The Makeup Show NYC 2008

Editors, buyers, and the rest of the fashion flock have fashion weeks to look forward to for new designs, networking, and freebies. And as much as we make a big fuss about beauty during fashion week it is really only there to complement the fashions. The real action for the beauty crew comes at tradeshows. Yesterday, Coutorture took time time to visit the Makeup Show New York to get a handle on just what happens at a beauty tradeshow.

The Makeup Show New York is a much more intimate industry experience than the overwhelming International Beauty Show. The entire point of the Makeup Show is to bring together the best of the industry. They boast that they have:

The biggest brands. Top industry exhibitors. Speakers from every area of makeup artistry. New product introductions. Special Pro-only offers. Seminars, forums and hands-on workshops. The best networking opportunity in the business.

And we walked by many booths from the biggies like Lancome and P&G Beauty to MAC, Smashbox, Stila and Makeup Forever. But it wasn't just about the brands and the products, The Makeup show is heavily focused on education with classes on everything from perfecting makeup for on-camera work to airbrushing.Not to mention the keynotes speeches!

We enjoyed quite a few takes on more creative makeup application from facepaint and select body parts (we won't say which ones) to full body applications. They had even figured out semi-permanent makeup for tattoos.

We played with products and marveled at just how covered in pigment our hands were by the end of the day. Some products, like a Mascara Shield seemed a little strange and others like a powder Vitamin C that turns to liquid on application called Awake Vital Express completely wowed us.

We went completely gaga over Crown Brush's Private Label display. One of the better kept secret in beauty is that many brands use the same factories, packagers and suppliers for their products and formulas while merely changing the marketing. For us this ended up being quite a treat as we snagged brush after brush at under wholesale. And yes we did get a little too excited about the pink handled brush options.