Fanny Serrano gives & gets back tenfold

MANILA, Philippines - When Fanny Serrano and his newly formed association of make-up artists and salon owners decided to make their presence felt, they thought of holding a beauty trade fair. The core organizers of PICA (Philippine International Cosmetologists Association) had come from PIHA (Philippine International Hairdresser’s Association). They had wanted to increase coverage to include everyone in the beauty business.

With PICA’S 36 board members, Cosmetologie 2009 was conceived last year in partnership with Premiere Events Plus (PEP). We told Fanny that was a partnership made in heaven, having met and worked with PEP president Boydee Dizon in another venture. Boydee together with Joel Pascual and Randy Manoloto made up the dynamic young trio of businessmen with a conscience.

For Fanny, the venture was a challenge to prove that an organization of their size could work together in harmony, helping one another in an environment of camaraderie and learning. That seemed to him ambitious enough. The results far exceeded his expectations that today he finds he has to slap himself to make sure he is not dreaming. 

We were drawn to the fair’s statement of purpose through its quotation, “People are like stained glass windows: They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within,” — Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.  

This quote from the famous Swiss psychiatrist known for categorizing the five stages of grief into Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance, challenged the group to sparkle from the inside as much as from the outside. Apart from the aesthetics of beauty, the group believes in pushing people to look at the value of beauty from within.

Will they fulfill this promise, we wondered? We decided to  check out the three-day trade fair at the SMX Convention Center recently. We found the convention grounds buzzing with activity.The floor was filled with booths holding make-up, hair, massage, gym, fashion demonstrations, and carrying on brisk sales of their products.  We checked out the various activities and in Make-up found a Ponds skincare lecture on stage, airbrush make-up by Abigail Arenas, tatooing of eye and lips, make-up to hide imperfections from the Australian College, make-up for TV commercials and bridal make-up. In Hair, there was hair straightening, cut & color from L’Oreal, Fanny Serrano tackling the red carpet look, Frannie Villanueva’s hair extensions.

The Wellness category offered fitness and anti-aging from Slimmers, the business of starting a spa. In Fashion, La Salle College of Montreal had a lecture-demo by Danilo Franco, sculpturing nails, fashion photography, an ethnic fashion show from Rene Salud, the FDAP fashion show, the Touch of Excellence Awards for Anime, and the red carpet.  There were even lectures on franchising and how to increase salon profits that had full house attendance. Obviously, the group had delivered what they set out to do.

Our only quarrel with the schedule of activities is that with so many things happening simultaneously in various venues we couldn’t attend everything. Fanny’s red carpet lecture was held at the same time as Danilo Franco’s fashion seminar. The engaging lectures Danilo gave were part of workshops his school the La Salle of Montreal, Canada was offering. With Audrey Hepburn’s little black dress on mannequins, he proceeded to demonstrate how a simple scarf, vest, top could change one’s look completely while maintaining elegance. Two neckties were miraculously made into an Obi on a model.  A stylist worked with a fashion photographer and model to come up with amazing results. 

Fanny Serrano has been in the business for 45 years, starting out with a small parlor doing make-up and hair styling. As the years went by he moved on to fashion designing, to coming up with his own brand of Fanny Serrano cosmetics, organizing a direct-selling company Rev’lation, offering massage and aromatherapy, acting on TV, directing pictorial sessions, and cultivating his connections in show business to become known as make-up guru to the stars.  His best known and most loyal clients include Sharon Cuneta, Lorna Tolentino and Charlene Gonzales.

Celebrities from showbusiness appeared to grace the Cosmetologie opening and awarding ceremonies all for the sake of pakikisama.  They included Sen. Francis Pangilinan, Charlene Gonzales, Dawn Zulueta, Pops Fernandez, Ogie Alcasid, Judy Ann Santos, Wilma Doesnt, Cherie Gil and Lorna Tolentino. Gary Valenciano not only performed two numbers but also presented awards on the last day. 

As in all ventures, however, jealousy rears its ugly head and the organization of the entire event was not without its detractors. Both Fanny’s PICA and the PEP experienced having people spread lies about them. All of which they faced without answering back. They kept their cool and were rewarded tenfold, says Fanny. Actually, the strongest statement we heard Fanny utter that closing night to the audience was. “I promise you, no one will get in the way of my fulfilling my legacy.”

Better things happened. The initial 100 membership of PICA quickly doubled during the three-day fair when beauty entrepreneurs registered as new members. Happy with their sales, the exhibitors and sponsors asked for a mid-year event from the group which they are already working on. SM’s taipan Henry Sy paid Fanny a visit backstage to give his congratulations and the news that this has been the most successful of fairs at the SMX to date.  PEP reports an 11,922 visitors.  For a first year event and in comparison to other cosmetics shows, this figure is considered enormous.

“We will definitely go international next year beginning with the Asian region,” declares Fanny. “We want a Cosmetologie booth at the Hong Kong trade fair in order to invite foreign buyers to our fair. We will also go regional in choosing finalists, with selections made in the key provincial cities.” Things can only get better. There seems to be no stopping them. 

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