STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Becca · Kate Spade

Bex - Oscar Blandi?

bex · Chanel

My thoughts on Oscar Blandi (& Fredic Fekkai & Jonathan Antin) are this:

You know how some salons have "name brand" products? They don't carry regular retail but carry "Salon X" products. The packaging is cheaper, the ingrediants aren't as great and other than "okaying" the final product, they don't really have a say in what goes in to "their" product? At the end of the day, they just want their name on the packaging in order to "market" their salon...

Thats the same thing with Oscar, FF and Jonathan. At least thats the way I feel about it. They just happen to have name recognition from styling famous heads of hair along the way (and a Bravo tv show doesn't help either )

If you want to try some different products, try Aveda, Bumble and Bumble, Aquage and other smaller lines. They take the time to do testing, have personal input from people and put better ingredients in...

but thats just my 2 cents about it!

Becca · Kate Spade

Thanks for your input! I used various Aveda products for about a year and figured out that was drying my hair out horribly! I'm definitely interested in trying Bumble and Bumble, eventually.

bex · Chanel

yeah, i just feel like your literally paying for the name on those products unfortunately...

there are some other obscure brands out there (one of them i know you would probably like to try) but i am just not thinking of their names right now... i'll post them for you when my brain begins to work again!

nicoley · Coach

Thanks bex for those reviews... I was actually thinking of trying FF, mainly because Ive heard a few good things about his line... But what you said totally makes sense! I use aveda right now... and I like it... but in the mood for a change, so I may try bumble and bumble as well, Wheres the best place to buy that in Columbus? And I actually just bought the Aquage Volumizing product, haven't tried it yet... But didn't know their shampoo line was good too..

Thanks again! Let us know if you can think of any standout brands.

erin · Chanel

while i am sure this is true for some companies, i really don't think it is for all. where i work, we have our own product line...but the salon founder works with the chemist on everything, as does the creative director. we get the products before they start making them official, and try them out to give feedback. it's a process, and our products are a lot more expensive than paul mitchell/etc, but they are really nice.

bex · Chanel

erin wrote:

while i am sure this is true for some companies, i really don't think it is for all. where i work, we have our own product line...but the salon founder works with the chemist on everything, as does the creative director. we get the products before they start making them official, and try them out to give feedback. it's a process, and our products are a lot more expensive than paul mitchell/etc, but they are really nice.

there are exceptions to the rule! i just know that in my experience most salons only want the products for their name on them and not for the quality of ingredients that are used in them. usually they are all more expensive than paul mitchell/etc but that is because of the smaller product runs that they do compared to bigger companies.

bex · Chanel

nicoley013 wrote:

Thanks bex for those reviews... I was actually thinking of trying FF, mainly because Ive heard a few good things about his line... But what you said totally makes sense! I use aveda right now... and I like it... but in the mood for a change, so I may try bumble and bumble as well, Wheres the best place to buy that in Columbus? And I actually just bought the Aquage Volumizing product, haven't tried it yet... But didn't know their shampoo line was good too.. Thanks again! Let us know if you can think of any standout brands.

Studio Forevo (sp?) in German Village sells B&B and so did Koncept Spa and Salon in Short North but I just walked by there yesterday and they were all closed up!

erin · Chanel

however the makeup we sell is totally labelled stuff. it was so gross when i went to a hair show and saw "our stuff" being hawked as available for different salons.