With Emer (Dollhouse MB) and Adeline (Through Beauty Eyes).
Kevin Bennet on-stage with Emer.
OPI mani's at the blogger IMATS lounge.
Legally Blonde The Musical tickets and bubbly.
Cameron-Jane of Cameron-Jane Makeup Academy.
Stephen Adderton of ADDERTON Skincare and Makeup.
Sara-May (Makeup Utopia) takes a quick snap of the bloggers.
Some of the wonderful products we enjoyed thanks to BBU's wonderful sponsors.
Guest speaker: Lorraine Murphy (The Remarkable Group).
Guest speakers: Hanna DeMilta (Rocket Media) and Christine Butcher (Hair Romance).
On the September/October long weekend, Spoilt was one of 30 beauty bloggers invited to attend the first ever Beauty Bloggers Utopia. This fantastic event was the brainchild of Sara-May Monaghan of Makeup Utopia and contributor to the blog, Larah Kennedy. The educational weekend was a fantastic opportunity for new and long-standing Australian Beauty Bloggers to network amongst each other and with the faces behind the beauty brands we all know and love. The weekend also turned out to be a fantastic opportunity to make new friends, such as Emer from Dollhouse Makeup and Beauty who generously offered me a bed for the night. It was also amazing to catch up with some of my favourite faces including Adeline of Through Beauty Eyes, Iantha from Bless This Mess, Kimmy of The Plastic Diaries, Christina from Hair Romance, Rosemary of Lashes & Lattes, and Ms Critique's Cherie.
Day One started with a lovely breakfast consisting of pastries and fruit platters at Guylian chocolate cafe in Darling Harbour which was hosted by Cosmetiques de France, a company who is hugely popular in Europe. Here we were introduced to Nuxe, Bioderma and Uriage, which I am slowly falling in love with... the way you would with a romantic Frenchman! Bioderma is loved for its makeup remover and Nuxe for its amazing dry body oil which feels so amazing and soaks in to skin in just seconds.
IMATS Sydney was next on the cards where we shopped up a beauty storm and then sat back in our blogger media room to enjoy manis, massages and a quick bite. Emer was approached by international makeup artist, Kevin James Bennet to be his model on stage - lucky girl! I watched the experience from front row. Kevin loves to talk - to the point where he had 10 minutes left to complete Emer's makeup before his show was to end!
Subscription service Lust Have It very kindly hosted the evening event where all bloggers enjoyed watching Legally Blonde The Musical at Lyric Theatre, Star City Casino. Afterwards, we were taken backstage to meet some of the cast which includes Erika Heynatz and Rob Mills.
Day Two was a lot more relaxed (which was fantastic considering how busy Day One had been!) We met at Cameron Jane Makeup Studio in Surry Hills where the woman behind the school met with us to teach us about face shapes which I found extremely interesting. Every person is either a 'vertical' or 'horizontal' and whether you wear long, short, fine or chunky jewellery as well as how you part your hair can change your features or accentuate them. I really learned a lot from this exercise and actually spent the following weekend buying new jewellery and clearing out the styles which do not work for me.
Stephen Adderton of new Australian brand, ADDERTON Skincare and Makeup is vivacious and energetic. It was clear to see his passion for beauty products and his own brand (which has been years in the making), and was exciting to play with quality new mineral makeup.
Founder of Darling nail polish, Heather Snodgrass educated Bloggers on the relatively new Australian nail brand. We had the opportunity to paint our nails, play with Darling's new nail art transfers and had the chance to preview Rockcandy (which is already sold out!) All Darling nail lacquers are 5-free (meaning absolutely NO toluene, formaldehyde/formaldehyde resin, DBP or camphor) and are animal testing & cruelty free. I have fallen in love with Ice Ice Baby and Sage Advice (which I will be purchasing next). Now, having had a bad run with nail polish chipping for as long as I can remember, I was not expecting the polish to last 4 days without a single touch up required. VERY impressed.
Afterwards we had a bit of a Q&A session with influential people in the bloggersphere where we learned a lot and offered our own thoughts on ways to make blogging more recognised. The weekend was a fantastic success, it was a great way to meet and greet with industry insiders and bloggers. A big thank you to Makeup Utopia for their hard work creating the event - it was truly a pleasure to be apart of the event!