Okay, I’ve just spent the most money I’ve ever spent as a company director this weekend.
After winding through huge crowds with booths of false nails and spray tans and IPLs (oh my), and having a slight fit over pushing through crowds of people (all of whom seemed to have NO clue where they were going) in Halls 1 – 3 of the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, my eyes fell upon a very gimmicky but holy-cow-is-that-cool machine not represented in New Zealand.
I told Noel to talk to the head honcho. Now.
(Being a bossy britches cow has its priveleges!)
After wandering the show and seeing nothing but false nails and spray tans and IPLs (oh my), we all felt somewhat disappointed that there was nothing that seemed to stand out and excite us (um, professionally… get your minds out of the gutter!!!) like Expo 2004 had.
Until the ArtPro Nail Printer.
In short, what this machine does is use a computer and printer to allow nail clients to select over 3,000 patterns with 25 colour combinations each — and that doesn’t include the built-in camera where they can take their own pictures and the USB port to allow them to load their own pictures and patterns onto it — and have their real or false nails painted with that design in only a few minutes.
Now, for those of you who know nothing about nail art — and that is probably about 99% of people reading this — those who do perform nail art by hand can spend from 45 minutes to 3 hours on one set of nails, so this could revolutionise nail art in New Zealand. Not to mention, about $30 for a set of do-it-yourself nails for those who can’t afford to go to a technician or want a neat set of throw-away nails for a party also can flock to this machine, as it can do entire sets at a time.
So after two days of talking and playing with the machine and seeing results… I spent $12,000 on one machine and supplies to get the agency in New Zealand rolling. I just got that feeling that this machine would be a hit (and my voo-doo has been very accurate lately), and somehow convinced Noel the same thing (he later admitted he only signed on because I was so adamant about that machine).
I made Noel sign the invoice because, to be honest, it scared the daylights out of me. Yes, I own a quarter of that business but… I’ve never spent money like that with it.
What that all means is watch this space on its success.
Back to the Sydney Beauty Expo… it was somewhat disappointing. Same big companies with their flash products. Kudos to Payot and Pervonia for having wonderfully beautiful stands and therapists on them who looked professional. Kudos to Napolean make-up for being so cheeky by having guys in pink, girls in blue and a rockin DJ (theirs was the most popular stand there I’d say).
And whoever was sending around the tall, dark, tanned, toned guy in nothing but white boxers… I want his phone number (ha ha).
Oh, I guess I could just go for second place with those two guys wearing tight tight tight pink tee-shirts. Very Latino looking, so Dave would be in like a shot (sorry just had to mention that).
Hmph. Now I’ve spent that amount of money, I’m itchin to spend more! What’s a few bucks on some CDs I’ve wanted for a while…
Beam Me Up, Scotty 