So, as some of you know the International  Make-Up Artist Trade Show is hosted in various cities around the world every year. I think Sydney, Toronto, LA, New York and London. Please let me know if you have any practical questions regarding attending, prices and how it all works.

This was my first IMATS so I was quite excited. The Pro-Only Hours were on the Friday June 21st. Lots of space to go see all the vendors, compare products and plan purchases. Saturday and Sunday the event was open to the public which means it was filled with make-up loving bloggers, pros, and everything in-between! 

Unfortunately I was only there for Friday and Saturday and missed out on some great lectures/workshops on Sunday. I would recommend staying for the entire three days. Pro Day for shopping without the masses, and the weekend to suck up tips, experiences, and knowledge from all the speakers. 

I was a bit disappointed that the discounts remained unchanged on the public days as well, meaning there was no additional discount for us pro's who do a LOT of make-up shopping (!) compared to other make-up lovers, bloggers, etc. And although they do have to pay for their tickets, that doesn't really balance out the lack of extra promised discounts to the pros (in the IMATS marketing). I did meet lots of make-up artists from other countries, some who had attended IMATS in LA, who said pro prices were at 50% of the prices during the "public" days.

Brands such as MAC and Make-up Forever offered the equivalent of their regular pro discounts, so purchases there are not worth it unless you live in Sweden ;) The MAC store at NK, Stockholm recently started offering the MAC pro discount, but with taxes being what they are on cosmetics in Sweden... I only plan on making emergency purchases here, and stocking up when traveling in NYC or London. Guru Emporium for example offered no particular discounts at least on Kett wax-based foundations compared to their online prices. On the other hand shipping and customs fees to Sweden are quite pricey.

The best things about IMATS London 2013 was the chance to get all the vendors on one spot, look around, be inspired by the various pictures, models, colours, and products all around, as well as the lectures, Q&A sessions and demonstrations during the weekend. The speaker sessions mostly overlapped so it was quite difficult to prioritize as one ended up missing a lot of information from those one left early/came late to. In many cases the beauty/fashion topics ran parallel to theatre/sfx topics which is often good as many times you will be interested in one or the other. I for one, would have loved to attend ALL of them!

I will definitely be attending another IMATS in the future, mainly to soak up as much info as possible. Säg till om du har frågor angående praktiska detaljer eller annat gällande IMATS. Så kan jag dela det jag vet i alla fall!

Rekommenderas varmt! :-)
Lite då och då - om du är ett mycket erfaren proffs (mycket information var bekant, och vissa föreläsningar är riktade mot nyare muor med tips och hur man skaffar sig en agentur osv) eller om du behöver göra inköp och ändå befinner dig utomlands. Då kan man ändå komma in gratis. Med Pro Gold Card kortet kommer du in gratis alla dagar och slipper köa.  Oftare - om du är i startgroparna, då skulle jag säga att det är värt pengarna! Med vanliga Pro Card kortet kommer du in gratis på pro eventet (tror jag) men inte på de publika dagarna. mer info på: http://www.imats.net/about.php