So, I know I promised I would write this post right after BeautyCon LA, but ya know, life happens.
Anywhoo, BeautyCon LA was on July 9th at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This was my first BeautyCon, so I didn't know what to expect, but I still had really high expectations. I had heard from multiple friends who have gone to previous BeautyCons who raved about the brands that were there and how many free products. One friend even showed me the STUFFED bags that she got full of products and when I commented that she must of spent a fortune, she mentioned it was all FREEEEEE!!!! That's when I knew I had to go this year.
The event started at 12pm and I made the trek to LA in about an hour. I was happy to see that there was plenty of parking, which in LA is a rarity. We did have to walk about a block, but I'll take that over driving back and forth for two hours looking for parking any day.
Once we reached the convention center, we walked through what felt like endless hallways to reach the end of the line to get in. The line literally wrapped around the building!!!! And I may or may not have gotten in an argument with a security guard over where the handicap were supposed to line up because the line involved stairs, but whatever. They definitely needed a specific line for handicap/strollers or someone looking for the handicap people to help them through the line.
Once we reached the front of the line, getting in was relatively easy. Our tickets were wristbands that were scanned at the door, which is very similar to the wristbands for Stagecoach or Coachella. After we walked through the doors, it basically makeup heaven!!!! Vendors upon vendors, meet and greets, and panels galore.
Some of the vendors included LimeCrime, NYX, Maybelline, Pixie, Shea Moisture, L'Oreal, Luxie, Eva NYC, Tarte, Pacifica, Not Your Mother's, Redken, Milani, Nike, and Ardell Lashes just to name a few. The booths were laid out similar to a flea market. However, I thought the booths should have been placed farther apart because it was so packed together but they had plenty of room to spread the booths farther apart. I even broke out a sweat because we were so packed together. It was even hard to move between the booths that I lost interest a few times and had to rest for a while out of the way of the crowd. Some of the bigger brands like NYX, LimeCrime, and Maybelline had lines so long that the wait time was around 3 hours. I ended up (somehow) cuttingt he NYX line and got to go in. I was under the impression they would have samples and the opportunity to shop oodles of products like the pictures show. That was not the case. Turns out it was just a walk-through thing where you can swatch their new Matte Velvet lipstick line (but not buy), fill out a face chart with the new makeup, and then take a selfie in front of the "Class of 2016" NYX Class backdrop. All of this was cute, but not exactly what I came for and definitely not what I would have waited 3 hours in line for. They did hand me a backpack that had a small sample of their new "Beauty School Dropout" line which I was happy to get. LimeCrime also had a long line, but I didnt bother waiting in that line since it was towards the end of the day and there was no guarantee I would get to buy/receive anything. One booth I did love was Ardell lashes and their 8 for $20 lash deal. For someone who's obsessed with lashes like I am, this is a total steal!
There were also many panels from makeup artist such as Pixiewoo, Jackie Hernandez, and Tiarra Monet among many other. I was really excited to see Jeannie Mai as the main moderator because I absolutely LOVE her on "The Real". I attended the sold out "#TRUE2U" panel with Christina Milian as moderator and I was really excited to hear what they were all going to say. Unfortunately, I was left pretty disappointed when the conversation was very basic about how they deal with online haters and didn't really get any deeper than that. These are people who have an great platform to make positive changes in people's, especially young girls lives, and they just talked about things that are very basic. I could also tell from their body language that these girls didn't even truly believe in what they were saying. Needless to say, I left the panel early.
There were also about 13 food trucks parked outside the venue for people to buy food. There was a wide variety and even vegan options. I had a delicious chicken quesadilla and fries. My only critique is that there needed to be some kind of overhead shade to cover the trucks because there was about an hour wait for each truck in about 97 degree weather. One girl even had to be taken out on a stretcher from a heat stroke.
A major highlight of the day was the opportunity to meet Kandee Johnson. I met up with a friend who had an extra meet and greet ticket for her so I tagged along even though I didn't really know who she was. I have only seen photos and a few videos of hers previously. We waited in line about a half hour and then we finally got to meet her. She was very sweet and has a voice like a little chipmunk which I loved. I was very happy to see that with every fan that she met, she acted like it was the most amazing thing to be able to see them that day and that they were her best friend she hasn't seen in forever. She probably met over 200 fans that day and I never saw any sign of her getting tired.
Overall, I thought BeautyCon was cool, but I was not overly impressed. I was told that previous BeautyCons had a lot more free handouts than there were this year, which is a main reason why I attended. I was also willing to buy products, but there weren't even as many opportunities to purchase products as you would expect. The panels could have been a little more intellectually stimulating with maybe some more real celebrities that everyone knows. While I do think the overall event was well organized, it could have been better with small changes such as spacing the booths out a little farther. Will I go next year? Maybe.
Below is everything I got. Some of it was free and some I purchased. I hope you've enjoyed my review of BeautyCon LA! Until next time!
-CV