IMATS: The Experience! (Detailed, Long and Pic Heavy) Part I

Hey Glamour Dolls,

How are you all?!

Things are getting back to normal for me, thank goodness, I can now get back to the things I actually enjoy. I've missed blogging :)

This is my very late IMATS post, I know some of you all attended IMATS and others have heard about it, here are my thoughts on the event.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE?

Amazing! I loved every bit of IMATS! Lots of people? Yes! Long lines? Not as much. Would I go again? Yes!

The show was sold out both days, so of course there were tons of people. Some of  the IMATS attendees thought it was best to get there early so that they could get a head start on everything... of course everyone else had that same idea -so I heard that there were long lines when the doors first opened up, some even said the lines were wrapped around.

My friends and I arrived later on both days. Saturday, we got to the show around 11am and Sunday we got there around 2pm, on both days we didn't experience any lines getting in to the show, we were able to just walk right in.

Immediately, when we came in- we saw all kinds of makeup presentations. There was fantasy, body paint, character and special effects makeup.  It was quite normal to see someone walk around with their bodies completely covered in glitter, drenched in (fake) blood or look like they were auditioning for the movie Avatar... this was all apart of the makeup exhibits. I took a lot of pics of these presentations, see below.

Special effects makeup is so amazing to me...

Body paint model: her chest was painted like a mermaid.

She looks like she's auditioning for Avatar or Star Trek.

There were maybe about 20 exhibitors (maybe more or less) that you could make purchases from, some of the IMATS attendees were disappointed with what they thought was a "lack of exhibitors." I did find out that there were exhibitors that were supposed to show up and canceled. I, on the other hand, was excited. I'm excited about any type of makeup. I get excited going to the drug store and browsing the makeup aisle when I already know what brands are already there... so, I was satisfied with the amount of exhibitors that were present.

DID YOU ATTEND ANY OF THEIR CLASSES?

I did attend two classes. I went to Kevin James Bennett's class featuring Naked Cosmetics and I went to a Body paint class.

For those who may not know, Kevin James Bennett is an Emmy Award winning Celebrity makeup artist. My friend and I got a chance to meet him at the end of the class. He was very funny and down to earth. He did an entire makeup application using ONLY Naked cosmetic pigments.

I only use pigments for eyeshadow but he used their pigments for: eyeshadow, eyeliner, lip gloss and even blush! He also dusted a little bit of the pigments onto her lashes to give a nice pop of color on her mascara. It was really fun. I took plenty of pics of the presentation.

Kevin using Naked pigments as eyeliner.

He used the pigments to make blush, I love this idea!

I took another class on Sunday, it was a Body Paint presentation. The model's body was completely covered in body paint. The presenter, did a step by step presentation on how he mixes the colors and even certain fabrics to get the desired effect. He used a piece of lace on the model's body and painted over the lace to get a unique pattern.You would think that you needed special brushes to achieve the desired results but he used several brushes that are found in regular makeup kits.

The model's body is completely covered in body paint.

WHAT EXHIBITORS WERE YOU EXCITED ABOUT THE MOST?

I was excited about Inglot and OCC (Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics) the most. I was NOT leaving IMATS until I made purchases from both companies! Interestingly enough, both companies stole the show. This is where everyone met up with extremely long lines and for good reasons: both companies are great brands and both companies offered discounts at the show!

Inglot offered 30% off and OCC's liptars which are normally $13 were reduced to $10. It took me at least 45 minutes to purchase anything from Inglot. I'm not complaining because I heard that on the first day, people were in lines for hours waiting to purchase from Inglot. Maybe it helped that we purchased from Inglot and OCC on Sunday, it was less crowded.

It took about 30 minutes just to get to Inglot's eyeshadows (there were so may people in the line who were taking forever to decide what they wanted) and about 15 minutes for them to make my palette. I got the 10 pan-round palette. I will say that Inglot's employees were slow, I think several people complained about the long lines and the confusion on how to purchase the items-Inglot eventually got it together.

OCC line...

Occ's line was crazy long too, it probably took about 30 minutes to purchase their lip tars. The only difference with Inglot and Occ's lines is that Occ's employees were moving extremely fast once you gave them your order. I picked up 2 lip tars. I had my eye on their pigments but I have enough pigments that I don't really use and my feet was starting to hurt.

WHO DID YOU MEET AND SEE?

Besides meeting Kevin James Bennett, I met Julie. She is a You Tube guru. She does makeup videos on You Tube and she was very sweet in person. She said she's shy in person but it doesn't seem like it on her videos. I was floored that she gave me a compliment on my makeup! That's a huge compliment coming from her. If you haven't already, check out her You Tube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/julieg713

My friends and I and Julie pictured in the coral dress.

The next person that I saw was a big shocker. One of my friends texted me at the show and said Kenan from the infamous Kenan and Kel duo back in the 90's was getting his makeup done by the Saturday Night Live crew. I hurried downstairs to the first level and there he was. They made him up as Lemony Snicketts and Whoopi Goldberg, lol.

They made him look like Lemony Snicketts in this shot.

Kenan looking like Whoopi.

I also met two fellow beauty bloggers at the Sephora in New York. I met Jess from Weighing Down on Beauty and Kendra from A Sick Obsession blog. They were both very pretty and so sweet.


And there you have it, my extremely long and detailed post on my IMATS experience, it was so much fun! I can't wait to go again. Stay tuned for the next post that will feature my IMATS purchases and swatches.