The Recap: Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend 2011 Part 1

I can't believe that as I write this post at 8.39pm on a Friday night, I was sitting at the airport this time last week waiting for my flight to Sydney to attend the greatest beauty event EVAR.

I had it all planned out in my head after a long and arduous week at work waiting for Friday night to come:

• Get on flight
• Go straight to bed
• Get up at the crack of dawn
• Dress up, put some makeup on
• Attend IMATS and other makeup/beauty/media events
• Mingle
• Dress up for dinner
• Mingle
• Wash all of the day's crud off and repeat

Oh how I underestimated the extraordinary plans our fairy godmothers Jacie and Kimmi had in store for us.

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But before we get started, I got held back by security at the airport for carrying scissors!  Confused and cocking my head to the side like a dog they scanned my luggage again and pinpointed where the problem was.  I opened up my luggage and realised that the location of the offending object was my Urban Decay Eyelash Curler!  Scared, worried it might be confiscated, they scanned the offending object again and deemed it all a-okay.  WHAT A START TO THE WEEKEND!  I totally told the young security guy to recommend The Revolution to his female friends and he took it well! 

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Back on deck, I was looking at the itinerary days prior to the event thinking 'pfft this will be easy, I'll spend as little amount of money as possible at IMATS, meet everyone I can and be fresh and ready for work at 8.30 on Monday'.

I was blown away by the events planned for us and I even surprised myself with the amount of inspiration, motivation and food for thought I brought home with me after the weekend extravaganza!

So what was planned for us?

Day 1 - IMATS, Beauty Directory & Maxted Thomas

Ahh IMATS.  I visited Sydney last year with other half in tow (his work's Sydney office thought he was joking when he said he's in Sydney to attend a make up convention - true story!) so I knew what to expect.  I had a self-imposed rule to not spend much seeing a lot of the products I purchased last year never really got to see the light of day.  So being adult and all I kept my expectations at an average level.  Instead, my expectations were met and then times 942048210384.

No kidding peoples, when you're with 84 other make up obsessed girls and we're all excited to see each other and meander around the floors guffawing at all the make up that we can buy for 4 hours, calling us over-excited would be a massive understatement.

I made a beeline straight for Illamasqua and made my first purchase at about 9.15am.  There wasn't much on display but I managed to get my hands on a Light Liquid Foundation in 200 for $20.  BARGAIN-FREAKING-NESS.

Afterwards I meandered around the floor, on my own, with other bloggers and then some!

As promised to myself I wouldn't go crazy, I bypassed Make Up For Ever for the second year because the lines didn't seem to move and ignored Inglot as well because I'm pretty sweet with eyeshadows.  Life in the eyeshadow department is complete when you own an Urban Decay Naked Palette!

So in comparison to other bloggers here's my proud but meagre haul!

Clockwise from top:

• Royal and Langnickel Travel Brush Set - I thought I was buying an empty wallet for $25.  Guess not. 
• Ardell Lashes - 2 pairs for $13
• Illamasqua Light Liquid Foundation in 200 - my HG of liquid foundations.  As mentioned, a bargainous $20!
• Royal and Langnickel brushes - Dome Powder Brush ($15), small stippling brush ($9) and 2 blending brushes ($5 each).

All I have to say about Royal and Langnickel brushes is that they are FREAKING AMAZING.  Seriously, the dome powder brush for only $15 is the bees knees.  I get indescribably happy when I use the dome powder brush!  I originally was going to use it to apply bronzer but instead I apply bronzer, blush and highlighter in this one brush.  It makes make up application one of the happiest moments in the morning.

While I was paying for my lashes at Ardell I got distracted by the presence of Elissa of Pursebuzz.  There she was with her giant bow and cray cray platform boots I squealed and as promised from my previous ABBW post, I got a photo with her.  As a consequence, I ditched the Ardell lady and turned my attention to Elissa.  Oops.  Luckily (or maybe she was being polite) she understood how excited I was.

So here's the pap shot...

Onwards and upwards (literally) the lovely people from Royal and Langnickel had organised a lounge upstairs just for ABBW-ers for us to take a break during our 4-hour stint at IMATS.  I made sure to thank the reps of Royal Brush for doing this for us because I was blown away (again) by the generous hospitality.  They were just as excited as I was to hold the event and hand out their S*I*L*K Green Line Brushes as a special gift - which btw are soooo good!

Afterwards, we headed off to the Beauty Directory event where Jacqui Maxted gave a talk on beauty media and with sitting panel members including representatives from La Purete, TriShave and Pure Therapy.  Each table then engaged in a group discussion on a pre-determined topic which could've run for hours seeing how engrossed Jacqui was at our table regarding subjects such as 'cash for comment' and receiving products for review purposes!  Overall, it was an excellent event and the panellists gave me a lot of ideas and guidance on the way the beauty media industry works.

Images taken by Liz Giacco for The Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend, and are not to be reproduced, republished or reused without inclusion of this credit.  Images remain the property of The Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend.

After a quick break back to our hotel we frantically got ready for the Gala Dinner at the Establishment hosted by Maxted Thomas, which is Part 2 of my Recap in the coming days!

But I'll leave you with a sneak peek at my outfit.  Cue lame-o mirror shot :p