Hakuhodo J146 Eye Shadow Brush

 Sorry the lag in posting. I have been in a makeup RUT!! I have been really busy with my kids and then all my spare time has been spent watching old episodes of Switched At Birth. Gah, it is so cheesy but I am addicted. I swear I am embarrassed about this. I normally like my shows more, uhhh, adult themed. Anyhow, I have not worn makeup for almost a week. However I did get a chance to try out my new Hakuhodo brush that I picked up at IMATS!!

 Steph and I walked past the Hakuhodo booth at IMATS at least a dozen times before actually stopping to check the brushes out. I had heard of the brand and knew that they made good brushes but were expensive so I was reluctant to even look. Once the crowd died down I noticed that they had a brush that looked like a mini MAC #222 so I stopped to look at it. Much to my surprise it was only $17 so I snatched it up and brought it home!

Here are the details about this brush from the Hakuhodo website.
Eye Shadow Brush Round -Our brand new J range introduces the next-generation of makeup brushes as we have carefully selected the materials and designed the brush shapes. The natural hair used in this range has not been dyed so keeps its original color. This means the bristles will not lose any color. The bristles in this brush range provide moderate resilience and produce great coloring and the bristle shapes available are our most standard to cutting edge.

Hair Type ：	Goat
Handle Type ：	Wood Handle/Black
Ferrule：	Nickel-plated brass
Size：	A. Full Length: 156.0㎜ B. Hair Length: 16.0㎜ C. Thickness: 5.0㎜

 I am in LOVE with how detailed the product listings are on the Hakuhodo website. They tell you what every piece of the brush is made from and exact measurements of each piece. Very informative. I have been to many websites where you can't even find what kind of hair the brushes are made from.

I have used this brush a few times and so far I am highly impressed. I basically have been looking for something exactly like the MAC #222 but smaller to really get into the crease and deepen it up. Well I found it. This brush is small enough that it filled in the crease without overlapping much onto my lid or up into the brow bone area. It also is fluffy enough to blend which is a trait the #222 has as well. I must have a thing for goat hair brushes because this and the #222 are the best brushes I have ever used.

Left is MAC #222

Right is Hakuhodo J146

This brush has quickly became my everyday brush. I use it every time I do my makeup. It is a must have in my opinion. I am highly impressed with the Hakuhodo brand. The website is super informative and so far the brush has been fantastic. I look forward to ordering more brushes in the near future.

Do you own any Hakuhodo brushes? If so, what do you think of them? Which ones should I add to my ever growing list?

 Thanks for reading,

I edit all my photo's using PicMonkey! Go check them out!

IMATS!!!

 This is going to be a LONG, pictured filled post so grab yourself a drink and settle in for a bit <3 Also be forewarned, I will be saying awesome, amazing, cute, gorgeous, sweet and other annoying words over and over again.

IMATS was held in Pasadena this year. Pasadena is about a 30 minute drive from where I live. I knew IMATS opened at 8:30 so I figured we would leave 10ish and just leisurely get there and stroll around. Well that was before I started reading how many people would be in attendance and how totally insane it is on a Saturday. After reading that me and my friend Stephanie decided to leave early, like 6 in the morning early. I am not a morning person. I rarely am up before 9. I will apparently do anything for makeup because I got up at 5, slapped on some makeup, false lashes and was ready to go .

We got down to Pasadena super fast, around 7:15 or so. There was already a pretty big line. Steph got in line and I went into Starbucks to get us some coffee. I stood in line for coffee for about 10 mins and when I was done the line was moving. We ended up waiting in line for only 30 mins or so before we were able to check in.

 

After checking in you had to go out and get in another line. We got in line pretty quick but there was still at least over a hundred  people in front of us. Behind us was another story. We could not even see the end of the line. INSANITY!! The doors opened up right at 8:30 and the line moved in. I was so freaking excited!!!

We used the IMATS app on our cell phones to figure out where the Sugarpill booth was while we were in line. We BOOKED it to the booth. We got there and there was already a line of about 15 people which moved super fast.

The girls and guys working the booth were super efficient and sooo cute. I ended up buying all the new colors and a few for my friends. I quickly spent over $130. Yikes

 

Stephanie picked up the pro palette which was $85. I had the HARDEST time not buying one. I just could not justify it since I already have all of the colors. Looking at it still makes me sad.

Getting the new Sugarpill was my #1 priority so after getting that my next mission was to get some Lime Crime. We rushed over to the Lime Crime booth which was pretty close to the Sugarpill booth. There was a bit is chaos in front of the Lime Crime booth. People were just crowded around, pushing in towards the counter and not forming a line. Me and Steph waited in a small line off to the side like normal civilized people.

After a couple minutes it was our turn. The palettes were only $20 each! I wanted to get all four of them as well as a Red Velvet Velvetine but Steph and a kind lady behind me in line talked me out of it. They didn't want me to spend all my money in the first 20 minutes LOL. I ended up getting Red Velvet, China Doll, Aquataenia and a primer. The girls behind the Lime Crime counter were so pretty!!

At that point I basically bought everything I HAD to have so we could calm down and relax. Of course the next stop was the Beauty From The Earth booth!

 I was super excited to see Crystal again and check out some of the new colors BFTE had.

I also finally got to meet the Phyrra! She is SO SWEET! This picture of Phyrra and I came out blurry but I have a better one on my Instagram here

 Crystal was pretty busy when we got there so we hung around and talked to Phyrra and the others working the booth for a little bit.

 The displays at the BFTE booth were so neat. Autumn from The Daily Glamour did the pictures and designing. They were really informative and eye catching. So much that I ended up buying a collection and a few extras. I spent about $50 at the BFTE booth.

Crystal, Matthew, Kristy, Phyrra and Stephanie

This is set I ended up getting.

Crystal and BFTE booth was getting pretty swamped so Steph and I walked around and browsed.
So many artists were doing special effects demos. They are absolutely amazing what they can do with some makeup and latex

 They also had a special effects museum where they had live demos going on and a bunch of makeup artists who were competing against each other.

This girl was curling her hair on stilts. That is nuts, right!!

 We stopped at the Sauce Box booth. I really love a large panned shadow so these caught my eye. I ended up picking one up to try and got to talk a bit with the owner. She was a spunky girl. I will be doing a review on the shadow I got shortly.

Sauce Box products

I ran into the beautiful Cora from Vintage or Tacky! She was really nice and her hair was freaking fabulous in person!

 At this point my feet were starting to hurt, I spent a small fortune and I was getting tired. I thought it had to be well into the afternoon but nope, it was only 11. Steph and I took a break out in the lobby and had an overpriced gross plastic cup of wine.

Good thing we had that glass of wine because it energized us!! We had been circling by the Sugarpill booth all morning waiting for Amy and Steph was DYING to meet Petrilude but we had not seen them at all. But after our libations we went back in and there was Petrilude just standing there. Stephanie went all fan girl and got shy so I pushed her through the line into the booth LOL. This is when she first grabbed him Look how happy she is!!!

 Petrilude looked gorgeous. Steph and I were both jealous LOL.

 We noticed Amy but she was behind the counter and there was quite a line so I gave up hope of getting a picture with her and just settled for taking one of her by herself.

Stephanie and the sexy Porcelain.

Steph and I in front of the IMATS sign

Me and Safia from Lipstickmixtapes

 

Kristy from the BFTE booth waiting for Koren to start his beauty demo.

Koren from EnKore and me

Doing this thang.

After watching the demo we went wandering around and happened to come up on the Sugarpill booth and guess what we saw. AMY JUST STANDING THERE AND THERE WAS NO LINE!!!I almost died. I ran up and asked to take a picture with her and then she said to me, " YOU LOOK FAMILIAR, Where do I know you from". Gahhh she recognized me.

 After that we had some lunch and then continued our shopping. I ended up getting some Inglot, Hakuhodo brushes, Bdellium brushes and then we came up to the Eye Kandy booth. The lady called us over and asked if she could glitter up my eyebrows. Sure why the heck not! After she did that she asked if she could glitter up my eye makeup. I said yes but was regretting it in my mind. I thought it was going to ruin my shadow. She assured me she could match it exactly so I trusted her.

 I took the pic above HOURS after she applied the glitter and it still looked great. Eye Kandy has their own exclusive adhesive. I was highly impressed so I bought a bottle. I will reviewing that soon too!

Stephanie getting her glitter on.

 After that our feet were KILLING us. We were pretty much ready to go home but wanted to check if Doe Deere was at the Lime Crime booth. She was! We jumped behind the booth to get a picture with her. I have to say she was SO sweet. She had such a cute, gentle voice with the most adorable accent. She was also freaking gorgeous so I felt like a troll next to her LOL. You can see the pic of Doe and I here on my Instagram

Doe and Steph

 We also ran into Talia! She was so cute and nice! I was getting a picture with her when this scary ass monkey jumped in behind us! We ran into that monkey SO many times throughout the day.

Steph and the scary monkey

 
 There were also random hot shirtless guys walking around. I have no idea who they were or what they were promoting LOL.

Stephanie and Elessa Jade from Purse Buzz

Shany Cosmetics had the COOLEST display. A huge brush and eyeshadow palette. The palette was REAL!! It had giant eyeshadow pans inside of it. It was so awesome.

 

Stephanie doing my makeup

I had the most amazing time at IMATS. I really cant even describe it. Being around other makeup fanatics, crazy colored hair people and all of the companies and gurus I love was freaking rad. I was shocked at how nice and courteous everyone was. I was also very pleased with the crowds. We never waited in a line for longer than 15 minutes. The only place it was hard to walk through was by the Sigma booth and in between the Sugarpill and OCC booths because they were across from each other. Other than that the crowds were minimal in my opinion. I have ton of things to swatch, review and products to talk about in the coming weeks. I will 100% be going back to IMATS next year except I am going to be getting a two day ticket and staying in a hotel overnight so I can have a chance to really see everything and network more.

My haul-

I overspend HARDCORE. I am gonna have to be on a no buy for a few months

Did you go to IMATS? If so what did you think?

 Thanks for reading,

I edit all my photo's using PicMonkey! Go check them out!