London IMATS 2014

On the 28th June a friend and I went to London IMATS (International Makeup Artist Trade Show) at Olympia.  This was my second time to IMATS and I loved every second of it.  We had a 2am start for the 4am coach up from Cardiff.  Last year I was concentrating on buying for my bridal kit but this year, with a few exceptions, it was all for me.  While I like seeing all of the different stalls and trying new brands there, I mainly seek to buy things I already like but at show prices.

Inglot

One of the best things about IMATS is seeing all of the body art being done at many of the stalls.  Surrounded by inspiration!   Some of my favourites this year were the amazing holographic look at Inglot and the reptilian Envy look that Karla Powell did at the Temptu stall.

Karla Powell at Temptu

Mehron / Treasure House of Makeup

I love, love, love the above look but I'm not sure which stand it was done at.  If you know please let me know.

At the back of the hall there was a Makeup Museum where you could see lots of props and prosthetics.  A lot of them were gory fantasy pieces but I just had to get a photo of Mike Dargan's Walter White.

I had the pleasure of meeting Amy Doan, or Shrinkle, who is the founder of Sugarpill Cosmetics.  She is my ultimate makeup heroine.  She's super duper colourful in every way and is a big inspiration to me.  I always look forwards to her next Instagram post, which is almost always to do with makeup, cats, hiking or drag queens.  She publicly supports other Indie makeup brands rather than just showcasing hers which I think is awesome. I'm so glad I got to meet her.  Amy you rock!

We got to IMATS a bit earlier this year so had more time to watch some of the demos.  The first one we watched was Courtney Tichman's 'As Pretty as a Drag Queen' using all Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics products.  I was excited to see this as I really love OCC products (see my recent post on Lip Tars).  She wasn't doing drag makeup but using some of their techniques and ideas, such as using clashing colours and layering products.  She was really interesting to listen to and I loved her style!

Courtney Tichman's look using OCC

We then watched Einat Dan do a creative avant garde look on the Main Stage.  It was totally jaw-dropping.  She had made a headpiece previously and said she knew which colours she wanted to use but other than that the finished look had not been planned.  She tends to make things up as you go along, and I could really see that in action.  You could tell when she would change her mind about something and add to or takeaway from what she had done.  We kept thinking the look was finished and she would just add more, more and more.  She showed that creativity has no bounds and you can keep pushing yourself to create something spectacular.  Here are some photos throughout the process and the finished look, which featured the headpiece plus glittery stuck-on lips and dangling beaded eyebrows.

Einat Dan 'Editorial Make-Up To Avant Garde'

Einat Dan 'Editorial Make-Up To Avant Garde'

Einat Dan 'Editorial Make-Up To Avant Garde'

I also watched Russian makeup artist Denis Kartashev at work.  While I am not a fan of the finished look it was still fun to watch.  He was showing how you can clash styles and don't have to be conventional.  He put emphasis on the lower eye lids rather than the upper lids.  I really liked the graffiti style makeup he did on the cheeks and would have loved to have seen that over the whole face.

Denis Kartashev 'Fashion Colour Makeup'

I got to try a free fake tattoo from Tattooed Now.  They make tattoos for film and TV.  The photo shows how it was holding up on the Monday morning, before I took it off for work.



I've had a week and a half to play with everything I bought, so fun! I wish days were twice as long or something so that I could try multiple looks every day! So much stuff to touch and stick on my face!  I bought things from Violet Voss, Nars (huge discount!), NYX, Make Up Forever, MAC Pro, OCC, Sugarpill, Inglot, Mehron, Ben Nye, Eyekandy, Wayne Goss, Crown Brush, Zoeva and Hakuhodu, as well as The Art Of Male Makeup book (so gutted I missed the accompanying demo on the Sunday!).  Reviews and looks will be coming soon.  Here's a teaser of some looks I've done so far.  Starting from top left and going clockwise: 1) I used Sugarpill Supercharged pigment and Black Black Arcylic Paint by MAC. 2) I used my new Violet Voss glitter in Marlee. 3) I used EyeKandy glitter in Pumpkin Pie. 4) Using the Sugarpill Cold Chemistry palette.

I've read a lot of posts on other peoples' experiences at IMATS this year already, please comment if you have a post on it.  I love seeing all the haul photos.  I'm not posting a haul photo just because it is a bit shaming to see just how much I bought all together!

Hope I've inspired some of you to check it out next year.  I highly recommend it!

Rachel

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