IMATS London 2015

Thursday, July 16, 2015

This is the second time I have visited IMATS London, and this time I was prepared to the max. As last year I only spent half the day in IMATS, I planed the day so that after we could go into London and enjoy ourselves.

Getting up early and heading off to London, I was super excited. Once we reached Kensington Olympia, we headed round the corner to be greeted with a much larger que then last year. But, the que wasn't actually that bad, as we started heading in as soon as the doors were open, then the fun began. First things first, I picked up the cardboard bag and headed for Besame Cosmetics, as I saw the most amazing brush and had to give it a look. The girls at the booth were super friendly and told me so much about their brand and products, they also told me that there were only 2 left of the contour brush, so I had to get it (£35 gone). Then it was more of a wonder round, I headed to Makeup Forever but it was only £3 cheaper then online (Debenhams), so I gave it a miss. Wondering round I eventually decided to stop off at Beauty B Cosmetics, a great company with a lot of American brand (check them out online), I decided to pick up the medium Z-palette as that was one of the things I was after. On paying for it they also threw in a free travel size Sigma Lid Brush (my first Sigma brush and not my last). Still wondering I decided to head to the Special FX booths, which is funny as most of them are placed together, but I stopped at a company called Backstage Shop, great place to pick up a bunch of Special FX stuff. Picking up the Ben Nye Fresh Scab Blood I started to look at all the other products, one of the nicest workers chatted with me telling me that there were sale items in the front and if I love Special FX I should check out ScareCon. So, I left with two kits, and some blood. So, off to the next booth with just so happened to be Graphtobia. I was only after one thing and that was the Modelling Wax, as I saw Madeyoulook (Youtuber) saying how great it was. Having a look in the cabnit I decided on the small pot just in case I didn't like it. Having a look on my list of what I wanted to get I quickly remembered that I wanted to head to Be So Clean to pick up a cosmetic cleaning spray. Looking at their array of products and being shown some new brush cleaner, I picked up 2 small cosmetic sprays for £5. The great thing about these sprays they can be used on anything, crushed shadows, brushes, makeup, alcohol based makeup and even as a last resort for hand sanitizer (this is because it is just a liquid for of it). Wondering round yet again, I was on a mission to pick up a brush roll, but for some reason they didn't sell any proper brush rolls, so I picked up a brush holder. There were many that were similar but none that were that cheap, so I picked it up and it is amazing. Looking at my funds I realized I didn't have much else to spend, so I decided to go back to Backstage Shop and pick up the Ben Nye Black Tooth color for £6.50, which left me with only £4.50. With that I decided to pick up the latest Makeup Artist Magazine for £4. To end my morning at IMATS, I went upstairs to check out the Makeup Museum, which is always fund to see and the work they show case is amazing. At about 12pm we left and headed out to London.

We had a sight seeing boat trip booked already and thought it would be fun to spend the day out in London to makeup for the price of the train ticket. We headed into Waterloo and grabbed some lunch, I wouldn't recommend eating at IMATS as it is super expensive. Our boat picked us up from outside Westminster, so we decided to walk along the South Bank past the Dungeons and Aquarium. Big mistake! We got to just about the Dungeons and it was standstill, and I felt like I was trapped, so I had a huge panic attack. We did eventually get free after about 20/30 minutes, but it wasn't good, it seemed no-one was listening to what was being said as they were asked that people going to the eye stick to the Dungeon side and people for the Aquarium stick to the river side. Well we all stuck to the river side but the eye people just ignored and spread across, the only reason we got free is because we went through a shop, so note to self...NEVER go that way again.

But, we got to the boat and boarded and had a great and funny journey down the river to Tower Bridge. Which, after seeing what's around it I'm surprised I don't remember seeing it. Off and in Starbucks we decided where to go next...M 'n' M World. So on the underground we go to Trafalgar Square, We managed to find M 'n' M World and it was rammed, but a great tip for this place, don't go up as every thing is down and when you go in there is a stair case on the right and no-one goes down it, so you can get in and out without a care. It was good, but compared to the M 'n' M World in Las Vegas its pretty crap. By the time we got to the underground it was pretty much time to go home, so that's what we did.