by Lucia Rossi & Victoria Caroccia

The Inglot makeup booth packed with shoppers looking for excellent deals on their high quality products

Painted on denim jeans

Carli Bybel, a Youtube beauty guru hugs a fan at the Sigma booth

Contestants in the Battle of the Brushes

Kryolan recreates the make up from the movie, “Maleficent”

A Makeup Forever model

Statue of a fake zombie recreation presented in the makeup museum

The Battle of The Brushes competition involved an Alien theme

At 8AM, students, make-up artists, and fans await the opening of the doors at Pier 94 in NYC for this year’s IMATS

Students and models prepping for Day 1 of Battle of the Brushes

Dany Sanz and Floriane David from the Make up For Ever Academy

A representative from the Dinair booth was tickled pink

The runner up in the Battle of The Brushes competition

The ladies at the Sugarpill make-up booth greet guests with bright outfits and smiles

Facepaint at MakeUp Forever

SXF artist Tate Steinsiek

Photo Credit: Lucia Rossi & Victoria Caroccia

The International Makeup Artist Trade Show (IMATS) is the world’s biggest gathering for makeup artists and lovers all over the country. Makeup students, professionals, Youtubers, vendors, and enthusiasts come together and share the best things that the industry has to offer.

From April 11-13, Pier 94 in NYC was clustered with both women and men dying to enter the doors. Inside there were booths for big brand names such as Stila, Makeup Forever, Lime Crime, Sigma, Inglot, NYX and Ardell, who gave away free samples and sold products at exclusive sale prices. IMATS also has their own make-up museum.

The convention also provided free shows on several stages that included Q&A’s with celebrities, such as Tate Steinsiek from Face-Off, makeup tutorials from casual to monster special effects, costume and makeup contests for students, and picture sessions with youtubers such as Missglamorazzi, MakeupbyMandy24, Carli Bybel, Amanda Ensing and Jaclyn Hill.

Along with panels and tutorials, IMATS was the host to Battle of the Brushes, a makeup competition for student makeup artists from all over the world. On Saturday, several students competed in the Beauty/Fantasy category, while on Sunday contestants exhibited their looks in the Character/Prosthetic category. Winners received a check for $1,000 and recognition from the biggest magazine publication in the makeup industry.

IMATS is the first trade-show of its kind that gives any make-up lover the opportunity to be educated as well as provide awesome spoils. The event is sponsored by Make-Up Artist Magazine publisher Michael Key, who held the first IMATS in 1997 Los Angeles.

Tickets for this event sell out extremely quickly, so if you plan on attending next year, get your tickets months in advance! For more information, check out Imats.net.