You guys….. New York City is amazing.  The trip to the International Make-Up Artist Trade Show (IMATS) was quick, but jam packed with good times.  My step-sister Dinessa and I left Friday morning and arrived in NYC just in time to drop off our bags and go to IMATS Pro Night to shop.  (Which ended up being the best idea possible because when the event opens to the public on Saturday and Sunday shopping is stressful and near impossible.  We were glad to be able to spend time on those days speaking with people doing demonstrations, watching and learning.)

FYI: Maybe I got a little out of hand with pics, but this was my first trip to IMATS and my first event as “Press” so it’s a milestone!

Of all of the exhibitors I was especially excited to check out Inglot, since I’ve never been able to before, and am definitely ordering more online ASAP.  It’s slightly addicting.

I also have a new found love in Jesse’s Girl and bought a few products to swatch:

As well as an intense interest in the brand Cailyn who do amazing things with gel liners and the inovative  Vibrating Foundation Applicator.  We watched the woman below transform before our eyes and become instantly 10 years younger with their BB Cream.  Stunning!

We also spent some time checking out the products from OCC and the fun Hydrocolors from WolfeFX.

This is what I hauled from IMATS.  Not nearly enough!  I did got back with the intent to buy more from Inglot and Cailyn but it was just so busy at that point I felt like ordering online was a better idea.

Make Up For Ever Academy was doing some amazing thing with the nicest model ever for their exhibition:

And a few other artists (representing schools or brands) also showed off their skill:

  We also got the chance to check out a few demonstrations from Vargas and Roshar.

Vargas has a ridiculous amount of skill and creativity.  I can’t even begin to tell you how impressed we were with his technique and how he worked the products he was using.  Vargas demonstrated Fantasy and Faces: Beyond Color, Shimmer and Glitter Applications.  The way he so beautifully and easily applied glitter seriously made me think that this is just something I could do for every day.  Which would clearly not be appropriate, but he’s just THAT GOOD.

I got some before pictures of his characters, as well as some during the demo and after photos of the demon sea creature

Before the demo:

During the demo:

Vargas used special brushes from Royal & Langnickel to create the hair brush strokes and flame effect.

At the end of the day:

Roshar is quite literally the most entertaining person I’ve ever seen.  He’s completely self-taught, which is so impressive because all of his talent is within and truly his own.  The demo we were able to sit in on featured him doing up a Fantasy Editorial.  The end result was CRAZY amazing!

The only panel we caught was on Gaining Representation: Exploring the Artist/Agent Relationship.  It was basically just a Do’s and Don’ts as well as what you can expect from your Agent and what your Agent expects from you.  Which is basically be professional, know your place, don’t be a pain in the butt.

This panel was supposed to be moderated by Roshar, but at the last minute Kevin James Bennett swept in to cover.  You could say I had a fan-girl moment because he pops up sometimes in the BBC and he’s gloriously entertaining and refreshingly blunt.  I’m sad he had to run off right after or I’d have photo-opped him

But by far, our favorite thing to see was the Character/Prosthetic Student Competition.  The talent was just unbelievable. The theme was OZ and the competitors had only 3 hours to work on their creations before the intense judging took place.  First a few of the competitors working their magic…

… and the amazing end results (and, you’re welcome, because I took SO MANY photos of this I could have really spammed the heck out of you with pics… especially of the blue-haired guy and the ballerina):

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve likely seen a few of these next pics.  In case you don’t here are some of my faves and also shout-outs to the lovely bloggers I met this past weekend!

First up, the bloggers!  I first ran into Eugenia from Geniabeme and Casey from Beauty101 and they are awesome and hilarious!

Next I ran into Judy from BeautyJudy and she’s all sorts of adorable that I almost tried to bring her home with me =P

Finally, I met Xiao from Messy Wands!  MY MESSY!  Finally!  Just as fabulous in person, BTW.

And finally just a few pics of Dinessa and I running around the city taking selfies

At IMATS Afterglow (some of my fave pics)

Times Square

Canal Street #Swag (we are seriously still laughing over that one)

Nomming in Little Italy:

And some shots of our hotel room view & Dinessa checking out the view from Dream where Afterglow was held….

Also, while in NYC we had to seek out and visit MAC PRO, since we’ve never been to one.

And also hauled!

This is the haul from Sephora in Times Square:

Each haul will have separate review posts for each item as I go through them   Anything you’re wanting to see first?

Did you hit up IMATS?  Did you get anything good or meet any of your favorite people?

If you’ll be in the area for The Makeup Show be sure to enter to win a 2-day pass

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