The Sydney International Spa & Beauty Expo

On Saturday I attended The Sydney International Spa & Beauty Expo at the Convention Centre at Darling Harbour. OMG was it massive. I practically hyperventilated with excitement when I first walked through the doors! The Sydney International Spa & Beauty Expo is Australia's largest event for the spa & beauty industries. It is mostly aimed at salon owners or beauty professionals as a way for brands to try and get their products into their salons. I went along to discover new brands to blog about and to get more information on these brands.

The expo took up three halls of the Convention Centre. It took me 5 hours to get through all of skincare, by which time I was exhausted so I just spent 30 minutes racing through makeup and nails. I now wish I spent more time in these sections as I have read elsewhere that there were some pretty awesome deals and funky new techniques (especially in nails) but I just didn't have it in me.

Most brands were giving out little show bags which had flyers and brochures on their products and the occasional sample. At the time, I didn't think that I received many samples but if you check out my haul below you can see that I did actually get a fair few. These will all be reviewed in the coming months.

I received samples from the following brands:

• Payot (Homme Regenerating Care, multi-defensive care with active bifidus extract, soothing reconstituting care, regenerating smoothing care, activating recovering cream)
• Elemis (Pro-collagen hand and nail cream, pro-collagen marine cream, Exotic cream moisturising mask)
• Doctor Babor (Derma Cellular Collagen Boosting Cream, age protecting cream,
• Fleur De Mer (Sunblock in foundation cream)
• Sundari (Sandalwood cleanser,firming body cream, healing hair treatment oil, healing balancing moisturiser)
• Bioelements (a moisturiser was individually created for me based on my skin concerns)
• Savi (Organic vanilla and spice body cream, organic face mist)
• Pelactive (Essential Clarifying toner, oil free balancing serum, cell renewal complex)
• Taut (Gold standard Collagen Infusion mask)
• ASAP (Sheer tint moisturiser, daily exfoliating facial scrub, gentle cleansing gel)
• Tasmanian Organics (lip balm, body lotion)
• Christina (Unstress Harmonising eye and neck cream)
• Caron (Hydro Oil)

As you can see I have plenty to review! In addition to samples, I got stacks of product brochures. So many that I ended up pulling a muscle in my back carrying my ginormous sack home!

The were a lot of brands there that I had never heard of. They were mostly European brands that had only recently launched in Australia, although there were also a few newly launched Australian brands plus some brands that I had heard of but other than that was completely unfamiliar. Some of my new discoveries included:

• ONE Skin System is an Australian range of skincare designed to suit any skin type. There are 5 products in the range that can be used by absolutely anyone. Their motto is purity fused with science and were one brand that particularly excited me. I will write about them in more detail shortly.
• Environ is a South African company who range is based around Vitamin A. What particularly impressed me with them is that they ease you into using Vitamin A - you start with the lowest concentration and when you finish that tube you then increase the concentration (or stay at the lower concentration if you are happy with the results).
• Sothys is a French line of skincare that is popular in salons. They have their own research laboratory and so produce some pretty exciting products.
• Sundari is a range based on the ancient Indian medicine, Ayurveda (I can't remember which country they come from) 
• Dermaviduals - this a German skincare line whose motto is 'where science meets beauty' so understandably I got a bit excited by this! It is described as an individual solution to every skin condition. They start with a base cream then have a range of additives to personalise the cream to your specific skincare needs.
• Savi is an Australian brand that has been around for a little while but has just recently gotten their official certification of being organic and so are launching with their new certification in a couple of weeks
• Skin PhD is a clinically endorsed range from South Africa (I think!). This is another sciencey brand (as you may have guessed from the name!).
• Ericson Laboratoire is another French company. This one had 13 different facial lines to treat every possible concern. Your routine can be customised between the different lines depending on your needs.

There were a tonne more brands but I'll have to keep sorting through my massive stack of brochures before I can write any more about them.



The sheer size of the event made attending The Sydney International Spa & Beauty Expo quite an overwhelming experience. I found myself chatting to staff at the various stands who were incredibly passionate about their brands. That would then make me also quite excited by the brand but then I'd go to the next stand, hear their spiel and promptly forget everything I had just learnt at the previous stand. Thankfully, I have ample reading material to refresh me!

Did you go to the expo? If so, what did you think. Or, have you heard of or tried any of these brands? Which brands would you like to learn more about?