booths.
Toning tables appeared in many booths, as did tooth whitening, diet pills,
massage and other easy add-on offerings that segue well with tanning.
As always, there were some unusual offerings…nipple jewelry has been having
a heyday since Janet Jackson’s Superbowl “wardrobe malfunction”. There
is now stick-on nipple jewelry that might work if you were putting off
that piercing! The European shows always have “walk-arounds” – girls in
costume handing out flyers to draw attention to their exhibit booths.
It’s always fun and interesting to see what costumes they’ll come up with
each year! My favorite bizarre new idea was a very large “egg” – actually
a private meditation booth. It’s completely sealed up and the shape inside
is supposed to be very nurturing and relaxing…a “back to the womb” concept.
Another cool idea was the “Kangoos” jumping boots that hope to overtake
rollerblading. Each ski boot has a giant spring on the bottom, and you
jump up and down on your own personal trampoline. Like rollerblading,
it looked like a helmet and pads would be a good investment!
GOTTA PACK THE EVENING GOWN!
London’s Professional Beauty event also features a black tie gala where
the year’s top awards are given out. There is only one tanning award given
out, but scads of awards for nail techs, massage therapists and spas.
It’s very entertaining, as everyone who could possibly be attached to
the winning firm comes on stage, literally 30 or 40 people will crowd
on-stage for the top nail salon award! Someone should give out an award
for the most people on-stage, like phone booth stuffing!
STAY TUNED…
Unlike the American market, the UK market has far more tradeshows than
makes financial sense for exhibitors or attendees. They will have key
shows in April in central London, two more in northern England, a show
in Ireland and a show in Scotland. I’ll be attending the October show
in Manchester, and hope to report on record sales for our tanning industry
friends across the pond!
ALL-SUNLESS
TANNING SALONS?
My visit to California Tan’s unique facility
by Brenda Fishbaugh
We all know sunless tanning is gaining momentum in the U.S. and UV tanning
has been slowing down…but would an all-sunless salon be successful?
California Tan tried it in East London. Run by Blue, the European exclusive
Cal Tan master distributor, it’s a one-of-a-kind operation.
Josh Yardley, VP of Blue, explains. “We needed a 
place
to show off how different our sunless systems are, so we built a training
facility that is a live salon. We serve sunless customers—many top celebrities—as
well as nail, facial and beauty appointments. We also train new sunless
customers on how to spray tan properly—that’s what the shower is for!
They can spray around and make a mess!”
The beautiful facility features an elegant waiting room full of celebrity
autographs. “We’ve been able to spray tan all the top models and sports
figures in London,” 
Josh
commented. There is also a beautiful built-in display of the many sunless
products available to customers.
California Tan Sunless has received an enormous amount of press in UK
magazines and has advertised extensively. “We offer hand-held airbrushing
as well as the AutoBronzer Spray Tanning Towers, and we’ve added a nail
salon and offer facials, too, to complete the look we create with sunless,”
Yardley says proudly. “I’m not sure the market is ready for completely
sunless salons, but it has been a great way to show off our product line
and build demand for sunless products.”
WOW!
CHECK OUT MY SKIN!
Getting
my skin analyzed by the latest gizmo
by Brenda Fishbaugh
In England, tanning tradeshows are held within the beauty industry tradeshows
– they don’t have their own individual expos as we do in the U.S. So while
visiting the UK’s largest tanning trade event, London 
Professional
Beauty, I was also able to check into a few other interesting aspects
of the United Kingdom’s enormous beauty show.
Among other interesting things I tried there, I had Dr. Nick Miedzianowski-Sinclair
use his Canfield Imaging system to look at my skin and analyze my spots,
pores, porphyrins, wrinkles, evenness and UV spots. Dr. Sinclair is very
anti-tanning and talked about how damaging UV is to skin. He didn’t know
I tanned. The 
fascinating
thing was that I tested in the top 80th percentile of “good skin for my
age!”
Now, I’ve been “damaging” my skin in the sun since I was a kid growing
up on the shore in Connecticut. And I’ve been using tanning beds since
I was 18 years old – that is 30 years of tanning! I’ve been in the tanning
industry for 16 years and have tanned at least once a week, every week
of those 16 years. Gee, and I have better skin than 80-90 percent of the
48 year-old women in the doctor’s database!
So, I’d like to conclude that UV has been good for my skin, and so have
tanning skin care products!
IT’S
NOT EASY
BEING GREEN…
Having my aura “read” was a highlight
by Brenda Fishbaugh
Beauty
shows in England are very fun and exotic. Besides the exhibit booths one
would expect—all the top facial and sunless products—there is an assortment
of more, shall we say “unusual” booths.
Stopping by “Aura World”, I found out that for a mere $60, I could put
my hand on an electronic gizmo that would “read” my aura. “The aura is
your invisible energy field,” explained Angela Grainger, the psychic who
assisted. “We use a special machine to read the 
colors
in your aura and can analyze how you are handling your current energy
and what is planned in your future by the Universe.”
So, readers, the aura machine showed me swathed in green. People who had
their auras read before me had much more bland colors and more of a mixture
“Soooo…,” Angela hesitated, not wanting to give me the bad news. “Ummm,
it looks as though you like control…to be in charge…and are very organized.”
Hearing
this, an Eye Pro customer who was with me was practically on the floor
with laughter. “I would have given you that reading over a pint!” he chortled.
“You didn’t need to spend $60 to be told you’re controlling!”
Angela tried to soften the blow. “Well, you also are very ambitious and
desire notoriety and power, but you are full of compassion and can be
as generous as you are demanding. You may be an excellent teacher, counselor,
health worker or business owner.” My friend pointed out that the psychic
had covered just about every occupation in her list of what I “might”
be.
Okay, so we all know I’m controlling, ambitious and a successful business
owner, and we knew that before I stopped by Aura World. But did I learn
anything new?
“The blue color indicates new learning and you will have a fresh lesson
coming from the Universe with lots of new energy to assist you in your
exciting growth,” reported Angela.
I’ll keep you posted…perhaps over a pint!
