Yesterday, I went to IMATS Toronto 2012 (the Internation Makeup Artist Trade Show).

Ever since IMATS was held in Canada, I’ve been going because it’s a great place to find good beauty deals, and you can attend seminars to learn new tips and tricks from successful makeup artists.

Okay, I’m not a makeup artist, but you can still pick up interesting tidbits that apply to the average woman. 🙂 (Well, I don’t think the average woman is average. The ‘average woman’ is incredible, smart, and beautiful. We are going to take over the world!)

At last year’s IMATS, you’ll remember that I was extremely frugal. Looks like I overcompensated this year! 😉 (You can click here to see my highly detailed blog post from last year. I basically walked you through the whole event and took photos of almost everything!)

Come take a closer look at the stuff I got yesterday, and check out some of the photos I took.

This year, I was extremely prepared. I knew that there were items I really wanted, so I hit up those booths first. Haha, and boy was I very efficient to the point of being scary! (I literally got all the things on my To-Buy list in 10 minutes!)

What was on my To-Buy list? Make Up For Ever HD High Definition Primer in 0 and the Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar in Memento.

But…as you can see, I ended up picking up just a few more things. 😉

This year, the wristband is bright yellow.

I Met a Cute Guy at IMATS

Haha, at least that’s what I said when I posted a photo of him on Instagram and Twitter! 😛 While it freaked out at least one person, the majority of you got a kick out of it. Basically it was special-effect makeup featured in the “Museum” section.

The mannequin looked so real! (Even the blood was shiny.)

Prime Time

I’ve used the Make Up For Ever HD High Definition Primer in 0 Neutral for a while. In fact, I like it more now than when I reviewed it on here way back when!

At IMATS, they always discount their primers, so I made a beeline to the Make Up For Ever booth within the first few seconds of entering the pavilion. 🙂

The price of just one bottle of primer was already cheaper than if you buy it at Sephora, but they were having an even better deal if you buy three. Well, since this has become my go-to face primer and I use it pretty much daily, I decided to stock up and get six. (Am I crazy? Maybe! But in the long run, I’ll have saved some money.)

The Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tars were also on my radar. They’re liquid lipsticks in tubes. You literally only need to use 1/3 the size of a pea, spread it out with a lip brush, and it covers your lips with saturated, lightweight colour that has a minty smell!

You can also mix the colours to come up with a custom shade.

I have Katricia (a purple) and Nylon (a neon pink). I really adore Nylon – it applies way better than MAC Candy Yum-Yum Lipstick, plus Nylon lasts waaaay longer than MAC and even feels lighter!

I wanted Memento because it looks like an easy-to-wear, everyday lip colour. Then, I also got Grandma (a coral that so many people have raved about). Finally, I got Super NSFW, which is a cherry red with golden shimmer that’s from the latest OCC collection.

Brushing Off Temptation? Nope!

Then I picked up a few brushes. These were totally impulse purchases. *Hangs head in shame* Yes, I gave into temptation.

I got my very first double-ended brush, which I’m excited about. (When I stay over at my mom’s place during Christmas, I’ll be packing that brush to save space!)

BeautyBlender

I’ve heard so many great things about the BeautyBlender, and when I saw a booth was carrying it, it was way too tempting.

This pack includes one BeautyBlender reusable sponge with the special cleanser. (You can’t clean the sponge with regular soap. To preserve the texture and to extend its life, you need the special cleanser.)

It was $30 CAD, but they also had a pack with 2 BeautyBlenders and the cleanser for $40 CAD. Sure, the latter was a better deal, but I didn’t know if I’d love it, so I didn’t want to invest even more.

The salesperson told me that it was the second-last one left!

Concealer

Originally I was curious about trying the OCC concealer, but the salesperson sadly informed me that my shade (#1) was sold out and that it was the only colour out of all the concealers that was sold out!

So, I ended up getting Vasanti Liquid Cover Up. It’ll be my very first under-eye concealer!

(I ran into Jennifer from Spiced Beauty. I first met her at the same time I had dinner with Suzi Weiss-Fischmann of OPI. She knows her stuff, so when she said that the Vasanti concealer was great, I decided to give it a go!)

More Thoughts on IMATS Toronto 2012

I went to the Toronto Congress Centre in the early afternoon because I wanted to sleep in! 😉 Plus I was trying to avoid the mad rush in the morning. For once, my desire to sleep more was actually a good thing. I heard from others that the morning was super packed and that all the booths were so crowded with people that it was hard to get up close and see anything.

By the time I rolled up, the booths weren’t too bad. I didn’t have to wait in line for more than 2 minutes, and I could easily get right up to the booths and touch the products.

So, if there isn’t something really popular that’s on your must-have list, I suggest you just go in the afternoon because you’ll save time and avoid a headache.

What I Wore on My Nails

It only hit me yesterday that for every single IMATS, I always seem to wear green nail polish. Don’t know why! 😉

While last year I wore freehand frog nail art, this year I wore Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle, which is the dark green that I wanted NARS Zulu to be. (I’ll probably post a review on Recycle soon.)

Press Pass?

I found out from Jennifer that if you apply for a Press Pass in advance (if you’re a blogger or YouTuber, etc.), you may be able to get a free ticket!

How did I not know about this? All these years, I’ve been buying my tickets…haha, but that’s okay. I’m contributing to the costs to keep the trade show going, so I don’t feel so bad. Next year, though, I may try to get a Press Pass. If I don’t qualify, I’ll just buy the ticket again. After all, it’s only $30 if you buy it online in advance.

NYX Does a No-Show

This year, NYX wasn’t at IMATS. I was surprised because it’s the first time they were absent! However, I wasn’t planning to buy anything from NYX, since I literally have a huge collection of their products already.

Their booth was always insane, with a line-up that would wrap around the booth and extend down an aisle, too! You could easily wait in line for 20 minutes. (For those who don’t have much NYX makeup, I bet they were really bummed out that NYX wasn’t an exhibitor.)

OPI and China Glaze Spotted at IMATS

Something new this year was a booth that offered racks of nail polish! There were two large racks of China Glaze polish and a few OPI polishes.

Believe it or not, I didn’t get any nail polish! *Gasp* Surprisingly, nothing called out to me. And everything I thought looked nice, I already had. Yup, I’ve just reached a whole new level in terms of nail obsession. YIKES!

I Shopped ‘Like a Man’

Previously years, I would be there for hours, making the rounds so many times your head starts spinning and you feel like a vulture.

This time, I went in there and ‘shopped like a man’ – i.e. I knew what I wanted and went right to the chase. Then, I attended a seminar where Kevin James Bennett, a professional makeup artist, was showing how you can create a holiday James Bond look.

Makeup Student Competition

It was the first time I didn’t even stick around to see who won the student competition. I just wanted to head back. (I had to hit up the bakery on my way home to get some gourmet cupcakes. They’re going to be a surprise for my mom’s birthday, which we’re celebrating today. I’ll have to post them on Instagram because they look so yummy and one of them is really fun-looking. You’ll understand when you see the photo later today…hehe!)

But, I did manage to take a few quick photos of the makeup students working on their models. (All my photos from the event were taken with my iPhone. This year, I didn’t bring my camera because I wanted to travel light. It takes me over an hour to get to the venue, and I knew that I’d be purchasing a lot of things, so I didn’t want to also have to worry about my camera.)

New to IMATS?

This post isn’t as in-depth or as photo-laden as my post from last year covering the event, so if you’re new to IMATS and want to get a better feel for it, check out this post I wrote last year.

So…that was my experience in an allergy-free nutshell. 😉

Did you go to IMATS on Saturday, or are you going today? What did you get? Do you attend any other beauty trade shows?