I attended IMATS (International Make-Up Artist Trade Show) for the first time at the end of September in Darling Harbour, Sydney. This was in conjunction with the inaugural ABBW (Australian Beauty Bloggers' Weekend), which truly blew me away. Absolutely exceeded my expectations, and for the first time, meeting all the really lovely bloggers I'd been following and also meeting a lot of new ones! Anyway, that might be better as a separate post! For now, I thought I'd share with you my purchases from IMATS (incurring a "slight" damage to my wallet, but I didn't feel too bad because I'd been saving and doing a lot of prior research as to what I needed/wanted, and only bought a few things that weren't on my list). I was slightly embarrassed to realise I seemed to be the only one there with a little notebook with my shopping list! Yikes! People were surprised, but *I* was surprised that no one else did...mmm...
Anyhoo, on my list I had some items that were a must and others marked as optional depending on what they were like trying them out in person. Most of these were makeup brushes. My heart had been set on the Japanese brand Hakuhodo brushes after reading a lot of positive reviews about them - particularly from 'The Non-Blonde'. Apart from that, I was keen to get a large brush roll, some disposable spatulas and little plastic containers that are convenient for travel. I was also keen to get a few items from Make Up For Ever and Illamasqua as I these aren't available in my city! Of course, I had to stop by the Inglot stall as well given I have been loving their eye shadows of late!!! Inglot is easily accessible in my city, but it was worth purchasing from IMATS due to their discounted prices...(well, if you don't count having to wait around for ages in line!).
- MUFE (Make Up For Ever) Aqua Liner in #12 Mat Mocha and #13 Mat Black
- MUFE Aqua Lip Liners in 15C Pink and 08C Red
- MUFE 12 Flash Colour Palette
- MUFE HD Microfinish Cream Blush in Fuchsia #3
- Inglot Freedom System Eye Shadow Quint (customised) (L-R): DS 498, AMC 67, Pearl 445, AMC Shine 37, DS 502. It's odd, but I noticed that their weight varies from 2.5g, 2.7g and 3.5g - interesting...
- Illamasqua Powder Blusher in Tweak
- Faux Leather Make up brush roll in black (very soft) - from The Make-Up Foundation stall.
- Emerald City (creme) #80383
- Crystal Waters (shimmer) #80382
- It's Raining Men (shimmer) #80367
- Surreal (creme) # 80375
I was mostly keen on getting eye brushes as I'd recently been getting into wearing a lot more eye shadow and only own a few basic eye brushes - so I was keen to get more key items that were missing from my kit and also getting a couple of backups for the eye crease. So here's what I got:
- S103 Powder Blush Brush pointed (Goat hair)
- S142 Eye Shadow Brush round (Blue squirrel hair)
- S146 Eye Shadow Brush round (Blue squirrel hair)
- G515 Eye Shadow Brush CM angled (Canada squirrel hair)
- B133BkSL Eye Shadow Brush round and flat (Canada squirrel hair)
- 290 Eyeliner Brush round (Weasel hair)
- G538 Concealer S (Synthetic Fiber)
- Mascara brush
- G5511BkSL Eye Shadow Brush round flat (Horse hair)
- G5512BkSL Eye Shadow Brush round flat (Horse hair)
- Kokutan Blush Brush (Blue squirrel & Synthetic Fibre)
- K021 Eye Shadow Brush round and flat (Blue squirrel hair)
- G519 Foundation Brush 20# (Synthetic Fibre)
Some of my must-haves on my IMATS shopping list included the traditional Japanese brushes, called Yachiyo (pointed) brushes. One of my favourite brush that I own is the Nars Kabuki Yachiyo brush - I love it so much, I wanted a back up and in different sizes from Hakuhodo as I heard it is even softer than the Nars one. Also, Hakuhodo's is so much more affordable (approx. $20 AU compared with Nars at $98 AU from Mecca Cosmetica)! Unfortunately, there weren't available at the Hakuhodo IMATS stall. *wipes tears* Next year perhaps...otherwise, I may try getting it online.
Below are the LimeLily Cosmetics containers and disposables I bought for travel from The Make-Up Foundation stall:
- Plastic disposable spatulas (pictured in the first image above) - it was a pack of 25 and didn't need that many so I went halves with the lovely Pink Ribbons (she has similar taste as me and was really fun to go shopping with! Although, dangerous for the pocket as initially our aim was to get a brush roll together and ended up stopping by other stalls and purchasing other things as well! Naughty, naughty! ;-) )
- 2 x 30 ml & 2 x 60 ml twist top bottles
- 2 x 24 ml sifter jars, and
- 5 stackable jars.
I was also keen on seeing a seminar by Rae Morris - Australia's top make up artist who I'm a huge fan of - I love her books! On the first day of IMATS I saw her signing one of her books and I was really, REALLY wanting to say 'hi' and have a photo with her like a crazed fan as she walked passed me, but I was way too shy (Grrr! I'm such a dork!). Just as well I suppose as in the end, I realised I was lugging around my huge, heavy SLR the whole day without a memory card! (Left it at the hotel!) Double dork. /:-\
On Sunday (second/last day of IMATS), I attended her seminar. I found Rae Morris to be very passionate and enthusiastic about what she does. It's hard not to get excited along with her and be inspired. She's so full of knowledge and shared many useful tips. In this seminar, she showed some of her new and long-awaited makeup brushes (launched for the very first time at IMATS!), which I first heard about last year (but is actually two years in the making). Of course, as a result of the time it took to design and create them, no quality was spared. She explained why each brush was designed the way it was - it was really interesting! (See making of brushes video). At the moment, the brushes are only sold as a set of 26 - very reasonably priced for the high quality at $899, but will apparently be made available to purchase individually soon. Apart from this she also discussed the steps and useful tips to becoming a make up artist, and demonstrated on a model how to create a smokey eye look that will make you look 10 years younger. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was extremely informative.
Here are a few of my snapshots from the seminar...
Here, she demonstrates how the shape of the brows can affect the appearance of your nose in terms of its width. The narrower the gap between the brows, the narrower your nose appears. So, if you have a wide nose and want to make it appear narrower, avoid removing those brow hairs from the centre of your face! ;-)
Here she uses one of her incredible new brushes and her brilliant skills at creating precision eye brow hairs to re-shape and re-define the brow. The result is a natural looking, thicker brow that's been reshaped to lower the arch - therefore, creating a more youthful appearance. A higher arch can often emphasise the appearance of hooded eye lids and can make you look older. She also recommends adding just a touch of highlighter just at the outer end of the brow as too much can also age your appearance. Pretty useful stuff, hey! :-)
That's it. Hope this was interesting for you guys! Thanks for reading.
Did you go to IMATS in Sydney this year? If so, what was your main purchase? Did any of you bring a shopping list with you or was it just me? Would love to hear - please leave a comment below. x
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