Wednesday, November 16, 2011

IMATS Toronto 2011 Part 1: The Haul

I was determined to stick to the list at this year's IMATS. For the most part, I stuck to it but added a little extra! I skipped purchasing colour cosmetics and restocked my tools instead. IMATS is great for replenishing things you don't really want to buy and most come in bulk. I thought I would do a quick post of my haul because I'm sure that's what most of you want to see. In part 2, I'll talk about IMATS in more detail because it's not only about the shopping right?






bdellium brushes: I had checked out this brand prior to IMATS and I was immediately intrigued. A few days before IMATS, I got a Twitter message from bdellium to come by their booth and I'm so glad I did! By far one of my favourite purchases! The yellow handles really caught my eye. And once I brushed the hairs across my skin, I was in love. I think it's great that there is an anti-bacterial component in them because that is essential for your own skin and my client's skin. bdellium definitely beat out an old IMATS favourite, Crown Brush, in quality and price! I love my complimentary travel set - my favourite brush is the Duet Fiber Foundation Face brush! Blends foundation beautifully into the skin. I'll give a more in-depth review on each brush in a later post.




My friend and I checked out bdellium first then we went to compare prices at Crown Brush. I don't know what it was but we somehow got caught up in the hoopla at Crown. I ended up buying a few brushes all of which were slightly more expensive than bdellium but I will still get use out of them. My most disappointing purchase were the sponges - $20 versus $12 at Nigel Beauty Emporium. On the upside, I was able to exchange my 2 pack of 25 mascara wands for their 100 pack which was $1 less (they had run out at the time then replenished their 100 pack towards the end of the day).




Beauty So Clean Cosmetic Sanitizer Mist and Cozzette Makeup Vessel from Alcone. I've been wanting to get Beauty So Clean for a while and it was on sale for $20. Pretty expensive still but worth it. Alcohol is drying out my cream blushes and cream concealers. I saw the Cozzette Vessel on Donna's blog, Makeup By Donna Marie. She said it is a must-have especially for holding your dirty brushes so I decided to try it out. 


My go-to foundations have always been Face Atelier Ultra Pro, but I wanted to try a new brand. It's always good to have a variety of foundations in your kit. I was ready to buy Eve Pearl's HD Foundation Trios but even though there was a discount, it still seemed pretty pricey at $30 per palette of 3 shades. I wanted the Medium and Dark. My friend convinced me to try Graftobian's High Definition Color Palette. She swears by it. For 18 shades at $75 it was a much better deal. I picked up the palette in Neutral - it has a good range of yellow toned foundations that will work for a wide range of skin tones. I've read some good reviews. I tried it out at the wedding show and it seems to work really well. But I found if you're moving a lot and sweating your skin can look a little shiny. Anyone have suggestions on good primers and powders to use with it? I'll play around with it a bit more. I'm kind of wishing I got the yaby foundation palette...maybe it will be a next purchase! Has anyone tried yaby's? 




Why wasn't Nigel Beauty Emporium my first stop?? This little booth was packed and for good reason! Everything seemed cheaper than both Alcone and Crown. Best deal of the day were the 15 lashes for $20! 




My purchase from bdellium and Velour Lashes tie for favourite purchase of the day! Everything else was for my kit, but these beauties were just for me. Let's just take a moment to admire these made from 100% authentic mink fur pure luxurious lashes. I ran into Arianne from Glitter Geek who had "You Complete Me" on her lashes which looked phenomenal on her! I just had to had them! They were $20 cash at the show, but regularly $59.99! They are on sale for $29.99 on their site which is still amazing so if you didn't get a chance to pick one up visit their site! If you're going to go faux, you can't get anything closer looking to your lashes than mink fur! A more in-depth review to come with me wearing them! 


Here's my old buddy from M.A.C., Melissa and I at the end of our shopping day. Happy shoppers! 

Ok, so I guess that wasn't the quickest post. What did you think of the haul? I want to hear about your favourite purchases from IMATS! Check out this great post from Lucky on MTV Fora - awesome IMATS tips for you newbies who want to attend next year!

If you have an IMATS post let me know and I will add you to my post!

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

you picked up some great products ;-)

Davida Gragor said...

Great post hun! I am hoping to get time this weekend to blog about IMATS. I have the yaby foundations. Not a big fan - their a bit thick for my liking and I find their colours a little too pink for most complexions. Now Im rethinking not getting the Cozzette vessel! :)

Naomi said...

Great haul. I picked up brushes from Bdellium Tools as well; although, I got the ones with the black handles.

For an oilier skin, try MUFE All Mat that may work well with the Graftobian foundations. I found that to set this foundation well, you need to use a powder puff and then dust off the excess. Ben Nye's Neutral Set may work and it's not too expensive either.
The Yaby cream foundations are nice and photo really well.

Aanchal Behl said...

OMG why didn't I go. I completely forgot that I'm out of all disposable items...*sigh.
Great post - definitely made me jealous lol
Can't wait to read the next one!!!

Make-up Junkie said...

@CottonCandyINK - Thank you! I was pretty happy with my purchases but definitely wanted more! lol

Make-up Junkie said...

@Davida - Can't wait to see what you picked up! Sucks we missed each other :( Thanks for the tip about Yaby's foundations. Will keep that in mind - I prefer foundations with more of a yellow tone too.

Make-up Junkie said...

@Naomi - Thanks for the great tips! Do you think the Kett powder would work well at setting it? How about for primer? Should I use a mattifying primer? I'm so not used to this brand lol. Do you find Yaby's foundations too pink?

Make-up Junkie said...

@Aanchel - You should have asked one of us to pick up some stuff for you! Well, there's definitely next year - wish it was twice a year but don't think my wallet would like that lol.

Naomi said...

I bought the yellow foundation palette from Yaby; I haven't tried the pink palette.
If I remember correctly you picked up a few of the liquid foundations last year right? The shades are along the same line.
The Kett powder may work, do you have the loose or the pressed? I think that you'd be better off with the loose for the Graftobian because it's so creamy.

I've used a regular primer with this before..the Sephora one that's similar to the Smashbox original formula. A mattifying primer may not be necessary but play around with it to see what kind of overall finish you prefer.

siddiqa said...

Hey doll!
glad i found your blog, its really gud! :D

would love you to visit mine and my sister new blog!

Thank you
xoxo

Make-up Junkie said...

@Naomi - I did pick up 2 yellow liquid foundations from yaby - good memory! Ok, thanks for the tips for the graftobian palette - appreciate it! Will definitely play around more.

Make-up Junkie said...

Hi Siddiqa! Thanks! What is you and your sister's blog?

Kelly Freeman / Glitter Diaries said...

I wish I got some bdellium brushes and those mink lashes! I went to IMATS with a smaller budget this time and regret that I didn't have more lol You bought a lot of stuff that I'm putting on my list for next year :P

beautyparler said...

Nice haul! Would love to hear your thoughts on the Graftobian's palette. Just realized I had the Eve Pearl makeup including the concealer to play with when do bridal makeup & I never took it out. Another time maybe for my Newlywed photoshoot aka Engagement Pics we didn't have time for:))

Make-up Junkie said...

@Kelly - That's right - you can always get them next year! Good things to look forward to :) What did you end up getting??

Make-up Junkie said...

@BeautyParler - Thx! I need to play around with Graftobian palette more, but I do like the texture. The girl I tried it on said it doesn't feel like anything on her skin. But need to test out some loose powders that will set it properly. Yes, lets play with the Eve Pearl ones for your e-shoot! When will that be?? ;)

Loretta said...

I went to imats too this year! I went on saturday, and I have a post up on my blog about it (:

www.loretta-blog.blogspot.com

the creation of beauty is art. said...

You picked up some great stuff! Definitely looks like you got a lot of great brushes. I love those lashes, also!

the-creationofbeauty.blogspot.com

Donna Marie said...

Oh I totally regret getting Crown and not Bdellium! I'm definitely getting these next year for sure! And I hope you like the Cosette Vessel. They are sooo handy when you don't have time to clean your brushes on the job and you won't have to put dirty brushes back into your brush belt and mix it with the clean ones! I'm so excited to wear my Velour Lashes too!
Nice Haul Mama!