A Celebration of Colour and Creativity at Coty’s 2019 Beauty Envision Awards!

It was a whirlwind weekend celebrating the inaugural Beauty Envision Awards (BEA), held on July 21, 2019 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.

Presented by Coty, this new awards format brought together its professional brands—Wella Professionals, Sebastian Professional, Nioxin, Kadus Professional, OPI and ghd—to expand the company’s North American TrendVision Awards beyond hair colour.

With more than 5,000 entries received, 27 finalists from Canada, the U.S. and Puerto Rico competed live in the categories of Trendvision Color Artist of the Year, Bridal Hair, Creative Hair, Editorial Hair, Future Star, Men’s Hair, Nail Art and Total Transformation. Prizes included Visa gift cards and education vouchers.

The weekend kicked off with a cocktail reception on July 19, 2019 at the Kimpton Everly Hotel, hosted by Sennen Pamich, Coty Professional Beauty’s new senior VP, and Carole Protat, senior director of brand education for North America.

“The change [to the awards format] is really because we want to make sure we give an opportunity to cover all of the salon services. In the past we were much more colour-focused, but this year we have colour, styling, men’s and nails. That is something really exceptional,” said Pamich.

Unlike its past TrendVision Awards, BEA was all about social media, with entrants submitting their photos via Instagram using the category’s hashtags. All finalists worked with new models, selected by each of the category’s mentors, bringing the competition’s theme (kaleidoscope) to life. For TrendVision Color Artist of the Year, the category was divided between Canada and the U.S., with mentors Dana Lyseng of Supernova Salon in North Vancouver and Sonya Dove, global artist for Wella.

The following day, we travelled to Calabasas, Calif. to visit the Wella head office, where the BEA finalists were prepping and practicing their looks ahead of Sunday’s live competition.

On Sunday we had the opportunity to connect with the BEA judges, including Wella’s global education dean Stephen Moody, Sebastian Professional artistic director Shay Dempsey, men’s hairstylist and educator Mark Bustos, Wella global ambassador Ryan Weeden, ghd’s global head of education Daffyd Rhys and OPI co-founder Suzi Weiss-Fischmann.

The awards night began with a glam purple carpet and photo opportunity. Each awards category had its own exhibit, where the finalists had one hour and 15 minutes to complete their looks before the awards show officially began.

The high-energy show opener included a performance by Cirque Berserk featuring acrobatics, break-dancers and multimedia that showcased the idea of “breaking the mold” and “thinking outside of the box.”

Coty also announced its partnership with Beauty Changes Lives, pledging a $100,000 donation to the Make Your Mark campaign, which is designed to raise awareness of career opportunities in the beauty industry. “To better this industry we really need to go to the root of the business,” said Pamich. “To fuel new talent and make sure [the industry] is continuously attractive to new students.”

In addition to the awards presentation, Wella global artist Darren Ambrose took the stage with a graffiti, vintage rock ‘n’ roll-inspired presentation, featuring a range of street-style cuts and editorial styles with pastel and vibrant tones.

Congratulations to all the winners! A special shout-out to Canadian winners: Color Artist of the Year, Elena Bogdanets of Figaro Salon in Toronto, who will be advancing to the International Trendvision Awards (ITVA) competition in Seville, Spain in March 2020, Editorial Hair winner Carly Purdy of Valvano Salon in St. Catharines, Ont., and Nail Art winner Amy Hwang of Kumi Nail Beauty Bar in Edmonton, Alta.