"Battle of the Strands" Finals 2012 Las Vegas--My BLOG RECAP Judging, The Hair, The Costumes, Hard Rock Resort & Casino!

"Battle of the Strands" Finals 2012 Las Vegas--My BLOG RECAP Judging, The Hair, The Costumes, Hard Rock Resort & Casino!

Salon Extravaganza!

Judging Fab: Rafe Hardy, Lori Montoya, Nick Verreos and Kandee Johnson--"Battle of the Strands: Extreme Beauty" Competition, Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas

Photograph Courtesy of Battle of the Strands Facebook Page/PRSmith_PSPhotography

Last Monday, I flew to Las Vegas to judge a most unique hair/make-up/fashion competition: "Battle of the Strands: Xtreme Beauty" Finals! I went there as the Fashion & Style Correspondent for LookTV--the BEST YouTube Channel devoted to the Best in Fashion & Beauty-and one of the sponsors of this one-of-a-kind beauty battle.

Produced by Vegas Beauty Unbound, "Battle of the Strands" is a cut throat competition between salons from across the nation. The actual competition began a month ago when 22 teams competed
against each other to then get the chance to make the Semi-Final Top Twelve and seek the coveted "Battle of
the Strands 2012: Xtreme Beauty" Champion title.

These 12 semi-finalists all then met in Las Vegas on October 17, 2012 to
compete in a thrilling round of challenges that tested their teamwork
and ingenuity in the areas of hair, makeup, and beauty. Everything was done very "Project Runway" style. After these challenges, the 12 semi-finalists were then cut down
to five surviving teams: Body Spa Salon of Las Vegas Nevada; Clark Russell Salon of Lafayette California; Fringes Salon of Omaha Nebraska; Glam Alliance from Minneapolis Minnesota, and Mile High Magic from (you guessed it!) Denver Colorado.

These five teams then went on to compete in the final
battle at The Joint, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas last Monday night on October
2, which is where I came in--as one of the esteemed "Celeb Judges".

I arrived to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas early in the afternoon after a quick LA-Vegas flight (I spent more time at LAX waiting for my flight than in the air!) and was greeted by Kelly and Barb--my two very cute (and hard-working) "VIP Handlers" (above photo).

Madonna Costume worn on the "Who's That Girl?" World Tour/Ciao Italia Tour--Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas (special Thank You to my Tweet DIVAS @katykk and @michellevisage for helping me figure out where Madonna wore this!)

Axl Rose--at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas

As you may know, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas has a lot of rock & roll/music memorabilia "sprinkled" throughout its grand lobby/casino floor so before I got to my room, I had to explore. My favorite items (naturally) were some of the fashions worn by famous music icons on display, including the red dress and bolero worn by MADONNA on the "Who's That Girl" /Ciao Italia World Tour and a red-and-gold jacket and ripped jeans from Axl Rose. Guns N' Roses are headlining at the hotel beginning October 31 so the entire place is a Guns N' Roses MECCA right now; big ol' signs advertising their concert hit you at just about every corner of the hotel. Speaking of hotel...I finally made it to my room:

The hotel's Paradise Tower website describes the room as such : "The trendsetting Paradise Tower combines rock ‘n’ roll decadence with
style and sophistication to create an energetic vibe that can only be
found at the Hard Rock Hotel. Rooms evoke visions of a rock ‘n’ roll
manor house, using iconic materials like leather, wood and silver
studded velvet to enhance the sensory experience and emphasize that this
is no standard hotel room." And they were right! The room was very spacious, great bathroom and yes, love the bathroom products (I collect 'em!!). Soon, it was time for an outfit change and I had to head down to "The Joint" and do my judgin' duties at the fabulous "Battle of the Strands". The show was being LIVE Stream televised on YouTube for thousands and thousands to see so I had to look (slightly) decent.

Los Angeles Samba Dancers Opened "Battle of the Strands: Xtreme Beauty" Competition

Photograph Courtesy of Battle of the Strands Facebook Page/PRSmith_PSPhotography

The two hour show began with an exciting and very sexy dance number by the Los Angeles Samba Dancers. It was like the Opening of a "Miss Universe" pageant! I almost got up from my judging seat and stole one of those feathered headdresses and starting booty-shakin' myself!

 Hosting Divas: Colorist-to-the-Stars (and last year's "Battle of the Strands" champion) Kim Vo (left) hosted the show, along with the beautiful Dayna Roselli (right)

 Photograph Courtesy of Battle of the Strands Facebook Page/PRSmith_PSPhotography

The Five Final Teams, and their "Battle of the Strands" Final Creations--the Theme was GOLD:

Team One--Mile High Magic Denver Colorado: Ed Gillespie, Lindsay Ambrosio, Dina Bree, Bobbie Mitchell created a "Golden Harem Princess" with blond, pink, black and dark brown wigs gold coin oversized hoop earring/necklace combo, Dior/John Galliano-esque makeup, a huge umbrella with iridescent organza panels and a Schwarzkopf-branded tambourine 

Photograph Courtesy of Battle of the Strands Facebook Page/PRSmith_PSPhotography

Team Two: Clark Russell Salon Lafayette California--Clark Russell, Jeffrey Lotspeich, Anje Mayma and Brenda Agcaoili created a "Golden Medusa from Africa"-like creature with multi-colored hair, gray/purple body and face makeup, and a very impressive--and massive overskirt made of HAIR--in various shades of golden blond! Oh and did I mention she arrived on stage via a golden luggage cart. Yes, who needs a set of Louis Vuitton Luggage...when you have HER!

Photographs Courtesy of Battle of the Strands Facebook Page/PRSmith_PSPhotography

Team Three: Fringes Salon Omaha Nebraska--Carol Cole Lapole, Omar Rodriguez, Tiffany Welch and Kristina Lee created this "Amazonian Golden Warrior Goddess" featuring a very high wig--in varying shades of blond--a gold lame skirt, a forehead golden crown, golden tubing around her upper torso and a golden "Warrior Goddess Stick".

Photograph Courtesy of Battle of the Strands Facebook Page/PRSmith_PSPhotography

Team Four: Glam Alliance Minneapolis Minnesota--Andrew Schmitz, Brenda Torre and Crystal Mitchell created this "Marie Antoinette-Meets-Goldfinger Bond Girl Beach Diva" with an extravagant golden wig weaved into an UBER Faux Hawk, gold bikini top and bottoms, an iridescent organza back overskirt and crystallized Cleopatra-like makeup.

Photographs Courtesy of Battle of the Strands Facebook Page/PRSmith_PSPhotography



And Finally...

Team Five: Body Spa Las Vegas--Jessica Taylor, Felix McShaw and Jeremy McShan, Jeremy
Mihelich created this "Exotic Hair Bird of Paradise" golden beauty featuring gold and black "wings", gold lame draping, and lots of gold chains and jewelry--as well as a headdress reminiscent of some Indonesian-meets-Nepal-meets-Vegas Fantasy Princess

Photograph Courtesy of Battle of the Strands Facebook
Page/PRSmith_PSPhotography



The Judging:

 Judges Deliberate: (left to right)  Rafe Hardy Artistic Creative Director and The Face of "Sexy Hair"; Lori Montoya Rain Cosmetics Co-Founder; Nick Verreos; and Kandee Johnson Celebrity Makeup Artist and YouTube Personality (and my new Best Twitter Friend!)

Photograph Courtesy of Battle of the Strands Facebook Page/PRSmith_PSPhotography

 Photograph Courtesy of Battle of the Strands Facebook Page/PRSmith_PSPhotography

After our judging--and "Michael/Nina/Heidi" commentary--we finally had to make a decision and "crown" the Winner of this year's "Battle of the Strand: Xtreme Beauty" Competition. This was NOT an easy decision and we--the judges--deliberated and conferred--even after putting our votes in--on the merits of why the Winner should be the winner--but we were all in agreement for sure. It was up to Kim Vo to announce the result. But before that, there was several other awards to announce including...

The People's Choice Award--which was voted on Facebook--and that award went to Team Fringes of Omaha Nebraska!

Photograph Courtesy of Battle of the Strands Facebook Page/PRSmith_PSPhotography

And The Winner (drum roll!!)...

 Photograph Courtesy of Battle of the Strands Facebook Page/PRSmith_PSPhotography

GLAM ALLIANCE of Minneapolis Minnesota!! Yes, the "Marie Antoinette-Meets-Goldfinger Bond Girl Beach Diva" was our Top Vote Getter. From head-to-toe (literally!), this team had our highest scores. Congratulations to Glam Alliance, it's creative team and...

...that fabulous model for having the chutzpah to go out there in that ensemble and to not have a neck injury for holding up that very high Fax Hawk--just take a look at the intricacy of that hair!! Yep, she got my Highest Scores for sure!



Post Finals Pics:

Judging Ladies: (left to right) Kaydee Johnson, Nick Verreos and Lori Montoya--"Battle of the Strands: Xtreme Beauty" Competition Finals, The Joint Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas

Jackets Required: Nick Verreos and Kim Vo--"Battle of the Strands: Xtreme Beauty" Competition Finals, The Joint Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas

Nick Verreos with Guests--"Battle of the Strands: Xtreme Beauty" Competition Finals, The Joint Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas

 Nick Verreos and The Ladies--"Battle of the Strands: Xtreme Beauty" Competition Finals, The Joint Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas

Golden Group: Nick Verreos and The Winners "Glam Alliance"--"Battle of the Strands: Xtreme Beauty" Competition Finals, The Joint Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas

Thank you LookTV, Vegas Beauty Unbound, Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas, the "Battle of the Strands" staff and Las Vegas for a wonderful time!!! It was such an honor to judge this unique hair/fashion/beauty competition and again, Congrats to the Winner! xoxo



Click Below to watch the final Five and Announcement of the Winners:

Click Below to watch the Announcement of "People's Choice" Winner:

6 Restaurants & 4 Cakes

6 Restaurants & 4 Cakes

Monday 20th March

A day working from home, as we try to aim for Mondays means lunch on Main Street! $15 Lunch at Mother Dough. We had the mussels & cherry tomato linguine. Seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic. The mussels were fresh and juicy, average sizes, while the pasta was a bit chewier than I prefer, but fine apart from being too salty for me.  

Matt Preston's Nutella Pie-ish Cake

• Chocolate but not very sweet
• Not overpowering sweet - asian friend. Not anywhere as sweet as I thought! 
• Fresh strawberries brings it to life, as all 3 components compliment each other
• Bouncy texture like thick custardy jello/firm. Oh yes it reminds me of pie!

Experimenting in the kitchen we made a three ingredient cake! Well two, but we like to add vanilla, even though it seemed to make no difference in this recipe... To share a recipe my rule is that it has to be just right, and made at least twice. This one's ready. 

Tuesday

It's $16 pizza night at Sugo! Delicious and reasonably priced we can't wait to return!

Over to the Astor we saw a movie set during the war, tis alright and depressing, no dress or hair porn though. No where as uplifting and amazing as 'Hidden Figures' the last movie we saw. As depressing as the choc top was disappointing, with the stale cone.

Wednesday

A revisit to Huxtaburger Hawthorn, it's completely different from last time where service wasn't great and it was ran by asians. Think of the city kfcs that only hire international asians.

Britney $14

Grilled chicken, avocado, aioli, cheese, lettuce and tomato.

Delicious as always though Betty's is on par, perhaps better than Hux?

Beauty & The Beast - Girl's Night Out Event

Checking out the showbags. Sadly no program/postcard/flyer or any relevant merch, but there's food (stuff you can buy at Safeway) and some sachets of beauty samples and eyeshadow. Kinda disappointing after the amazing one at the last event we attended. Granted it was years ago (we saw the Devil Wears Prahran) - oh I just realized we saw that back home. I suppose it's more guy friendly? :P We were hoping for cookies/macarons and little edible treats.

The movie was great! Not as stunning as the french one, but magical in its own way!  We loved the dinner song and Gaston in particular, his best man/servant. LeFou is the original Elder Cunningham and Olaf the Snowman! The beast looks more like a goat/Krampus than lion... 

1597 was when shakesphere published romeo & juliet, though there's a 1750s roccoco style castle. Set during the Georgian era but after Victoria with Shakespeare (these two do boarder each other). At the castle time froze but the village people, some of them were related to the cursed servants? Why did the enchantress live as an outcast in the village?

It was set in France, they moved to the country because of the plague in Paris, though back Belle's family appear to have been poor. That or attics are as expensive as they are today in the city. 

The ball at the start was stunning! With all the powdered white wigs, so when the curse broke they were white but for the end party they wore black wigs??

Overall it was great and the beast gets a song too! They bonded over their love of books, being mother-less and Belle being the only girl in the village who could read, also her desire to travel. Highly recommend! We loved H has Belle, who's just as bright and brave!

Quotes
She's the prettiest girl in town, that makes her the best! XD
Screw your courage to the sticking-place - Gaston/Lady mb

Plot Summary

Thursday

The ABCs of time management. Gosh I wished we did this stuff at school! Sure I can plan, but then I get overwhelmed or one thing runs late making everything else late. Eg. Someone got hit by the train, even though I was to arrive at the theatre 30mins early but didn't make it till intermission. Trains were frozen, boom gates down and cars were at a stand still. No one was going anywhere tonight on this side of the city.

Me - I have a cape!
Him - Don't you already have one?
Me - Not one that's a blazer hybird. And it was $50 on sale.

One of the last ones I tracked when I saw the post, posted 20mins ago. It was meant to be as there was only one in my size in the city! Don't you love it when that happens?

Tip - If you see something you like go try it on and be certain of your size. Then add it tp your bookmarks tab, use java to email you when the page/price is edited. Using this I rarely ever pay full price. 

"...when they are pulling your teeth out it sounds like chicken bones snapping and you can hear the crackle of the tooth giving way and splintering. They grab your head and they really pull hard. It's all manual and very physical. A horrifying experience to say the least!"

". At one point the nurse was holding my head in place while he went to town with the pliers/cracker thing."

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/health-wellness/articles/2014/05/23/the-survival-guide-to-getting-your-wisdom-teeth-removed

I chickened out and moved it to next month...

Instead of the dentist we had dinner at Angliss.

Friday

So close but so far, I'm starting to think it's display only...

Meetings, a stop by goodwill, to the closed bookshelf at the tram, to the house to make a cake (well pie, nutella pie), cleaned then to dinner. We were going to a bar but it was dark, loud and overwhelming so we took a stroll and picked somewhere random. Discussions of which point when it [life] all started to go downhill.

Work in progress, twice in a fortnight, that's about as much cake as I can handle. :P

My first HSP (because they don't make them in kid size servings, like that size at LOTF, but I hate fake meat). This one's $15 from Hellenic Bite, meat (chicken and lamb) on chips with garlic, bbq and chili sauce. It was delicious! We also had a $6 salad which was average and not particularly recommended with Coles on the same block (their potato salad is the best). It was very hot inside the eatery, oddly so.

Saturday

Too many events, too little time!

10.30 for 11am start. Damn I thought it started at 10.30am, as it clashes with my 11am. On the way we discovered a book exchange, in the beauty garden. Ironic location isn't it?  XD No beauty and the beast books though. Fruit and hot dogs for brunch? Something the boys would like, and not the usual cakes it was a bit on the diy side. Over to a makeup demo, 3 looks 15 mins each using 5 or less products. Chatting up a model on her fav off duty pieces, relating to the audience though the limited travel wardrobe. Too mainstream for me.
Lunch at Rice Workshop. Teriyaki chicken ramen $10.50. The broth was rich and creamy. Most of the chicken wasn't chewy. Springy noodles maggi sized though not taste.
Good basic if there's no ramen places in the area.

At Sacca's Fruit World we found $6 trays of strawberries! 8 boxes, so around 75c each. On their way out, still good for jams and smoothies. We sorted, washed, cut and froze them. Got a large pot of the first round ones.

Up to Camberwell from the french fete, for the kids it wasn't my thing. It's your first started food festival with a petting zoo, games, auctions/raffles, food, music and the likes. No snow cones sadly, but there was a pre-wrapped bake sale. I was hoping to get an assorted plate of classic Australian party food but they didn't have that. We Had the jam drop cookies, too soft and retro inspired with the custard yellow. I was after chocolate crackles, real rum balls and honey joys. But they didn't have any of that, unless you're after enough to serve a family of 10.

Back at the house to pack before going out to a concert, we crashed. Turns out I can't do a morning and evening event on the same day... and lesson learnt: always choose music over fashion.

Sunday
6.30 start, leaving at 5.45am we made it! The moon was still in the sky, peaking 28 at 5pm?! Peaks are normally 10am. We volunteered, meet some awesome people and had a lovely view of the school from across the river! Lots of parrots/love birds and pretty little birds. at the end of the line we have magpies and noisy minors, sometimes pigeons

As we were close by, by north taking a fork in the road we visited my favorite cake shop, green refectory. Look for lonely hearts $2, yesterday's cake. Tastes just fine, even better at $2! When does it happen? I'm not sure, normally it's just muffins, but today there were three slices! We bought two pavs and a mars bar cheesecake to share, as we're going home

To the left is St Vincents, so many colourful dresses! Alas the one I like wasn't my size. A fancy one though just $12. We didn't get a picture as it was too crowded. Apparently people steal from goodwill, as the dresses were tied to the rack! Also of interest was this cookbook/picture book! We used to love Huey, sadly that was until we met him.

How was your week?