IMATS London 2012

The most exciting weekend in the make up calendar has happened, and it was as expected, a fabulous few days! This year was the second time I'd ventured to IMATS and I was able to book 4 days annual leave to have myself a make up mini break in London!

Saturday

I was up bright and early on Saturday morning to get ready and hotfoot it to Wood Green to meet my BBBFF Leanne. Up to Ally Pally we went and unleashed ourselves on the spectacular which was day one of IMATS London 2012.

This year, IMATS moved to The Great Hall, which meant more space! A great improvement on last year as there was so much more mingling space so even though it was busy, it didn't feel crowded. I took a few snaps just so you get the idea of the sheer size of the place!

Of course, the very first place I headed to was Crown Brush so I could stock up on their brilliant value brushes. I wasn't disappointed with a large stall and plenty of room to shop! I knew getting up at silly o'clock would be worth it :D

Judging by the amount I brought home, the theme this year for me was make up brushes! I was excited to stop by at the Real Techniques stand and pick up the Core Collection (bronze brushes). I did actually get to see Sam and Nic Chapman again on the Sunday - both looking absolutely stunning as usual!

Talking of Sam and Nic, when I popped over to PAM, I saw they were stocking Louise Young brushes so I bought a couple of eyeliner brushes in a bid to help my eyeliner technique. Have to say, with the brushes I bought - totally nailed it!

~ The ridiculously busy PAM stall with a very impressive 35% off MUFE! ~

Although this year, Make Up For Ever had their own stall and the prices were the same as PAM so I went a bit crazy and bought a few things that I'd wanted for a while and maybe a few spur of the moment things...

~ I want her hair! - A model at Make Up For Ever ~

There were some real sights to behold once again walking around the Great Hall - here are just a few of the best ones!

Check out this prosthetic make up from the artists at Guru Makeup Emporium.

He was transformed into this:

This guy was properly taking it seriously - charging at the crowds and roaring at them :/ Needless to say, I legged it haha!

~ On our way to a mid morning tea break (how very English of us!) we passed these guys getting ready for the Beauty/Fantasy competition  ~

~ A model at Stage Line Professional ~

As I was making a weekend of it, I was determined to make it to some shows this time around. Leanne and I were lucky enough to get into the Nick Dudman talk in the afternoon which we were super excited about as he was making up actor Warwick Davis as Professor Flitwick from the Harry Potter films! We actually saw Warwick and his family arrive to Ally Pally on a chance trip outside - hop over to Leanne's blog to take a peek :)

~ A finished Professor Flitwick make up after Nick had made him look injured ~

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Sunday

Day two of IMATS for us, was picking up things that we hadn't gotten around to on Saturday. I was aiming to be in and out within a couple of hours however, TFL kind of ruined that plan. For anyone that was following my tweets on Saturday, you may have seen a very angry tweet around 2am. This is the time I got back to the hotel I was staying in after leaving the Olly Murs gig at The o2 at 10:20pm on Saturday night. Needless to say, I wasn't a very happy bunny. Luckily, and no thanks to the snow, I did make it to IMATS on Sunday morning afternoon.

One of the sponsors of IMATS London was once again Royal & Langnickel - a makeup brush manufacturer. I was lucky enough to be invited to their Blogger Lounge on the Saturday where we met the Vice President of the company - hi Bill! - and had tea and a chat which was lovely! It was nice to be able to have a chat and find out a bit more about the company - they actually manufacture brushes for 4 of the companies with stands at IMATS. Interesting stuff! I also FINALLY met the gorgeous Zoe from The London Lipgloss!

Their brush sets were incredibly good value and brilliant quality so I just had to pick one up!

~ A model at Royal & Langnickel ~

Inglot were once again, incredibly popular with the crowd and had a suitably large stand which was great and I didn't see it get unbearably crazy busy as it did last year.

Illamasqua was my outstanding favourite company this year - bargain central! On Saturday absolutely everything was £5 except for the foundations which were £7.50. I bought so much stuff! The photo below was as close as I managed to get it was that busy! I went back on the Sunday as I heard everything was 3 for £10. I spent around £75 in total and got 16 items! Can you believe it?! I'll showcase them all in my IMATS haul post which is coming up soon!

One of the things I enjoy watching are the Student Competitions and this year was no exception. I made sure to watch the character/prosthetic competition on Sunday afternoon. The work done was absolutely incredible considering the competitors had just 3 hours to transform their models into their chosen characters. I managed to catch the action on video for you!





Some fantastic entries right?!

♥ ♥ ♥

Congratulations if you made it to the end of this post! I'll be popping up my IMATS haul in a couple of days so you can see which fabulous bargains I got!