Breaking: Andrew Bartfield of Celeb Luxury Passes Away

It is with great sadness that we report the sudden and unexpected passing of Andrew Bartfield, VP and General Manager of Celeb Luxury. We will update this page as more details are forthcoming, but in the interim, we present an article that ran on Bartfield in the June 2016 issue of Beauty Launchpad.

“I have the most amazing career I never set out to have,” laughs Andrew Bartfield, VP and General Manager of Celeb Luxury. As a fresh-faced grad in 1982, he soon landed stylist positions in tony ZIP codes—Miami’s Bal Harbour, New York’s Madison Avenue—and excelled as a retail superstar. But his brand loyalty was overhauled in ’92, after Sandy Forte introduced him to Artec’s color-depositing shampoo and a Leland-led seminar convinced Bartfield to hop aboard the brand’s bandwagon. “I started selling up to $3,000 a month in Artec product, and Sandy asked me to become an educator for her in the area,” Bartfield recalls. “I repeatedly told her no (I was terrified of public speaking), but she convinced me to attend a training session.”

That same year, Leland—industry innovator, consultant, Cofounder of Artec and Haircolor USA, and former salon owner—both certified Bartfield and invited him on as Artec’s first national educator. But now he and Leland have another, hush-hush project in the works: Celeb Luxury, Leland’s newest vision after his artistic sabbatical to travel the world and collect art. “He’s back and on a mission to infuse exceptional new energy into the professional haircolor category once again,” Bartfield reveals. “The mission is to lead the thought process of increasing the haircolor industry’s ‘colorbrain’ and to help educate clients with the use of innovative, visual products.”

Though details are still in development (and being kept under wraps), Bartfield hints at groundbreaking education that eschews the traditional manual/class/video model in favor of education that works with a stylist’s superpacked schedule. (Think 20-minute videos, broken into 30-second or two-minute bursts, that can be accessed via a website, Facebook and Instagram; or education manuals broken into single-page images that can be saved on a phone.) “Launching soon, we have a secret new visionary product for the millions of haircutters/colorists worldwide that will make an emotional connection with their color clients,” Bartfield teases. “It’s going to be a financial and color game-changer for the industry!”

Learn As You Grow

Andrew Bartfield’s education philosophy is, “It’s what I know that makes me good, but it’s what I’m about to learn that will make me great.” His top five ways to grow professionally:

1. Have a plan of how you want to improve in your career. Pick one specialty and focus.
2. Research all educational opportunities before committing. Explore trade publications and manufacturer websites; solicit intel through social media.
3. Be 100 percent present in your learning experiences.
4. Practice, practice, practice. Master on mannequins, refine on models.
5. Own it. Use it. Sell it. Express to your clients the time you invest in being the best for them.