IMATS haul!

I've been wanting to go to IMATS for a few years now even booking a ticket to go 2.5 years ago but then not going. However this year I've financially been able to attend this year, I only went Saturday however I could have easily gone both days.

I went with my friend Ellie and we travelled down on the Friday so we could get there before the doors opened to the trade show at 8:30am on the Saturday. We got there about 7:45-8am with probably about 100ish people in front of us. I was there to build my professional kit so I can start working freelance as a makeup artist.

The first booth we headed to was Makeup Forever as I wanted the HD foundations for my kit, I got the shades N110, N115, N117, N128, N155, N178 and N185, they were £18.87 and on the Guru Makeup Emporium shop website it is £30.95 so a saving of £11.08! I also purchased 2 of the Aqua Brows in shades #15 and #30 and these were £10.75 from £16.75 a saving of £6. Because I bought my foundations and aqua brows along with my friends foundation I got a Rouge Artist Natural in Boheme for free!

 

The next booth was NYX which the queue was starting to build up even after we had only been at Makeup Forever fifteen-twenty minutes. We got in the queue it probably took 10 minutes to get to the section where we could actually get to the products I picked up all lip products for my kit as lipglosses are one of the quickest products to expire and NYX has good reviews on it's lip products. I picked up 5 Slim Lip Pencils in 803 Burgundy, 810 Natural, 817 Hot Red, 840 Rose and 845 Hot Pink, these were £3 each and should usually be £3.50, then 2 Matte Lipsticks that were £4.50 in MLS07 Alabama and MLS20 Audrey which were reduced from £6. I then got a selection of Mega Shine Lipglosses(£4.50, not reduced), Butter Glosses (£4 from £5) and Soft Matte Lip Creams (£4.50 from £5.50), in the Mega Shines I got 122 Natural, 129 Beige, 160 Tea Rose and 164 Nude Pink; the shades I purchased in the Butter Glosses were BLG02 Eclair, BLG05 Creme Brûlée and BLG12 Cherry Pie; then finally from NYX i purchased 4 Soft Matte Lip Creams in SMLC06 Istanbul, SMLC08 San Paulo, SMLC10 Monte Carlo and SMLC11 Milan. 

 

 

The booth we went to after NYX was Nigel's Beauty Emporium where I purchased the pro pack of black Beauty Blenders for £55 including the solid Cleanser, a Domed Z Palette for £16, a Large Z Palette for £13 and 15 pairs of eyelashes for £20.

The next stop was OCC (Obessive Compulsive Cosmetics) where I purchased two lip tars one in Black Metal Dahlia and Concubine at £10 each from £12 and 6 Skin Conceals at £12 from £15.50 in R0, R3, R5, Y0, Y3 and Y4.

Before me and my friend left the building to go find some food we stopped off at Inglot where I bought 10 of the Freedom System eyeshadows in 43, 155, 326, 329, 360, 391, 395, 399, 448 and 454 ,these were £3 instead on the usual £4.50, also from Inglot I picked up a Duraline for £5, which is usually £7 and can be used to turn any eyeshadow into a eyeliner and to revive the gel eyeliners) and two of their Eyeliner Gels in the infamous jet black 77 and 90 which is a chocolate brown for £7 each when they are usually £10 each.

My last big makeup purchase was 6 blushers for my kit from MAC in Fleur Power, Blushbaby, Dollymix, Well Dressed, Peaches and Stubborn they were all £12.75 each apart from Stubborn which is a Pro Longwear so that one was £13.60 with them usually being £15 and £16 respectively.

 

The last few bits makeup wise were 5 brushes from Crown Brush which I got for about £12; they are the C412 deluxe pointed crease, C441 deluxe blending crease, C250-1, C250-0 and the C213 chisel mini smudger. From Beauty So Clean I spent £25, £15 on 200 of the wipes and £10 on 2 of the 120ml sprays, they were only £5 each as they are changing the packaging. I then also picked up the £25 deal from Parian Spirit which includes the 16 fl oz, the 2 fl oz, 2 wipes and the brush cleaning canister. 

After all that shopping we went to Westfield White City for a late lunch as we didn't find anything outside IMATS and to go to Kiehl's to get some skincare for my kit, I bought skincare that would be suitable for all skin types. I rounded my shopping trip up with the Ultra Facual Cleanser, Toner and Cream with an Eye Alert to perk up any clients tired eyes. They were having a 20% off event so I picked up all these products for £76.80 with the cleanser costing £12, the toner £12, the face cream £34.80 and the eye alert £18 making a saving of £19.20! I also got a sample of Calendula Deep Cleansing Foaming Face Wash which I believe isn't available yet and a small sample of the Micro Blur Skin Perfector.

 

In total I've saved was at least £251.74 more than covering the £40 cost of the ticket and I spent £713.61 with my budget being £900 so I've still got £186.39 to spend towards my kit!

On the Sunday I went to Selfridges and exchanged 18 pieces of packaging for 3 free lipsticks in Rebel, Girl About Town and All Fired Up using the back to MAC programme, these will also be going in my kit.

Thank you for taking the time to read this essay of a post!