Thanks to the royal wedding and the beautiful weather many people decided against spending the day at the Olympia this year. Their loss was most definitely my gain!
I joined the queue around 8:30 and was in plenty of sight of the door. The IMATs crew were there checking tickets and handing out the programmes, and the Kat Von D crew followed along handing out large bags for the shopping.
After some serious research with E the night before when we both fell in love with the highlighters from pictures on the internet I headed straight to the Too Faced booth. I was one of the first people there so I had a good chat with one of the artists there. Unfortunately they weren’t selling either the rainbow highlighter or the unicorn tears but I did pick up a Love Light highlighter, and of course one for E too. I haven’t tried too much of the Too Faced range, the brand is not widely sold in Ireland so the artist colour matched me and I got the Born This Way foundation in Snow and concealer in light. The colour match was perfect, and the artist promised that the foundation would be good for my oily skin, so will see how I get on with it. He said he is giving a masterclass in Debenhams in Dublin at the end of the month so I know where to find him if it doesn’t!! Interestingly he also said that sales in Dublin are amongst the highest sales for the brand in Europe!
I also picked up the hangover primer to give it a try, and also the gorgeous natural face palette. Just before completing my order, the gentleman next to me, who quite closely resembled Danny De Vito, ordered 15 of the better than sex mascaras. He caught my look of surprise, and laughingly explained it’s his favourite mascara to use on his clients. Most unlikely looking makeup artist ever, but with a recommendation like that I had to give it a try and I added a waterproof version to my order. I don’t do things by halves!!
From there, straight over to Kat Von D! There was a little queue by the time I got there but the girls were handing out the product cards so the time flew as I was deciding what I wanted to look at, and discussing with E via Whatsapp what she wanted me to pick up for her. The stand was organised with a couple of separate sections for foundation and concealer, and the new brow products. The rest of the products were along the main section, which got a little chaotic as that was where you also had to hand in your filled out product card for your order to be put together and then collect and pay for it.
Both of us were interested in trying out the newly released brow products, so I got the pencil, pomade and 24 hour version in Walnut for E, who is way more confident than me with filling out brows! I picked up a dark brown pencil for myself. I am having serious regret at not getting the powder though, I later found out at one of the masterclasses (separate post coming later!) that it’s the world’s first waterproof powder (very important in Ireland were a day without rain is a rarity) and also has a slight sheen running through it which makes it look more like natural hair.
I also picked up the blotting powder. I am yet to find a foundation that does not let oil come through after a few hours, the KVD lock-it is definitely the longest wearing, so I’m interested to see if the blotting powder will increase the longevity of a matt face! I got two new liquid lipsticks as they are some of my favourite products ever, matching lip liners, and a glimmer veil liquid lip in dazzle.
Sufficient damage done to the credit card there, I then headed to the next stall Revolution Pro. I had never heard of it before and got onto E to get googling! She found a review that said the products matched charlotte tilbury for quality, so in I dived. Product range wasn’t huge, but incredibly reasonably priced. I picked up a rose gold face palette, a rose eye shadow palette and a matte setting spray for myself, and a highlighter trio palette and a multi tonal eye shadow palette for E, and the whole cost was £32. They even threw in a clear travel makeup bag. So we will try out our purchases and see how we get on, but it didn’t break the bank if they are not great.
Next booth was Stargazer. Now if you haven’t already noticed that I’m a total magpie, I’m about to give myself away now! Oh my Lord I could have spent a fortune there! As the name suggests, the products are all glittery, sparkly, and look like they are made from the dust of the stars! E was very keen to try the glitter hair gel and it was 3 for £10 so I picked her up a green, a blue, and a mixture. I got the mixture one for myself. I also picked up four of the glitter pigment pots for myself in purple, green, rose and pink, and three of the eye dusts in rose, dark green and silver. They were all on multi-purchase offer so great value (or so I’ll keep telling myself!)
From there over to Inglot. Inglot had a really big booth this year and from the number of people around it all day it’s definitely one of the popular brands. We had both been admiring the J Lo range so I picked up the two Livin the Highlight powders, the lighter one for E and the gold one for me, two of the J Lo pigments in the purple and burgundy and two of the Aquastic cream eye shadows for myself. They threw in a free Aquastic eye cream and one of the freedom system eye shadows also.
The Nyx stall was right alongside Inglot. In previous years the queue for this has been really long but today I walked straight in (thanks Harry and Meaghan!). I had nothing in mind to purchase for myself and E, who isn’t the biggest fan of the brand for reasons she can explain herself, didn’t want anything. I do like the liquid swede collection so I picked up a dark brown shade and a nude lip liner, as you can never have too many and when they are discounted it would be rude not to!
I also picked up one of the lingerie liquid lipsticks. I’ve seen many bloggers rave about this collection so thought it was about time I gave it a shot! I walked around to other side of the stall and was immediately drawn to the holographic eye liners (magpie alert!). I snapped a photo straight off to E and decided on the rose/bronze for myself. E’s rapid response was the purple one! I used my restraint then and headed over to pay.
After Nyx I went for a wander around and watched some of the demos that were being done at the booths. Given that I can’t even contour properly I was massively blown away by the talent! I’ve added some of the photos I took so you can see the amazing skill some of these people have.
I took a little break for myself and had a snack to recharge before going to the KVD masterclass given by Steffanie Strazzere , I’ll do a separate post on the masterclasses, but suffice to say, her creativity is extremely inspirational (and her use of the brow powder started my regret at not getting it!)
After the masterclass I took a look at some brands I wasn’t familiar with. Blinc caught my eye (no pun intended!) and I chatted to the brand ambassador to find out more. Their products are all for the eyes (unsurprisingly) and I picked up an eye primer and the mascara to try. I’m particularly intrigued by the mascara. She explained that rather than painting the lashes like normal mascara, the Blinc mascara surrounds the lashes with “tubes”. These tubes provide greater definition while protecting the lashes and remove easily with warm water and gentle pressure, although she advised me not to be alarmed to see the tubes coming off, as they do resemble eye lashes when removed. I think it’s an interesting concept so will give it a chance and see how it goes!
I was so tempted at the Ben Nye stand to pick up some more highlighters but after getting so many already i couldn’t justify it. The stand was amazing though, they have a great product range and anyone who is familiar with the setting powder can speak to the quality of the brand.
There was a large Urban Decay stand and I spent some time there. I was particularly mesmerised by the liquid lipsticks, the finish is just beautiful! I was also taken by the Ultimate Basics palette. I’ve been admiring it since it was launched but, given that I’ve so many eye shadows I could open my own store, I’ve never taken the plunge. There wasn’t a significant discount at the urban decay booth so I didn’t purchase anything. Has anyone tried the Ultimate Basics palette? Is it worth the price tag?
I also visited the huge Mac stand. I don’t know why but Mac is a brand I always find slightly intimidating! I have, and love, a couple of their paint pots, lip liners and lip sticks, but haven’t really tried much else. I tried the studio fix foundation years ago and it did nothing for me at all. I didn’t get anything either at IMATs.
I did some damage at Nars in 2017 so, other than a quick look to see had they anything new (luckily for my credit card they hadn’t!) I moved on. The brand is only recently available in the Cork Brown Thomas so I suspect I’ll be paying a visit in the not too distant future!
I had walked passed the Get Set Go stand about five times at this point and finally gave in to having a look. GSG have a range of cosmetic travel bags, ranging from the small overnight / hang luggage sized up to full kit size. I was getting concerned that I wouldn’t fit all my purchases into my small case so it was only sensible that I picked up a travel bag just in case, right?? I got the large and it seems like great quality, very strong with plenty of different compartments and a number of handles to carry it in different ways.
I have a thing about makeup brushes, despite using the same ones over and over I still always pick some up whenever I can. Lately I’ve been liking the ease and result of applying my foundation with a flat top kabuki brush, but I was getting worried the one I have being in constant use-wash cycle was going to wear out the bristles (I suffer from acne so am religious about deep cleaning my brushes once a week, but more on that some other time!) I’ve heard other bloggers like Stephanie Lange rave about Bdellium Tools and I’ve never tried any of their brushes, so I picked up a large and small flat top kabuki, and also a tapered contour and a highlight brush. I’m aiming to practice my contour more so figured the right tools is half the battle!
After watching the progress of the special effects transformations, which were just mind blowing, I went to the second KVD masterclass given by the amazing Leah Carmichael . After taking lots of notes for her tips and tricks I had one last wander around to make sure I didn’t miss something!
One of my hero products is the embryolisse lait-crème concentré and they had a small stand there. I love using embryolisse after a face scrub, mask as I find it super hydrating, and as they were selling two 75ml for £20 I thought it would be a shame not to!
One more masterclass given by the stunning Kate Friday from Ruby Rouge and I was done! Very nearly tempted by the Donna Bella booth on my way out but common sense prevailed (finally!) and I was soon on my way back to the airport and home again.
That is my IMATs haul! There were so many other booths that I haven’t mentioned here, but I’ve included everything I bought, I did more damage than I planned to but less than previous tears, largely I think because E wasn’t there. I think we totally enable each other’s beauty spending! Will try out the products for a while and see how we get on and will have lots of reviews coming up in the next few weeks!
Did any of you go to IMATs this year? Did I miss anything I should have got? Did I buy something that you would not recommend? Let us know in the comments!!
