This past October, I attended BeautyCon NYC, a relatively new beauty convention for young girls and women to meet their favorite beauty vloggers, content creators, and influencers from social media, and try out various products from sponsors. The event was hosted at Pier 36 on the east side of Manhattan. The layout of the event was as follows: in front of the pier there were booths set up for the meet and greets with the various beauty vloggers and influencers, and on the inside of the pier, there were the various company booths ranging from makeup to skincare to haircare.
BeautyCon has gained its status and has become widely popular in recent years due to the social media revolution and the influence of Instagrammers, Viners, and Youtubers on younger generations. I discovered BeautyCon on social media and decided to buy tickets given the large amount of acclaim it was receiving. In order to get the “full experience,” I purchased the Pro Ticket which allowed holders early entrance, 2 guaranteed meet-ups with content creators and an exclusive Beautycon gift bag filled with products. Knowing that the event was very popular and would be crowded, I chose to arrive at 9:00 am even though the the door’s for Pro Pass Holders would not open until 10:30. Getting to the event early is key because it’s better to wait in a line that’s shorter than longer.
After waiting 1.5 hours, I finally got into the outdoor meet-up, stage, and food section of the event. The main area did not open until 11:00 so I decided to meet-up with two of my favorite fashion and beauty content creators on youtube: Tess Christine and Meghan Rienks. Both girls were beautiful and polite, and are an inspiration to me and it was very exciting to finally meet them in person.
In addition to the two people I met, tons of other well-known content creators were present at the event (Bethany Mota, Madison Beer, Meg DeAngelis, Chelsea Crockett, Ava Allen, Maddi Bragg, Fleur de Force, and Nikki Phillippi, to name a few). After taking some pictures and chatting at the meet-ups I took some time to check out what I received in my Beautycon gift bag. The bag was cute, but unfortunately what was inside was rather disappointing. If you break up the cost, the bag comes out to $60 and to be honest the products were not that amazing and if I were to add up the prices of the products I received in the bag, it would not come close to $60.
In the pier there were all sorts of different booths hosted by different sponsors of the event. Some of the companies that came were Tarte Cosmetics, Revlon, Maybelline New York, Garnier Fructis, NYX Cosmetics, Aeropostale, Ricky’s NYC, Essie, and many more. Each sponsor was either promoting products or services. Revlon had a nail bar where you could get your nails done by a Revlon professional, Garnier Fructis had a hair salon with stylists, QVC was giving out a lot of free samples, Aeropostale was selling clothing from Bethany Mota’s new collection, and NYX Cosmetics was doing people’s makeup.
However, despite the number of great companies present, many of them were not actually selling their products. Instead these companies focused on giving out small samples and advertising. Having already gone to IMATS, I assumed BeautyCon was a similar event and I had the impression that I would be able to buy a lot of different products at cheaper prices. Yet, I soon realized that BeautyCon was clearly more about brand promotion and services rather than purchasing discounted products and learning about the makeup industry. Moreover, I noticed that I was one of only a few people my age there. The target audience seemed to be young girls of the ages 9-15 years old and all these girls cared about was meeting the famous people on the Internet and getting their hair and makeup done. They didn’t necessarily come to BeautyCon hoping they could buy beauty products and learn makeup artist techniques. From this observation, I realized that perhaps BeautyCon was not the event for me. Although I did get to see some of my favorite content creators and receive free samples, I did not enjoy the event as much as I hoped I would and therefore I will probably not buy tickets again. Personally, I believe BeautyCon is overhyped and really only fun for young girls and the content creators themselves (since they receive tons of free products from the brands present).
IMATS New York or the International Makeup Artist Trade Show is another beauty convention hosted every year at Pier 94 for one whole weekend usually at the beginning of April. IMATS has been around for a lot longer than BeautyCon and is more well-known. I attended IMATS for the first time 2 years ago and I had an amazing experience. Pier 94 is a great venue and is very spacious which allowed more sponsors and companies to participate.
The event was very organized and the line was not as long, the security guards were very helpful, and the event hosts were constantly monitoring the event and making sure everything was running smoothly. The whole event took place inside the pier: there was food with tables and chairs, a main stage with seating, and all of the sponsor and company booths. Each booth was selling products, and almost all prices were significantly discounted. A lot of companies were doing raffles and giving away products and all the people working were very helpful and showed great customer service. Some of the companies that came were: Sigma Beauty, Inglot Cosmetics, NYX Cosmetics, Crown Brush, Stila, Lime Crime, Makeup Forever, Morphe Brushes and many more.
Overall, the brands that were at IMATS were significantly better and more well known than the one’s at BeautyCon. Also on the main stage, there were makeup artist panels, and makeup tutorials that were really interesting. The food was decent and there were plenty of places to sit so that you could take a break and catch your breath. Even though there were no designated meetups with content creators, many Youtubers and vloggers went to the event and chatted and took photos with fans. IMATS tends to be a more popular event among teenagers and women, and the majority of people that attend are the ages of 15-27 (but people older and younger than that come too). IMATS focuses more on the makeup artist community and teaching people about it. The ticket does not come with expedited entrance or a goody bag, but the event itself is worth way more than the money you pay for it.
Both events are unique in their own ways and are targeted for different audiences, however, if I had to chose one, I would choose IMATS. I believe IMATS is the better convention because it is overall it focuses actually on beauty rather than connecting with Internet famous people. Also, IMATS is less money, more organized, indoors, has a better location, more space, better companies, and still has beauty gurus and professional makeup artists. However, if you are more interested in meeting Youtubers and influencers rather than beauty and beauty products, BeautyCon is the event for you.
Some further notes about the events:
BeautyCon and IMATS are events hosted all around the country and the world, and although both events produce the same thing in each of the locations it visits, each event is different and some are known to be better than others.
BeautyCon NYC is a one day event that does not happen every year and is usually hosted at different locations (usually at one of the Piers) and the date often changes. This year, 2015, it was hosted on October 17th.
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You can get tickets for this up to only a month in advance.
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Types of Tickets: GA ($30), Pro ($135), Platinum($270), GA and BFF ($60), Pro and BFF ($165), Platinum and BFF($300)
IMATS (aka. International Makeup Artist Trade Show) is a weekend long event hosted every year Pier 94 in NYC at the beginning of April.
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Tickets sell out by beginning of January, so buy your tickets early (if you are unsure, you can wait until December, but don’t wait any later)
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Types of Tickets: Only one ticket GA available ($60). If you are a pro you usually have a card that gets you in for free.
More information regarding tickets and upcoming events can be found on their websites: