IMATS Sydney

by Bec 4:43 PM 13 comments brushes IMATS makeup makeup artists

So I told you guys that I was headed to Sydney for the weekend, what I didn't mention was that I was heading down to the International Makeup Artists Trade Show! It was so much fun.

I hadn't been before and was expecting crazy, people brawling over the last eyeshadow cat fighting, not able to move and all those fun things. So wrong. It was so not busy. Which is odd. I got there half an hour before the doors opened because I was told that the queues would be nuts. Nope, no line at all. I moseyed on up to the ticket counter and was done in about 30 seconds. Because I was there when it opened, I got first look at the Makeup Forever counter, which I was surprised to see because they don't actually sell their products in Australia.

After that I wandered over to Royal Brushes and saw brushes, good quality brushes starting at $3 each. Three freaking dollars. Then I went over to Crown Brushes and had a little bit of a inner squealing moment when a person complimented my nails and when I looked up I saw that it was makeup guru Koren Zander, of EnKore Makeup fame. I bought 27 brushes from him. Lol. One can never have too many brushes.

There was stuff going on absolutely everywhere. I needed a break so I wandered into the Main Stage to watch the first speaker of the day. It was Yolanda Bartram, a makeup artist from New Zealand who specialises in special effects in body and face art. Holy damn is she talented. She blew me away. She won first place at the Austrian World Body Painting Festival this year in the Special Effects category with the makeup below. Awesome right?

Not only that, but she was funny and easygoing and the audience seemed to relate to her well. Yolanda was able to work and keep the audience entertained by switching between explained what she was doing and telling us a little bit about herself and what her life is like.

She used a steam punk theme to transform this girl. Unfortunately I could not find the girl after Yolanda was done with her to take photos of the end look. (**Edit - Found one on the IMATS website closer to finish then I had.**)

There was a lot of body art going on. Here are some pictures of some of it.

And then there are the cooler transformations. It was awesome to walk past and see it being done bit by bit and then coming back later to see how it progressed.

Then there was the student makeup that was inspired by Alice in Wonderland.

These pics are actually hairdressing models, but I really liked the lashes on these ladies.

The show was smaller then I thought it would be. It only had 34 exhibitors, unlike the approx 120 exhibitors at the LA show. It wasn't overly busy either, which was a surprise. I did have an extremely good time and learned so much. The talent that is out there is just overwhelming.

One thing I do need to mention though is my surprise that there is no MAC stall. The show was sponsored by MAC Pro, but they didn't have any presence at the show beyond a couple of demos. I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed by that.
I have decided to dedicate an entire post to the work of Nicole Thompson, a senior MAC artist. She transformed two ladies into works of art right before my eyes. Literally. That will be up tomorrow, you should really check it out - it will blow your mind.
I will also be posting a haul pic of what I got from the show and also what I picked up out and about in Sydney.
All right, I know that was a really long post, but I really wanted to share with you guys.
If you haven't already, please make sure you enter my MAC Giveaway.
That's it for now.
Be awesome to each other.