Spain

Vigo, Spain

Stephanie Johnson, Amber Bowen (Mirabella's Creative Director), and myself went to Vigo, Spain to see our distributor. 

First, Vigo is located in the Northwest corner of Spain, in a province called Galicia.  Did you know that every province teaches their school children it's language.  Every province speaks it's own language!  Plus they speak Spanish! 

Front of Jorge Rubin in Vigo, Spain

Anyhow, Icon picked us up and showed us a couple of their own salons called Jorge Rubin.  They are very high end, well run salons.  They have used their successful salons to teach other salons how to be successful using their model.  They sell their own brand called Icon.  They were the Sebastian distributor until Wella went direct in Europe.

They have 550 salons that run their businesses like they do.  The salons are departmental.  Each client is seen by different people for different services, allowing each service provider to be an expert in their area.

Mirabella Pro Box for doing quick touch ups in the Salon

And they touch every client every visit with Mirabella!  In the center of the salon they have our Pro Box which the stylists grab a couple of products to freshen up their client before sending them home.  And because they do, they sell a ton of cosmetics.

The other amazing thing the salon does is all focus on one aspect of the face.  So in the first salon, they were all wearing the same bright red lipstick.  It made quite an impact!  The next salon was focused on eye colour.

Amber showing them how to keep the Tester Unit looking brand New

We left Amber at the key salon.  She spent the afternoon teaching the team how to keep the tester unit looking brand new!  She also gave them some hints about some of the products like Prime.  They were having a tough time selling 4 eye colours to a client.  She showed them how to blend them to make an even more beautiful look.  They now understand!

Stephanie and I where shown their warehouse and offices.  They showed us a new prototype station display they are building.  We loved it and are going to replicate it for the US market.  They also showed us their table they sell to salons to display the product.  Again, we are going to replicate that as well.

The Best Sole Ever!!!

They treated us to a traditional Spanish lunch.  It was later in the afternoon and more like dinner, which is how they do it.  Amazing seafood in that they are right on the Atlantic ocean.  Pretty funny, Stephanie had tail!  They have a fish there that is head and tail, no body.  The tail was huge like the size of a medium sized dog!  I had Sole, the whole thing!

That night we went to a late dinner.  Eating outside, the proprietor came out and stirred a trash can.  Then he lifted up his stick, and out a 15 inch octopus on the plate and carried it to the kitchen.  Classic experiences on trips away from home!  Your not in Kansas anymore, Toto!