The beauty industry and Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna 2018

Hello kawans!! Last week I attended a pretty educational (in terms of beauty haha) presentation-event called Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna Presentation at Westin Kuala Lumpur. As one whom grew up hoping to work in the beauty industry, I'm thankful for the insights I got to learn about during this presentation-event organised by the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) in collaboration with Bologna Fiere and Cosmetica Italia, with the support of Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE).

L-R: Mattia Miglio, International Marketing Manager of COSMOPROF, H.E. Christiano Maggipinto, Ambassador, Embassy of Italy in Kuala Lumpur, Dr Samuel Porsia, Italian Trade Commissioner of Kuala Lumpur and Abu Bakar Yusof, Director of Lifestyle, Life Science & Medical Devices and Pharmaceutical Section, MATRADE.

This presentation was held as an introduction to one of the world's largest international beauty trade show - Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna 2018. So beauty business owners and professionals, mark your calendars and start planning as the 51st edition of Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna 2018 will be held from 15 - 19 March 2018 in Bologna, Italy. (at Bologna Fair District)

Above is Mr Mattia Miglio, the International Marketing Manager of COSMOPROF. During his presentation, he gave us a better insight on what to expect from Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna.

So at Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna, the platform is open to various segments in the beauty industry like perfumery and cosmetics, machinery, raw materials, packaging, contract manufacturing, aesthetics, hair care, nail, wellness and fitness.

During Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna 2017, there were 2,677 exhibitors coming from 69 countries. The event also attracted the attendance of  250,000 beauty professionals from 150 countries with 103,571 being non-locals. A total of 1,210 attendees are journalists.

For companies and beauty professionals, Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna 2018 would also be a place to create new acquisitions and international strategic alliances. Many would also attend the event to keep up-to-date with the latest and upcoming beauty trends. I'm sure just by attending an event like so would also spark some new innovative ideas.

The video above is an ad for Cosmoprof Asia 2017. Now you must be thinking "Huh?" 
Yup, Cosmoprof is not only in Italy! There is also Cosmoprof North America Las Vegas and Cosmoprof Asia Hong Kong to look forward to! 
A new addition to this worldwide beauty platform would be their upcoming September 2018 launch of Cosmoprof India in Mumbai. For those interested, more details on these will be listed at the end of this post.

During Mr. Abu Bakar Yusof's presentation, he shared that in 2016, the Italian exports of cosmetics to Malaysia has amounted to EUR 8.1 million and that the import of Malaysia cosmetics to Italy has a total of EUR 1.6 million. Although the difference is huge, progress can still be seen. As the imports of cosmetics from Malaysia to Italy had a huge increase of 326% compared to 2015, Mr. Abu Bakar Yusof mentioned that MATRADE will consider building a Malaysia country pavilion at Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna 2019. This gives a great opportunity for Malaysia beauty companies to expand their business on an international scale. 

Some industry trends & strengths that might come in handy for fellow beauty brands. 

Following on, Puan Mawarni Hassan from the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers had also shared with us the OEM Manufacturing in Malaysia (Halal perspective). Her presentation had given us a pretty clear definition of "what is halal" and later on explained the difficulties and complex procedure of obtaining a Halal certification for cosmetics. 

Lastly, the president of Malaysia Association of Wellness & Spa, Dr Baskaran Kosthi gave us a very entertaining speech followed along with funny stories from the spa industry. 
During his presentation, he introduced us to Malaysia's very own "Malaysian Massage" called Urutan Malaysia. If he did not share about this, I would've never thought of why are there Thai/Balinese massages everywhere but never have I seen Malaysia massage. At least now we know that we have Urutan Malaysia. For those wondering, Urutan Malaysia is a combination of massage techniques from Malays, Chinese, and Indians from Malaysia.

I managed to learn quite a bit from Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna's presentation. As a makeup hoarder, I really can't wait to see what the beauty world has to offer every day. To beauty professionals reading this, good luck! 
Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna 2018  Date: 15-19 March 2018 Location: Bologna, Italy @ Bologna Fair District 15-18 March 2018: Cosmopack, Cosmoprime, Perfumery&Cosmetics, Green&Organic, Country Pavilions 16-19 March 2018: Hairdressing&Salon, Beauty&Spa, Nailworld Contact: info@cosmoprof.it Website: www.cosmoprof.com
Cosmoprof North America Las Vegas 2018 Date: 29-31 July 2018 Location: Las Vegas, USA @ Mandalay Bay Convention Center Website: www.cosmoprofnorthamerica.com
Cosmoprof Asia Hong Kong 2017 Date: 14-17 November 2017 Location[s]: 14-16 November - Cosmopack Asia @ AsiaWorld-Expo 15-17 November - Cosmoprof Asia @ Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre Website: www.cosmoprof-asia.com
Cosmoprof India Mumbai 2018 preview Date: 10-11 September 2018 Location: Sahara Star Hotel Website: www.cosmoprofindia.com
Cosmopack - leading international event focused on packaging design, contract manufacturing, raw materials, machinery and services for the cosmetic industry
Cosmoprime - scouting ground for retailers & distributors of prestige/mass produced products.

For further details on the event, please visit:
www.cosmoprof.com

Against The Current live @ The Bee, Publika, Kuala Lumpur

Helloooooooooooo!!! I got to watch Against The Current live the other day at The Bee, Publika!! asdfghjkl They've previously performed in Malaysia twice (?) I think...and I missed both of the lives due to clashing plans so I was super happy to finally be able to check this off my bucket list of artistes to watch live! yay

This post is gonna be a little GIF-heavy cause I just can't have it any other way. Please bear with me!

Soooo I met up with Joshua for dinner cause he was the only one I know whom yolo-ed and bought tix to ATC as well. Only after the live ended we found Amanda and other college mates haih. At first I debated if I wanted to start queuing in the morning and make some friends, but in the end I was just so lazy I figured I'd just make it in time for doors open. I didn't expect doors to open 20 mins later though, so in the end we still ended up queuing for a short time. I seriously have to salute those whom queued for hours though! Just 20 minutes of queuing in the basement and I was already bathing in my own sweat. Ew.

Shortly after we got in, the show began with Dvatheduo performing Paramore's Decode. Watching their performance made me wish that Paramore would come to Malaysia again so I could check another band's concert off my bucket list! The selections they played sure got the crowd hyped for the live! At about 8:20, our beloved Against The Current finally graced the stage and the crowd went cray!!

I still remember the days I spent listening to their cover collabs with Sam Tsui, Kurt and Alex Goot on Youtube! Slowly from covers, I started listening to their originals. At first I was actually pretty worried if I'd enjoy the live cause when I bought my tickets, it didn't occur to me that this was their 'In Our Bones' album tour. I'm such an outdated fan that my music library is still stuck at Gravity!

Because of that, every night I pray they'll play songs from their Gravity album as well hahaha. At least let me have Dreaming Alone and Brighter please. Don't get me wrong though, I definitely enjoyed their newer songs too, but y'know there's always your fave fave songs you're dying to hear live. My personal faves from In Our Bones is Running With The Wild Things, In Our Bones, Chasing Ghosts, and Wasteland.

Let's just say bless me because my prayers have been answered. I got to hear both Dreaming Alone and Brighter live! 

Surprise GIF! I didn't capture much, only snapped a few photos + short clips. The rest of the time I was just jumping, singing along or trying really really really hard to see the stage lol. #ShortPeopleProblems In the end I'm pretty sure I was just jumping and singing along with my eyes closed lolol. I really couldn't be bothered to film all the way, it's too mafan and it takes the concert fun away.

I swear Chrissy Costanza is on my girl crush list. 

* fans self * Do you understand why I just had to include GIFs now? Oh and ya the lights blinded me too.

Despite how short I was compared to all the people in front of me, can we just take a moment to appreciate my digital camera for being able to capture these shots with just digital zoom?? I know they're not good shots la but decent enough as a preserved memory from the live right?

To be honest, I'm like a concert suaku. (in-experienced concert go-er??) With this being my third ever concert experience, let me just summarize this whole experience in a few more sentences.

1. I was so amused seeing someone recording with an ipad haha.

2. Not a fan of The Bee's sound system

3. I wished the concert lasted longer T_T

4. I want to watch them play live again

5. I understand why people try so hard to get front row, it's not cause you're literally right in front of your idol(that's important too la I guess) but rather it's more fun that way. If there's people around you whom aren't jumping, it's actually kinda awkward leh.

After the live ended the boyfie came all the way to Publika and brought me to mamak cause I was hungry ha.ha.ha

* I wanted to share about my experience with the recent Japan X Malaysia friendship live too but I think I'll leave that for another day! *

as for now, 

sayonara!