Over the weekend I had the privilege of attending the Makeup Show Chicago and it was even more fun and amazing than previous years. The exclusive beauty trade show was held at a different venue – the Bridgeport Art Center. Let me tell you – it was pure madness! In a good way. There were more vendors and event more makeup artists and students – more than 3,500 – piled into a spacious one floor unit shopping some of the biggest and best deals.

Like I did with IMATS: LA, I created a list of things that I wanted to get. Creating the list helps keep me on budget and avoids any major impulse buy. I have to be honest; I made a few impulse purchases. Nothing major… but they weren’t exactly on the list.

I of course had to hit the Make Up For Ever booth to get 40 percent off the new Pro Finish foundation and the super soft kabuki brush. I did have an impulse purchase there – the Camouflage Cream Palette. It was only a couple dollars more than the Full Cover Concealer, so I opted for the palette since it was a better value. Then I walked quickly to the NARS booth before it got jammed packed and picked up one of the new satin lip pencils, a gorgeous gloss, the highly praised light reflecting loose powder and my favorite, the pro prime eye primer.  I hit MAC for some refills of my favorite shadows and headed over to the OCC booth where I caved and purchased a new gloss stained and concealer. I was planning on waiting on these, but I couldn’t resist the gorgeous gloss stained. I did purchase some new brush cleaners and a couple Z-Palettes to replace the new MAC large dup palette that I recently picked up.

I had such an amazing time and I can’t wait until next year.