Support continues to grow for Beauty Pitch 2016, a live competition where beauty entrepreneurs pitch their products to a live audience and a panel of celebrity judges. Held Saturday, July 23, Beauty Pitch 2016 is part of INSPIRE: A Night Celebrating Beauty Entrepreneurs, which kicks off the Professional Beauty Association’s (PBA) Beauty Week and Cosmoprof North America’s (CPNA) exhibition.

Today, the PBA announces five new industry leaders who will join the judging panel:

·         John Paul DeJoria, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board; John Paul Mitchell Systems and The Patrón Spirits Company

·         Emily Dougherty, Beauty Director, Elle Magazine

·         Kevin Harrington, CEO, Kevin Harrington Enterprises

·         Deanne Kaczerski, Executive Editor Director, InStyle Digital Innovation, Time Inc.

·         Mark Spinks, President of CosmoProf and Armstrong McCall, Sally Beauty Holdings

Additionally, the PBA and CPNA are excited to announce partnerships with Beauty Systems Group: Armstrong McCall, CosmoProf and Loxa Beauty and Amazon Launchpad who have signed on to provide unique distribution opportunities:

·         Beauty Systems Group (BSG): Armstrong McCall, CosmoProf and Loxa Beauty offers a wide selection of the industry's top brands, providing beauty professionals and clients the tools and inspiration to create. Beauty Systems Group will select one professional brand from the Beauty Pitch competition to place on their online platform and in 1,200 stores nationwide.

·         Amazon Launchpad showcases products from today’s brightest startups. It works with crowdfunding platforms, incubators and venture capital firms to identify a wide array of products from gadgets to beauty. As a Beauty Pitch™ partner, Amazon Launchpad will build a dedicated namesake online boutique featuring the semi-finalist companies. (No professional products will be featured on the Amazon Launchpad boutique.)

“The Beauty Pitch competition was created to elevate and support the beauty entrepreneur. This year’s competition accomplishes both. Not only does it provide these up-and-coming beauty brands with broad industry exposure, it also provides them with the highly competitive and difficult-to-secure retail partnerships. Adding the Beauty Systems Group and Amazon Launchpad as Beauty Pitch partners raises the bar for this event and could be a game-changer for many of these businesses,” said PBA Executive Director Steve Sleeper.

Beauty Pitch™ Extended Deadline:

Entrepreneurs will now have until Tuesday, May 10 at 5 p.m. PDT to enter the Beauty Pitch competition.

Applications are being accepted in two separate business categories:

·         Startup, (revenues ranging from $100K to $5M)

·         Established, (revenues ranging from $5M and above) 

Applications can be submitted at www.beautypitch.com.

INSPIRE: A Night Celebrating the Beauty Entrepreneur

INSPIRE will feature networking with some of the industry’s biggest names including: President and CEO of Sally Beauty Holdings, Christian Brinkman; President of Jinny Beauty Supply, Eddie Jhin; President of CosmoProf and Armstrong McCall, Sally Beauty Holdings, Mark Spinks; Vice President of Merchandising and Planning for SalonCentric, Steve Orzel; and celebrity hairstylist Ted Gibson.

INSPIRE schedule of events:

6 p.m.-7:00 p.m.                           INSPIRE Reception

7 p.m.-8:15 p.m.                           INSPIRE Dinner

8:15 p.m.-10:00 p.m.                   Beauty Pitch 2016: Live Competition

10 p.m.                                           Dessert Buffet

Visit probeauty.org/beautyweek for Beauty Pitch™ and INSPIRE registration details. Tickets can be purchased separately for the Beauty Pitch™ 2016 live competition.

Net proceeds from the INSPIRE event will be divided equally between the PBA Foundation, an organization supporting industry related charitable initiatives and the historical preservation of the beauty industry, and City of Hope, a world-renowned comprehensive cancer treatment and research center.

About:

Professional Beauty Association (PBA) Beauty Week®:  Professional Beauty Association (PBA) Beauty Week® (July 23-26, 2016) is North America’s largest, most inclusive beauty event, offering unlimited networking, education and professional growth opportunities to all sectors of the beauty industry. This week of beauty features the North American Hairstyling Awards (NAHA), PBA Business Forum, PBA Beacon and City of Hope. PBA Beauty Week® is produced by the Professional Beauty Association (PBA) and hosted by Cosmoprof North America. To learn more, please visit probeauty.org/beautyweek.

Cosmoprof North America: Cosmoprof North America is organized by North American Beauty Events LLC, a joint-venture company between Bologna Fiere Group and the Professional Beauty Association.  Cosmoprof North America (CPNA) is the award winning premier international B2B beauty trade show covering all facets of the industry under one roof and the largest event of its kind in the Americas. For more information, please visit www.cosmoprofnorthamerica.com. Event information and exhibitor updates are also posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@COSMOPROFNA).

Professional Beauty Association Foundation: PBA Foundation is a tax exempt 501 (c)(3) organization that supports charitable initiatives and the historical preservation of the beauty industry. Programs include domestic abuse awareness and education, disaster relief, educational scholarships, and heritage initiatives, which preserve the industry's history, archives and artifacts. PBA Foundation is controlled and operated by the Professional Beauty Association (PBA).

City of Hope: City of Hope is an independent research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases. Designated as a comprehensive cancer center, the highest recognition bestowed by the National Cancer Institute, City of Hope is also a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, with research and treatment protocols that advance care throughout the nation. City of Hope’s main hospital is located in Duarte, California, just northeast of Los Angeles, with community clinics in southern California. It is ranked as one of "America's Best Hospitals" in cancer by U.S. News & World Report. Founded in 1913, City of Hope is a pioneer in the fields of bone marrow transplantation and genetics. For more information, visit www.cityofhope.org or follow City of Hope on  Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Flickr.