IMATS L.A. 2012 Experience Part I

I have been blogging for five years now, but it was my first time to attend the International Makeup Artist Trade Show in Pasadena.  I am always in California (every two or three months) because my in-laws live in San Bernardino county, but everytime the third weekend of June rolls around, I've always been busy and couldn't plan a trip to California. Finally, though, I was able to not only attend, but cover the event as a member of the press.  I was beyond excited.  It was a great weekend as we also planned to go to Disney California Adventure to see the new Cars Land.  We enjoyed it immensely, so experiencing IMATS and Cars Land in one weekend was no less than nirvana!



When I arrived at the venue last Saturday at around 9 in the morning, I couldn't believe my eyes.  The long line was already wrapping around the entire Pasadena convention center, it was crazy!  I was able to avoid the lines as I was a member of the press, so I am quite grateful for that.

The exhibitors' floor was already packed when I went in.  I browsed the booths, but I made sure to take interesting photos as well.  I got myself a Cinema Secrets concealer palette, as I heard that their concealers are really good. I can't wait to try this one out.

The lines at Makeup Forever and MAC Pro were really, really long. It also took a while to shop and pay for your purchases. Stila had these hunky males with the brand's logo printed on their chests.




Long, long, long lines












Ben Nye booth


Amazing Ben Nye stuff












Cinema Secrets


Cinema Secrets concealer palette








Makeup Forever booth




























Eve Pearl doing a demo








Eve Pearl and her Emmy




Dinair Airbrush




I almost missed the MAC Pro booth! I was on my way out. It was all the way at the back from where I first started. Good thing I was able to see the long lines snaking around the booth.


MAC chromacakes, among other things








MAC brushes


the long line at MAC Pro

The Brush Trend:

What I noticed on the exhibitors' floor was that there were a lot of vendors selling brushes. I saw brush brands I've never seen before, but the brushes were really soft and appeared sturdy. The most beautiful brushes are of course from Hakuhodo- the premium Japanese brand of hand-crafted brushes. Hakuhodo brushes are never cut at the tip of the brushes but hand-sculpted and assembled using the finest quality materials. Hakuhodo brushes are different from other brushes, whose tips are cut. However, if you don't have the budget for Hakuhodo brushes, there are also other brands at the IMATS exhibitors' floor that work great and are affordable. I bought some eye shadow brushes from Crown; I was really pleasantly surprised at how amazing their pro crease brush is. It applied and blended my crease color seamlessly and perfectly. I think I'm buying some more Crown brushes!


Morphe Brushes




the crowd at Morphe Brushes













Hakuhodo








Shany Cosmetic Brushes










Sigma










And here's the Crown brush booth






taklon (synthetic) brushes for cream and liquid products


You get these plastic shoe cases as shopping baskets




ADesign brushes



There's just way too many brushes, I was so overwhelmed and I didn't know where to begin! I will be posting my IMATS haul in a separate entry, so stay tuned!

Here are some of the lovely bloggers/vloggers that I was able to meet. It was a lot of fun chatting with them.



Bumped into Jessica of Beautezine!


Me and Jessica


TiffanyD


Love these smiles; they look so happy! QueenofBlendingMUA and xsparkage on YouTube


Marlena aka MakeupGeekTV on Youtube. She's so nice! She says she follows my blog so yay for that!


Charis aka charismastar on YouTube. She won the $25,000 first prize and title Beauty Vlogger of the Year at the NYX Face Awards held at IMATS!

I had fun seeing familiar faces and checking out exhibitors' wares. I wasn't able to take a photo of the Inglot booth as I got too excited!! I immediately rummaged through the testers and created my custom 10-pan eye shadow palette. I now have three 10-pan palettes from Inglot in a span of just a couple of months! I am really in love with Inglot and I can't wait to get some more.

All in all, attending IMATS is like being a kid in a candy store for us makeup enthusiasts. It was fun seeing the many products with prices slashed 40-50% off. I also got to see and meet the people behind the brands. I was likewise able to appreciate products and brands that I really wouldn't pay attention to if I'd just shopped online, because I was able to see, feel, and test out the products myself. I have been bitten by the IMATS bug, I can't wait to go back to IMATS Pasadena this coming January 19-20, 2013 (yes, they changed the dates!).

Watch out for Part 2 of my IMATS L.A. Experience!