Toronto IMATS 2010

Last weekend, the International Makeup Artist Trade Show (IMATS) was in Toronto.  Just from the name, I am sure you can imagine that this was one of my most highly anticipated events of the year.  It's a place where cosmetics companies, beauty supply vendors and beauty schools all gather to tempt local makeup artists (and anyone with an interest in makeup for that matter) with juicy deals on the latest and greatest products and tools of the trade!  It's also a place where experts gather to share ideas, techniques, trends, and industry updates.

 

This year, I attended the show on the Saturday, and had a chance to sit in on a seminar led by Nadine Luke, Director of Makeup Artistry for MAC International.  Nadine's presentation was on Fall/Winter trends for 2010-2011.  She had a whole lot to say, so I'll be writing about that very soon :)  For now, you can enjoy the photos:

Nadine Luke, MAC

Nadine Luke + model for MAC

After-shot of model from Nadine Luke seminar, MAC

After the session I met up with some of my favourite beauty bloggers, YouTubers, and makeup artists to check out the show.  This post is a little pic heavy, so sit back and enjoy :)

Ben Nye eye shadow display

NARS display

Face Atelier display

 Eve Pearl was giving a live demonstration when we approached her booth.  She saw that I was trying to get a picture of her and then stopped talk to look at me and say, "why don't you come up here and take a picture with me?".  Ummmm OKAY you nice woman!  So here's a shot of me with Eve Pearl:

Me with Eve Pearl

I also spotted the gorgeous Elessa from Pursebuzz and Koren from EnKore Makeup who were kind enough to take a photo with me.  Best moment: when Elessa gushed over my colourful ring, she absolutely loved it - wicked!

Some more walking around:

MAC Pro display

Brushes, brushes, brushes!

NYX booth

NYX

 Oh heyyyy - here are the Cover FX girls!  It's always a pleasure seeing these beautiful faces:

Pari Beauty was doing a live makeup demo.  I also ran into Naomi, who was trying out some Pari products.  I have bought a few things from Pari, but I have to admit, I haven't gotten around to trying the stuff out yet.  I will get to it soon - I hope!

Pari Beauty makeup demo

Naomi trying out Pari

 And ohhh Makeup Forever - live body art demo:

Makeup Forever live demo

Makeup Forever live demo

OCC Lip Tars

Oh and I stopped for lunch with some awesome ladies:

Photo taken from www.lipstickrules.com; Arianne, Aanchal, ME, Lelo, Monica, Michelle

Blogger Passes to the show!

By the end of the day, I came home with this:

Yaaaa, I spent a little more than I expected, but it's all good stuff that I NEED to try out for both myself and my kit.  Right?  Right.  You can see there are quite a few neutral shades in there - I guess it was my theme for the day.  I look forward to telling you guys all about these new goodies I picked up!

AND, just as I was leaving the show, I ran into an old friend from my university days.  Amelia and I used to work at Faces Cosmetics together, and she recently started a blog of her own!  Check out In The Pink Of Things.  Here's a pic of us (with high school friend Erica) after all the damage was done:

Erica, Amelia, and ME!

What a great day.  I can't wait to dabble into my new purchases.  This was the second IMATS show I attended and now I am sooo looking forward to the next one! 

Did you attend IMATS?  I will try to write a post with links to all of my blogger friends' posts...until then, leave a comment so I remember who all was there!