Essie Cosmetics’ president Essie Weingarten and vice president Max Sortino traveled to Japan in November 1995. During the one-week trip, they visited their two Japanese distributors, Nail Labo and Life Beauty Systems, and 15 salons.

According to Sortino, he and Weingarten enjoyed the opportunity to see how salons in Japan operate and what products they use.

“Japanese women are aware of fashions in the United States and they like to emulate those fashions, including nail trends. The biggest problem for the nail industry there is that it costs an average of $100 for a set of nails,” says Sortino.

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