Monday 1 February 2010

Yes, IMATS

As some of you know I was at IMATS on Saturday. It was my first time at such a show and I'm glad I went, but I have mixed feelings about it.

First of all, the location. As lovely as Alexandra palace and its view is it is inconvenient for most people to get to because it is not in central London, and also quite a walk (as I discovered on that frozen morning) from the tube station. For the size of the exhibition the venue really did not have to be that big! Had a smaller space been rented no doubt the ticket price (about £40) would have been much reduced.
Which brings me on to my next point- the ticket price was far too high for what it promised- only entry. For example, a ticket to London fashion weekend last year was £40, which not only let you in to sample all the discounted stalls, but gave you seats in a fashion show and a goodie bag worth well over £100. Also, by the time I got there (about 9.30am) the queue to pick up pre-paid tickets was snaking all throughout the front entrance and it took a good half an hour of patience before we could be even allowed in.
By 10.00am all the stalls were extremely crowded and it was pretty much impossible to get in and view products (MUFE and Crown brushes in particular) and unfortunately many items had already sold out (less than half the colours of OCC lip tars were left). This leads me to wonder, since most people had pre-booked tickets (there was no queue for tickets on the door), the organisers must have been aware of how many people were attending, therefore setting up small stalls, where only about 3 people could safely swatch, seems counterintuitive. 

The show did offer some amazing discounts (35% off MUFE) and brands that are not normally available in the UK. I didn't pick up too many things partly because I had planned on being strict with my money, and partly because at most stalls no cards were accepted so you had to either pay with cash (and yes, you guessed it, the queue for the sole cash machine was enormous) or have your card details written down and billed later. I gave in and paid by this method at OCC because I was desperate to get at least a couple of lip tars, though most of the colours I wanted had sold out. I also purchased a couple of brushes from Crown, a back-up of my favourite MUFE HD foundation, some of their full cover concealer and smoky lash mascara as well as a few eyelashes and a Z-pallette. 

One of the highlights of the day was meeting Koren of EnKore makeup. He is as lovely and bubbly in real life as he is in his videos! I am only sad that I couldn't go back on Sunday to watch his talk on naked pigments with his beautiful model- ooglemakeup!
I also really enjoyed all the creative work on exhibition and it was fun to watch the works progressing throughout the morning.
 
 

However, with an early start, a long walk in the freezing cold, a grumpy bf who needed feeding, and after having to fight to the front of every stall I didn't last very long. I wish I had taken advantage of everything on offer, but because it was so busy I didn't feel I could look at everything I wanted to. I'm not really one for big crowds, and prefer to browse in my own time. Although this post seems a little negative I really did enjoy my time at IMATS and would recommend it to any makeup junkie. I just wish I had been more prepared and arrived earlier with cash in hand ;).

Did you visit IMATS this weekend? What did you think? Would you recommend it to a friend and would you go again? I would love to know what you guys thought! xx
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12 comments

  1. Haha 'a grumpy bf who needed feeding', love it! I was considering going to IMATS, but most people seem to have found it did not quite meet expectations! xx

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  2. Luckily from last year i learned and took cash out before but it was so much busier!!crazy in fact which put me off straight away, I got all panicked and couldnt swatch a thing!came away with 4 things and lots of cash left over!did have fun but not worth the 2hr drive!xx

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  3. I was suprised by the lack of free samples, hadn't thought about it again till I read your blog. The crouds were so bad there are stalls I'm hearing about on blogs, that I never even noticed! Enjoyed my time there though.

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  4. Its nice to hear that I wasn't the only one who was getting fed up of all the crowds! I think every blog i have read has said the same thing.
    It was great to go but yeah...pushing and shoving really not my thing.

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  5. awww i din visit too as I hate crowds :S

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  6. Hey, haw, was hoping i could bump into you and say hi, and ur lucky u got to meet enkore - didnt think he would be there on the saturday!

    Well i got to meet Wayne and Eve pearl :D but thats about all who i bumped into, other than that i did alot of bumping into the crowds in the stalls :@

    I have to admit i did enjoy it, but your right! the crowd was too much, didnt get to see everything properly, and couldnt make it to a single seminar.

    But definately next year i am going prepared and well equiped - ima lose the baggage tho - my bf! haha bless them tho such good sports for takin us ey :)

    oh and on the freebies front - the only free things i got was two packets of cleansing wipes from the Alcone stand LOL

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  7. Aw hun I agree 100 percent with that. I saw you come in while the airbrush demo was on and wanted to say hi but ur man looked less than chuffed at just having come out of the hellish q and I didn't want to piss you off!

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  8. @Sarah x Hehehe.. yes, he was a bit grumpy as it took us a loooong time to get in :(. You should have come say hi though, it's so nice to meet my subbies!! :) xxx

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  9. So sad you weren't there on Sunday, missed you! It wasn't that crowded on Sun (one of the reasons I chose it) -- however some things had long sold out... grr lip tars! It was great fun (although being on huge HD camera screen with no makeup is rather horrific, but apart from that haha) xxxxx

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  11. sunday wasnt crowded at all.i got take a good look at all the stalls however i spent over 200 pounds at the MUFE counter at pam which had a 20% discount only to walk a bit further and find another counter which sold MUFE products for a 35% discount :( felt soo guilty for spending that much!

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  12. Considering how rediculous makeup prices are versus cost of manufacturing and cost of entry, the least these companies could do is offer samples. I hate cheap companies and will often purchase from the ones who are generous enough to offer trials. I looked into opening a high end beauty store...and girls should know that there is a high markup of atleast 100-300% on most products sold. That's just from the retailer stand-point. The actual companies are also making profit off this. I'm addicted to makeup but this it's just gone a little insane as to how much a gram of powder will sell for!!

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