Gemstone Beauty: Toronto IMATS & Haul

The International Makeup Artist Trade Show (IMATS) was held in Toronto this past weekend and I decided to go on Saturday. This event is held annually and is open to the public. Tickets purchased online in advance are $30. After the cut off, they go up to $40 online and possibly even a little more if you purchase your tickets at the event (unsure about this!)

Naked Cosmetics

The event has multiple retailers (Make Up For Ever, MAC Pro, Nars, Nigel's Beauty Emporium, OCC, Yaby, Eve Pearl, Royal & Langnickel, and many more), a mini fx makeup museum (display), guest speakers and a student makeup artist competition.

part of the Makeup Museum

Part of the Student Competition

Many of the retailers/shops offer discounts on their products. For example, Royal & Langnickel had most of their brushes 50% off, Make Up For Ever usually has items about 40%, Nigel's had 7 false eyelash sets for $10. Nars last year didn't have any sales/deals.

Royal & Langnickel

It's a great way to stock up on items at a great discount - you just need to make sure that you do a bit of research first. Check the vendors' website and see if there's anything you'd like to get. Write it down and take note of the price. That way when you go, you'll know if it's actually discounted or not (and how much!). If you don't take note of the price before hand, you might get disappointed when you get home and look at it online (I do this to check out my great savings!). I know all the brushes I got at Crown were not on sale (I believe most of their brushes were not on sale), and take a look at what I seen over at Pari Beauty:

the 88 Palette by Pari Beauty. Look familiar?

L: Pari Beauty 88 Palette - Shimmer. R: my personal Matte 88 Palette from BH or Coastal Scents

As you can see, the two palettes are almost identical. I got the matte one a while back. I paid no more than $20 with shipping (bh currently has theirs on sale for $11.50 - normally $18.95) Pari was selling theirs for the "show special" price of $30, instead of the normal $45.

As mentioned, there are also guest speakers. They'll often talk/show how to do some makeup looks or techniques, etc.

This year, the guest speakers list was on the website after I purchased my tickets, so I wasn't able to choose which day I wanted based on that like I did last year. Didn't matter too much though; nothing really grabbed my eye for the seminars.

Sardines anyone?

I planned to go this year and had an idea of exactly what I wanted. I didn't want to be caught by surprise by all the pretty things and spend all my money! I went in knowing what I wanted and gave myself a spending limit. After I got what I wanted, I allowed myself to spend up to that limit. Knowing that I'm going to be starting a no-buy soon (I'll keep you posted!), I was really strict with myself - and Success! Only bought what I had intended on buying.

I was originally debating between the Z Palette and the Yaby Freestyle Palette. The Z Palette was $21 (full price) at Nigel's and that booth was so packed, I had waited 10 minutes before I finally got to the end where the Z Palette was. I was disappointed when I seen that it was $21. At Yaby, their freestyle palette was only $14, so I picked up 4. (I'm planning on doing another post in regards to my choice and the fun times of depotting)

I also picked up several brushes from Royal & Langnickel and a few from Crown Brushes. Royal & Langnickel were half price, meanwhile Crown was same full price (they are still very cheap though)