Where are the liquids?

The floor of the recent ISSE show in Long beach was distinctly lacking in wet goods manufacturers. I scoured the floor early in search of some wet goods for us to use on stage. My friends at Noixin gladly provided a set of styling liquids for us to use. Good stuff in crisp, clean packaging. The entire Nioxin booth was a stunning display of whitewashed professionalism. But, where were the other guys? It seems the big wet goods companies are opting out of these events in a big way. Many are staging their own “must attend” promotional happenings. Wella was off in another building. I never event got over there. TIGI had a booth… but, with all the diversion, who really takes them seriously, anyway? Matrix had a small booth in their distributor area, but was spending a lot of time trying to defend and spin recent distribution issues… do stylists really care? Do they want to watch you air your dirty laundry on a trade show floor? Big Sexy was there in their usual way… big, noisy and sexy. Farouk appeared a bit subdued, even Marvin seemed relaxed (if that is possible). The list of who was missing was much longer than the list of who was there. One thing is for sure. The hardware side of the business is HOT, HOT, HOT. Elevate was a huge hit for us in a very crowded appliance market. You could not move 2 booths in any direction without hitting a flat iron.