IMATS: Day One Summary

Today, Sarah and I had a fabulous time wandering around the exhibition hall at Alexandra Palace, and watching some excellent presentations: today was day one of London IMATS 2010.

We'll be reviewing and reporting in depth more as we test the products we've purchased, and write up our notes from the presentations, but for now, here's a summary of some of the interesting things we saw.



Firstly: the infamous Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tars. A bit of a beauty blogger hotspot, we heard that OCC had been a little naive about the potential demand for this product and that supply might be a little short. So we hot footed it over to their stand to swatch - these really are as pigmented and lush as all the American reports would have you believe. And they were reasonably priced; just £7. We bought 3 colours each, which we'll be reviewing in more depth pretty soon.



One brand which I'd personally never heard of was Yaby - founded by a former programmer (always a bonus for me, being one myself), this line carries intensively pigmented shadows, foundations, concealers, etc - packaged into tiny little dots in magnetic palettes. Which is really rather sensible - how often do we really get to the bottom of an eyeshadow? The smaller size means smaller prices, which means you can afford a wider range of colours. Sarah bought a few eyeshadows (I believe they were 2 for £3), and I bought a tiny foundation for just £6, reviews of which will follow shortly.

There was also a large display of Makeup Forever products, which have always been slightly hard to find and test out in real life, courtesy of Guru Makeup Emporium. The full line of eyeshadows, glitters, pigments, powders, etc were in attendance, with everything carrying a 35% show discount - I think we'll be heading back there tomorrow. I picked up a HD powder to test out at the knock-down price of around £14, compared to the £22.50 retail price. Some cute little sets were also in attendance; 5 mini Aqua liners in a tin for just £10.

The Crown Brush stand was absolutely heaving - with high quality brushes available from a very reasonable £2, you literally had to elbow your way through the crowds to pick out your brushes. Well worth it though; Sarah and I both chose an assortment of brushes (about 7 each), and paid about £16 - the price of maybe one MAC brush. Even without the show discount, these brushes are fabulous quality for the price, so I've no doubt that the stand will be heaving again tomorrow!

We'll be back at IMATS tomorrow, where we'll be listening in on more interesting talks, particularly some SFX ones, and possibly spending a few leftover pennies. If you were at IMATS today, hope you had a great time and picked up some great bargains - and if you're there tomorrow, hopefully we'll see you there!