IMATS - Haul and Run Down

For those of you who don't know, IMATS is the International Makeup Artist Trading Show. IMATS is a giant makeup expo where you can purchase makeup from big brands (some not easily available in Australia) at a discounted price. There are talks done by professionals, body paint competitions, and so much more.

I was fairly excited, it was my first ever IMATS and so many brands were going to be there, that had my wallet crying. Although I thought I had posted a blogpost earlier describing my IMATS wishlist, I was wrong. I'll post it now so that you can see what I intended to get, versus what I actually got. I will also list the prices of things (from what I can remember).

Wishlist:


I posted my haul from the Saturday (I went both days) on Instagram, so if you follow me there, you probably saw it.

I didn't buy much on the second day except for a couple liquid lipsticks so you didn't miss out on much. I do have a few pointers if you are a first-timer at IMATS. If you want a lot of products, go on the Saturday, most of the stalls will have sold out of products by closing time Saturday. Even if you are the first person at that stall on Sunday, they will have most likely sold out of the thing you want. I do know this was a big factor for Makeupnet, Jeffree Star's holiday liquid lipstick in Androgyny sold out, and most of the Morphe Brush palettes did too. On the Saturday, Morphe had every palette out and ready to be sold, on Sunday morning however, only 3 eyeshadow palettes were available.

But if you really hate waiting in copious amounts of lines... then going on Sunday is better for you. While the odd store like Sigma, Jeffree Star and MAC had lines regardless of which day, you have better luck going on Sunday to avoid a giant crowd.

Before I get started on the reviews, I want to mention some little tid bits I thought were pretty cool.

• Even though I missed both of them, Jeffree Star and MessyDownUnder were both there. (I did however see Jeffree and snap some photos of him from the Morphe line). 
• I didn't realise it but some brands I didn't think would be going did, like Viseart and Coverfx. 
• I can't remember what brand it was but one of the false eyelash brands had a dollar lash bin.
• If you want a vanity mirror, a couple places were selling the 'Hollywood' style mirrors with lights on the outside. 
• There were quite a few different makeup travel case options for all the freelancers out there. 

Okay so onto the main event - I will try to go in order of what I bought.

First, I hauled my ass over to Jeffree Star. I was making damned sure I was getting my hands on that holiday set, seeing as I purposely didn't buy it from the website. The holiday shades came in limited edition packaging, rose gold stars with a white base. The shade names are Mistletoe (A pure green, a little on the dark side), Hoe Hoe Hoe (a blue based hot red with purple reflects), Drug Lord (a pure white, great for making ombre lips), Androgyny (the crowd favourite, described as a 'plumy mauve' but it me its a dark mauve), and my personal favourite, Dollparts (a pink based mauve). Androgyny was the first to sell out in this collection (both online and at IMATS) and is definitely the most requested one, so much so in fact that Jeffree has stated he is bringing it back as a permanent in Feb 2016, in the original hot pink packaging. My two personal favourites from this collection are Dollparts and Hoe Hoe Hoe. Though the lip scrubs were there, I didn't purchase any.

Each liquid lipstick was $24 AUD.

The next place I ventured off to was Sugar Pill Cosmetics. I had their products on my list from day one and I was not going to miss out. The Sugar Pill team had a much more efficent of doing things, once was got to the front of the stall, an individual worker would take your order, write down your name and put you next in line for the register. I personally liked this approach and sped up the process of doing things. Instead of waiting half an hour like at the JS line, I waited barely 10 minutes at Sugar Pill. I also must inform you guys that my purchase was influenced from an announcement on Instagram that there two new lipsticks were going to be exclusive to IMATS Sydney until their online release in January... That obviously meant I had to get them. I ended up getting both, Nurse (a hot blue based red), and Girl Crush (a hot magenta). I know the first SP product that ended up on my list was the Sugar Baby palette. A beautiful pastel eyeshadow palette. The last thing I got were the Shady Lane lashes. I know they may seem extreme for most people but its actually for an upcoming Cosplay tutorial. I didn't get the Edward Scissor Hands palette but my budget couldn't allow it.

Lashes - $7 AUD

Lipsticks - $28 AUD

Eyeshadow Palette - $40 AUD

I trodded off to Dose Of Colors, I knew they were bringing back the Terra collection and the line looked long enough so I joined it. Little did I know that I joined just in time, because the line literally caught up with JS. I did end up getting Truffle (a beautiful brown nude) and Stone (almost identical to truffle except more pink based). I also might have impluse bought the Pearl Dust highlighter because it was unbelieavbly beautiful. It is actually in my top two highlighters. Unfortunately I found out that they only brought back Stone and Sand from the Terra collection and Sand looks like concealer lips on a skin tone like me. On Sunday I did go back to Dose of Colors and pick up Merlot (a pink based red).
Liquid Lipsticks - $28 AUD
Highlighter - $40 AUD

Lasplash Cosmetics was next. I pretty much wanted every single thing that they had on offer but I limited myself to only getting a select few. I ended up getting Severo (Mint green), Livius (Light blue), Lavender B (Neon lavender/lilac), Hermes (Dusty rose, pink based), Gigi (Orange-y brown nude). Those were all the Smitten Liptint Mousse's I got. I also went back on the Sunday to get their famous Lip Couture in Ghoulish. A lot of people have said that it's a dupe for Limecrime's Cashmere... but we'll see.
Bundle of 5 - $85
Single - $19

Shortly after looking around some, I got Ben Nye's banana powder. I don't really know what to add to that haha.
$25 for the big size.

And lucky last was Morphe Brushes. I didn't know if I wanted anything there. They weren't selling individual brushes, only the sets, which I wasn't after. I did know that I wanted some of their eyeshadow palettes but the crowd was so big that you could barely see any. I did manage to see over people's shoulders and pick out two ones that I wanted. I got the 35N and 35U, I was actually quite happy with them and I still am.
Eyeshadow palette - $35 each.

Let me know in the comments below if you want me to review the products more in depth and I'll do my best.

Can't wait to see you guys at IMATS next year!

Champagne Pop - Is it worth the hype?

For those of you who don’t know what the hell a Champagne Pop is, Jaclyn Hill recently collaborated with Becca Cosmetics to create a highlighter called Champagne Pop. Well I bought it a while ago and it finally arrived.

Also I should note before I go on, I bought it through the american Sephora and used a forwarding service to get it here. You can buy it at the two Sydney Sephora’s or through Becca :)

A few people had reviewed it after I bought it but not before receiving it, saying the product was definitely not worth the hype, it didn’t live up to their expectations, didn’t go well with their skin tone etc etc. Jaclyn had actually said herself that she tried to make it as universal as possible for every skin tone.

Upon its arrival I had to swatch it immediately and I… loved it! It’s a perfect golden shade that doesn’t look tacky and doesn’t paint my face yellow. It has just the right amount of shimmer that gives me that glowing from the inside look. I am terribly sorry about the atrocious quality of the photos, they really don’t do it justice… HOWEVER you can find a dupe for Champagne Pop by mixing Opal and Moonstone together (also highlighters from Becca). It does cost more obviously but if you already have them but don’t want to dish out on more money for CP then maybe try mixing those two together. It will turn out differently depending on how much Opal you use and how much Moonstone you use.

*I am so sorry this post was supposed to go up about a month ago but never did. Oh well, better late than never right?

Holy Moly he is a God. | Mecca VIP Nars Event

Francois Nars is one of the most beautiful men that God has ever created, if you believe in him that is. God, not Mr. Nars.

I should probably explain this a little. So I got an email from Mecca a couple of weeks ago asking if I wanted to come to an exclusive VIP Nars event. The entire Steven Klein collection would be there, along with the lip crayon bullet collection, that was there for that night only. It was on the 12th of November at Double Bay. There’s also one in Melbourne soon. They would be serving champagne and canapés as well as general socialising. It was $50 to book but you could redeem that $50 on any purchase you make this included general Nars things too. Mecca also promised that they would be giving out the new Nars Audacious mascara in Black Moon and the Nars kohl eyeliner in Minorque as a gift. The best bit was that any purchase you make would go towards your beauty loop account. I was so excited by that the time I got to the event I was like Jennifer Lawrence peeing herself, except I didn’t piss my pants. Only a little.

This was a huge deal. I mean I was even freaking out over whether I was wearing the right clothes or not. It seemed like a pretty formal event but what if I was the only one who was in a freaking ball gown. That was not happening. I got off the ferry that took me to Double Bay wharf and it was bloody cold. It was windy as hell and not to mention, raining. I was not having it. If my hair down and styled looked fabulous before, it certainly didn’t now. I pulled out an umbrella that of course instantly went inside out from the incredible freaking wind. I headed towards where I needed to go, determined to get this freaking umbrella the right way when I forgot I needed to tap off (my opal card that is). Crap. So reaching into my handbag, my hair flying in around, umbrella inside out, I whipped it out… and it nearly fell into the goddamn ocean. Just a little insight as to why I was nervous as hell.

Lining up I was about 4th in line, I got there on time so I was pretty shocked to see not that many people there. The mecca ladies were all so nice about everything and were pumping us up. After a couple girls lined up behind me I started chatting to them, lovely girls they were. A mecca lady came along and asked us if we were all wearing Nars lipsticks, I said of course and so did another girl but one was not. I was shocked to say the least haha. The mecca lady asked me if I was wearing Vienna which I wasn’t, I was wearing the only Nars lipstick I could imagine wearing to an event like this, Scarlett Empress. Which of course looks different on me than everyone else because I have the skin tone of a freaking snow man.

We waited a little while only about 10 minutes before they trickled us in, which I liked because it wasn’t so over whelming and we could take our time looking around. They checked our names off the list and I went straight for the lip bullet, there was no way in hell that that beauty was escaping me tonight. I looked around and seriously considered getting the One Shocking Moment palette had IMATS not been around the corner. But I will be revisiting Mecca soon. I will not let it escape me either.

The bullet looks beautiful if you haven’t seen it by the way. It has a pop off lid, inside it has a little lip crayon stand/holder. The lip crayons are in the shades BKLR (a sparkle-y magenta), Dragon Girl (a hot red) and Sex Machine (sparkle-y pale pink). 

Something else surprised me, they had Nars candles and Francois’ book there for sale too. I was in love with the candles but couldn’t get them :( They had the typical Nars packing, the rubbery-matte with the ingrained Nars written across. They had a black one, which had notes of Vanilla and Sandalwood (I was dying) and a white one that had floral notes. The workers didn’t exactly know what was in them but I knew they were beautiful.

The big event of the night of course was Francois himself being there. After gushing over the candles, I was about 4th in line to meet him. Francois and his manager? were there and they were both so lovely, they complemented my hair and asked me if I was enjoying myself. I asked Mr. Nars if he liked Sydney and he loved it. He signed my bullet and a mecca worker took a photo of us together. It was magical.

Although the event went on for another two hours, I had gotten everything I wanted so I left feeling elated. Mecca really could not have hosted a better event and I was so lucky to have been invited.

- I also forgot to include that when you made a purchase, they gave you a special vinyl tote bag that had the Nars logo with Steven Klein written on it, and had the mascara and kohl eyeliner in it.