Beautycon London 2016 Review

Saturday the 3^rd of December saw Beauty Bloggers, models, celebrities and makeup lovers descend to Kensington Olympia for the biggest beauty festival in London. As press, we were allowed in the venue earlier than general admission and the same time as people who had purchased the Hauler and Social Packages. It was a good thing we got there early as lines were not as long and the generous freebies that vendors were giving out had not run out.

Making our way through the venue, we were impressed with how generous retailers, such as Pixi by Petra, Real Techniques and Soap & Glory actually were. All guests had to do was take a selfie, post it on social media and they were rewarded with full size products. When I got home I researched the regular retail price of the products were and was super impressed by the £127.73 worth of goodies we had received. This wasn’t including the enamel badges and a makeup bag we also were given for downloading a free App on our phones.

Soap & Glory™ Peach Party™ Multi-Colour Blush Brick – £11.00
Pixi by Petra Brow Powder Palette – £16.00
Pixi by Petra Sheer cheek gel – FlushedFresh red £14.00
Pixi by Petra Moisturizing Cleansing Cloths – £10.00
Starburst Lipsmaker – £3.50
NYX Professional Makeup Studio Finishing Powder – Translucent Finish – £8.00
Real Techniques Eyes Starter Set – £21.99
Super Facialist Retinol+ Anti-Ageing Night Cream 50ml – £13.33
Vitamasques Pomegranate Firming Lifting Mask – £3.99
CurlUp by KMS California Perfecting Lotion 100ml – £14.93
L’Oreal Paris Superstar Mascara – £10.99

We also enjoyed having our makeup done by Soap & Glory, Pixi by Petra and NYX Makeup Artists. This was fun and getting to learn about some of their new products was what I thought Beautycon was all about. The numerous photo booths set up around the venue were lots of fun and the lines weren’t too long to get our photos, our free items and move on to the next.

Beautybay.com and Lime Crime had stores so guests could try their products first hand and purchase if they liked them. The lines for these two stores were absolutely ridiculous and while Lime Crime’s Station was set in a better location and more organised, it was obvious organisers didn’t plan properly for how popular Beautybay’s store was going to be. What felt like hundreds of teenage beauty gurus were lining up to get their hands on the popular eye shadow palettes and there certainly was disappointment when items sold out. When I finally decided yes I did need Violet Voss’ Holy Grail Palette and was prepared to pay the £40.00 for it, the girl who let her friends in the line just in front of me managed to snag the last two for her and her friend. Luckily I still managed to get three Lime Crime Liquid Lipsticks, including the Red Velvet Velveteen Lipstick I’d been coveting for sometime.

There were a few other disappointments that I heard echoed as we were walking around the venue, as there just wasn’t a lot to do. Yes there were talks from popular beauty bloggers and celebrities such as Thandie Newton, but there really wasn’t enough to keep people entertained. I was expecting more hands on demonstrations from some of the bloggers who were making their living doing makeup tutorials on social media platforms. There also wasn’t a large amount of vendors present and I feel a lot of beauty retailers missed out on having their products on display/for sale. Despite this, It was funny to see so many dads being dragged along with their teenage daughters from vendor to vendor and posing for selfies with bloggers that they idolised.

Ultimately though we loved it. I’m definitely the more makeup obsessed from our team of reporters for ONIN London so I was in heaven. It was great fun though to see the other two members of my team get excited about makeup and push themselves out of their comfort zones with different items, they normally wouldn’t try. Glitter Lips by NYX was one examples and us girls wore these proudly as we made our way throughout the venue.

I would definitely go again next year but I’m unsure if I would have paid the £80-130 to attend at 10:00am. While you receive a gift bag which I’ve included a picture of below, I’m not sure the price is worth it. You definitely do make your money back with all the freebies that are given out so I’ll let you beauty lovers decide for yourself whether you think it’s worth it. The £30.00 for the general admission ticket was well worth the price though.