Last month, I had the opportunity to attend Schwarzkopf Professional’s global festival in Berlin—a two-day celebration of artistry, innovation, and the brand’s 125-year legacy. The event marked a bold unveiling of where Schwarzkopf is headed, anchored by a new mission—For Every You—that aims to meet stylists and clients at every stage of transformation. A full deep dive on that festival is coming soon in the premiere issue of PRINTED by TheTease.com.
But while Berlin represented the brand’s grand-scale future, Schwarzkopf Profesional’s L.I.F.T. 2025 series brings that same energy to the ground floor. On May 19, the brand landed in Denver with a one-day immersion at Mile High Station—an event designed to inform, inspire, and invest in working stylists and salon leaders. As someone who had just seen the global strategy play out on a festival stage, I’m sure those in attendance in Denver—experiencing L.I.F.T. in action and at eye level—felt like they were watching the future of the industry click into place.
L.I.F.T.: A Blueprint for What’s Next
Short for Leadership, Inspiration, Future, and Transformation, L.I.F.T. is Schwarzkopf Professional’s traveling playbook for elevating the beauty professional—city by city, market by market. More than just a branding effort, it’s a strategic investment in the local communities that power the pro beauty industry.
The Denver event blended technical skill-building with cultural conversation, offering attendees insight into color theory, content creation, client relationships, and business resilience. It was the kind of pro-centric programming that gives stylists the tools to succeed both behind the chair and beyond it—without sacrificing artistic identity.
Tracey Cunningham: Formulation Meets Human Connection
Celebrity colorist and Schwarzkopf Professional U.S. Creative Director of Color & Technique, Tracey Cunningham, served as the day’s marquee educator. Just weeks after our first conversation in Berlin, Tracey was back in the states—this time sharing her personal journey of “making the switch” to Schwarzkopf and what it taught her about both chemistry and connection.
Her keynote session wasn’t just a technical flex of her celebrity prowess—it was a roadmap for building color confidence through intentional formulation. She highlighted The Switch Page—Schwarzkopf Professional’s new digital education tool—as a major breakthrough in decoding a sometimes daunting shade numbering system. Built to help colorists better understand tone, reflect, level, and target result, The Switch Page represents a shift toward greater accessibility and creative control in the salon.
The Switch Page isn’t just a resource—it’s a reorientation. For newer stylists, it provides a structured, visual path to formulation clarity. For seasoned pros, it offers a tool to sharpen consistency and unlock new possibilities. By simplifying the science without sacrificing the artistry, Schwarzkopf is doubling down on its mission to equip professionals with the tools they need to create confidently—and to do so with intention.
Beyond the formulas, Tracey also spoke to the importance of building lasting client relationships and how she instills that value in her assistants—a reminder that true mastery lies in both technique and trust.
Voices That Ground the Vision
While Tracey may have been the day’s headliner, she wasn’t the only voice shaping the narrative. Schwarzkopf Professional spotlighted a range of educators and experts, each contributing a vital layer to the event’s central theme: transformation through education.
Denver-based stylist, salon owner, and educator Chelsea Vonne James brought a distinctly local perspective, sharing how she built her brand—Forma Collective—through thoughtful content, intentional culture, and consistent education. Her session resonated with regional stylists navigating the modern demands of visibility, leadership, and sustainability in salon business.
Resilience expert Adam Markel offered an unexpected but powerful shift in tone, exploring the mindset needed to evolve and adapt in a rapidly changing industry. His tools for navigating uncertainty and staying grounded through professional growth added a valuable emotional intelligence lens to the day’s technical and business takeaways.
Emceeing the event was men’s grooming expert Matty Conrad, who brought both structure and memorable moments to the day—connecting speakers, guiding transitions, and helping shape the rhythm of the experience.
Reinforcing the Mission
During a key session, Schwarzkopf Professional’s Vice President of Digital, Sonya Latreille Jeans, offered insight into how the brand’s future-facing vision is being made tangible. Her keynote emphasized Schwarzkopf’s evolving approach to education—one that leverages digital platforms without abandoning real-world connection. Her message was clear: innovation isn’t just about product or technology—it’s about people.
This echoed what I had heard firsthand from Sonya in Berlin, where she spoke passionately about Schwarzkopf’s responsibility to uplift the next generation of pros, and willingness to explore nontraditional paths to connect to a fully inclusive beauty community. That ethos was fully visible in Berlin, woven into everything from the programming to the post-show celebration, and I’m sure the same was true of Denver.
The Denver L.I.F.T. event closed out not with a formal farewell but with a connection party—an exclusive speakeasy-style celebration that invited attendees to unwind, network, and continue the conversations that began during the sessions. It was a subtle but intentional move that underscored Schwarzkopf’s understanding of what drives this industry forward: relationships.
Because while education is a cornerstone of professional growth, community is what sustains it.
From Mile High to Music City
Schwarzkopf’s L.I.F.T. series isn’t slowing down. The next stop? Nashville, September 14–15, 2025. If Denver and Berlin were any indication, Music City stylists are in for something equally energizing: a full-spectrum experience where education meets empowerment—and where Schwarzkopf continues to prove that investing in professionals is more than a promise. It’s a practice.
Missed Denver AND Berlin? Don’t worry. You can still catch our full Berlin festival recap, dropping June 1 in the debut issue of PRINTED by TheTease.com. That piece will go deeper into Schwarzkopf’s global strategy—and show how events like L.I.F.T. bring those ideas to life at the local level.
Schwarzkopf Professional’s L.I.F.T. 2025 isn’t a touring seminar. It’s a movement—one that threads together global vision and regional relevance, platform artistry and personal impact. In both Berlin and Denver, it proved that education, when done with intention, can be both technical and human, bold and grounded.
From Berlin to Denver, and next—Nashville—the future of pro beauty is unfolding. One city, one stylist, one moment of transformation, and one new version of you at a time.
