From The Land Of The Rising Sun, Come Pioneers Of Beauty!

It was not Friday the 13th. It was Friday the 10th. After a long gap, an invite for an Indiblogger meet knocked on our door. It has always been quite exciting to meet the Indiblogger team and fellow bloggers from Delhi-NCR. Delhi had started missing the interaction and the networking. But then it had to come back. This time the key audience for the meet were the beautiful and lovely ladies of Delhi. It was time for #KoseMeet. This hashtag aroused curiosity for Kose as a brand was not known, and unheard of.

Kose is a legendary Japanese cosmetic company spread across the globe and are now planning to launch their products in India. Indiblogger became the 'Gateway of India' for them. Ironically, bloggers from Mumbai frowned as this meet was not to be held in Mumbai, but in New Delhi. The venue for the meet was Hyatt Regency, New Delhi which had been booked for IndiBloggers – commence at  1730 Hrs and the curtains had to be drawn by 2100 Hrs, which of course was to be followed by dinner and cocktails. The attendees were expected to be around 150-170 in number as per the bloggers who had registered online, a couple of days back, and it was an almost full attendance.

A few hours before the meet, we had a Twitter frenzy, to tweet our blog names in Japanese...

Here's how 'Stir Your Souls' is written in Japanese literations.

@indiblogger あなたの魂をかき混ぜる :) #KoseMeet
— Poonam Khanduja (@stiryoursouls) April 10, 2015

Apparently, I was the first one to reply to them. :) 

The event began with registration at the venue and tea. People were busy in registering themselves when we reached, entering their credentials at the portal being displayed on the laptop screen,  flashing their ID proofs etc. There were known, less known and not known faces. Soon after registration if was time for all to meet their known ones, get acquainted with the lesser known or unknown ones over a cup of tea, or coffee and some snacks. Some were busy too, in capturing 'selfies', 'groupies' or even capturing the decor at the venue. We did too.

That's us, with fellow bloggers Shwetabh Mathur and Rahul Prabhakar

Friday, being a working day according to most organizations, could not deter people from excusing themselves from their workloads early to reach the venue well in time. After all, the point in question was that of a very much awaited Indiblogger meet! 

IB meets are always exciting, jovial and real fun.  Since the topic of anticipation was to be a cosmetic product, most of the bloggers attending were some way or the other are connected to fashion, lifestyle, cosmetics, beauty etc.

The opening session was handled flawlessly as ever by the Indiblogger team – Anoop as the emcee and Jesuwin as the one who successfully dodged Priyanka's pepper spray! :)

Though I had not heard of the brand named Kose, earlier but I had done my homework before coming to the meet. The tagline of Kose on their website itself is quite intellectual – 'Wisdom and Beauty for People and Earth'. The tagline is sufficient enough to convey the message towards the care and love for Earth while manufacturing their beauty products. There were around twenty Japanese dignitaries including the top notch names from Kose to address Delhi and India about their products, their mission and launch plans. There was a team of retailers also in parallel to attend the meet probably invited directly by Kose’s Indian counterpart. To pep up the energy and momentum, the Indiblogger Team begun with introductions, expectations from first comers, past experiences and there were some goodies for lucky ones, with the '1-10 Number Game' and the 'Loot Other's Personal Belongings Activity'.

There was an introduction for Kose and their products by the Kose management team and then the time came for the unveiling of their anticipated product range, 'Spawake'. The session was quite impressive and cheerful. Mr Takashi Nomura, the director of Kose Company Limited, talked about their research and development team who had been working for last three years for the development of this particular product range for the beauty and skin of ladies of Indian subcontinent. A plan of investment of over forty crore was disclosed for India for marketing of Spawake products.

The energy in the hall was at its peak when the brand ambassador of Kose's Spawake range of products decided to step on the podium. She was none other than the sparkling Bollywood Gen-Next Diva, Aditi Rao Hydari. Aditi shared her experience of turning to Spawake products and how she has instantly become a fan of these products. Also, we were all ears to her special Skin-Care Regime and the unveiling of her advert as brand ambassador.

The event concluded with an elegant dance performance by a troupe and a group photograph with Aditi. To take back home, we had an impressive Spawake hamper, elucidating - 'Let The Beauty Of Your Skin Be Sea Deep'.

Overall it was an informative, indulgent and awesome experience for everyone who attended.

I did manage to sneak in her individual photograph with the Daughter apart from the group snap, though. ;)

Here's a short video spanning a little over a minute, encapsulating the entire evening in one frame. :)

P.S. The images featuring in the video have been captured by Yours truly.