IMATS Toronto 2011: My Experience

StaceyBrennan, Myself, RachhLoves, CityAndMakeup and MissCaseyB with Kevin James Bennett!

I can’t believe that it’s already been a week since Pascale and I packed our bags and drove down to Toronto for IMATS 2011! This was my third year attending the show, and each year it gets better and better (and I come home with more and more stuff…)! This year, we got an awesome hotel room at the Hilton Homewood Suites, which I would DEFINITELY stay in again- it was one of the nicest rooms I’ve ever seen! MissCaseyB was right across the hall, which was awesome!  StaceyBrennan stayed over night on Friday with us and died my hair a super dark, rich brown (I gave her a photo of Megan Fox because I’m in love with her hair color) and I think she did a fantastic job (…I tipped her in makeup, of course). Saturday morning we all got ready together and headed to the show where we met up with CityAndMakeup, RachhLoves and Taryn from RachhFit!

The chaos in the name of discounted makeup...

Myself with Pascale...BEAUTEZINE Buddies!!!

We browsed around the grounds a bit while some of the girls stuck it out for some Make Up For Ever then we all headed to the Royal & Langnickel Event which took place upstairs in a gorgeous conference room that overlooked the entire show!  We got to chat with world renowned makeup artist Kevin James Bennett, have some snacks & drinks and play around with makeup and brushes! We all got to take home their gorgeous Silk Green brush kit (which I’m head over heels in love with by the way) which was really cool.

Myself with Kevin James Bennett

We did some more shopping (you can see the results of that madness when I post my haul!) and went out to Kelsey’s for our traditional lunch.  I had such a fantastic time at the show- it was definitely the best (and most packed) show I’ve been to yet… I’m so excited I got to meet some fellow bloggers and BEAUTEZINE readers as well!

The Naked Cosmetics booth! I always have to pick up a couple things from them each year...

New to IMATS this year, Bdellium tools! (Pronounced "Dell-ee-umm")

Zuca bag heaven!!! Mine is the black one in the center...It had my name on a post-it note!

Myself with Elessa from Pursebuzz! Missed this girl!

Myself with Koren from EnKoreMakeup! Such a wealth of makeup knowledge this one has....

Myself with Melissa Shum from CoverFX! Love this girl :)

Myself with TheGlitterGeek! Amazing blogger!

Swatching the gorgeous LIT Cosmetic glitters!

MAC Pro was actually selling product this year! It was fantastic!

The student competitions are getting better and better each year....

Later that night, Stacey and Steph decided to come join us in the hotel. Steph and I cooked dinner (if you want to call it “cooked”)…we couldn’t find a grocery store SOOOO we decided to heat up some Lean Cuisines, put them in a skillet and not say a word (until now…. SURPRISE GIRLS!!!!)

We couldn't find a grocery store....so we bought 4 Lean Cuisines instead.

...and we had no bowls, so our salad was served in a casserole dish and pot.

We thought it would be quicker, but it still took 20 minutes for them all to cook haha!

Mixing the TV dinners before putting them into the skillet....sneaky sneaky!

Steph trying to put the cake pops back after she dropped them ALL on the floor!

Stacey's AMAZING Pumpkin Spice & Cream Cheese cupcakes!!!!

That concludes our amazing weekend! Be sure to check out the haul video (my first one!!!) as well as the goodies post to see pictures of all the great goodies I bought!