Monday, March 10, 2008

New York International Gift Fair

We recently visited the New York International Gift Fair at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in NYC. It services the boutique and gift shop industry. We saw everything the fair had to offer, but we mainly focused on the Health and Beauty section, Extracts. There were lots of innovative beauty ideas to be had. One of the coolest products we saw was Lip Ink. It's a lip stain that stays on until you take it off with the enclosed remover. It comes in every color under the sun and the stay on formula is also available in an eyeliner. Another booth with several lines of innovative products was the What's Hot booth. They are the distributor of Yu-be products (see the reviews here). They also distribute Tassi hairbands. The Tassi is a hair band with a pouch in the back to put your hair in while you wash your face. I am surprised no one thought of this sooner! Jao hand sanitizer is an anti-bacterial hand sanitizer with moisturizing and aromatherapy ingredients which they distribute. Ballmania was there promoting their lip balms in the shape of a ball. Why a ball you ask? Because you can always find it on the bottom of your purse. As an added bonus they have an SPF of 20.
Some of the nicest scents we sampled were at the Archipelago Botanicals booth. They make candles from 50% soy wax, reed diffusers and bath and body products. The addition of soy wax means their candles burn cleaner than paraffin or beeswax candles. They have upwards of 75 different scents from masculine to floral. We also got two eau de toilette samplers from Fragonard Perfumers from France which are absolutely divine. Yankee Candle was also in attendance and they had every scent you could think of on display. Another booth with some great scents and great gifts was Danielle & Company soaps. Not only do they make natural shea butter soaps, they also won the award of Best in Show at the NYIGF. Their Organic Soap Garden is a bio-degradable planter with a bag of organic soil and several soaps wrapped in paper impregnated with wildflower seeds. You plant the wrapper of the soaps and voila! Your own wildflower garden.
The New York International Gift Fair is THE place to be if you own or select products for a boutique or store.

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