Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend 2011 - it's a wrap!

Last weekend was one of those ones that will remain with me forever. It was the inaugral Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend (ABBW) organised by Kimmi from The Plastic Diaries and Jacie from You've got Nail.

The weekend had many many sponsors, and included many many goody bags. I will not be blogging about every single item in the goody bags because otherwise I'll probably be here until 2014 still reviewing! But as I use the products I'll start to blog my thoughts on the standout items. However if you're really interested in knowing what's inside the goody bags, at the end of this post I have provided links to other blogs where you can see them.

Pre - Registration
On the Friday evening before the start of the ABBW the husband and I decided to go to dinner at Darling Harbour, and it just so happened that the pre-registrations were taking place at Novotel Hotel in Darling Harbour? Coincidence? Or a very well made plan by yours truly?

At registration I was handed 2 massive bags and a gift box which included goodies from Dove, Le Tan, Innoxa, Australis and Garnier. A sign of things to comne. Cue paparazzi shot with the husband and my goody bags.

Image taken by Liz Giacco for The Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend, and are not to be reproduced, republished or reused without inclusion of this credit. Images remain the property of The Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend.

Day 1 Events
IMATS - I've already written about my IMATS haul which you can read about HERE.

Beauty Directory Event 
This was the highlight for me, where the BD managing director Jackie Maxted gave us her top tips for bloggers on working with PRs. She was just so down to earth, and her advice was so practical that you were left wondering "of course! why didn't I think of that". We were then given  chance to ask questions from a panel of experts including Jackie, Eleanor Pendleton (beauty editor for Instyle mag, who is absolutely stunning and glowy!) and our very own Kimmi from The Plastic Diaries.

Jackie from Beauty Directory and Eleanor from In Style

Gala Dinner at the Establishment hosted by Maxted Thomas 
Before starting the dinner we were given the chance to mingle with representatives from Nivea, Orly, Coty, Burts Bees, Remington and Sebastian Professional. My favourite part was spending time with the Nivea girls getting my skin properly diagnosed (dry/combination) and given appropriate products for my skin.

Some of the products showcased at the Maxted Thomas Event

I also got a chance to chat some more with Jackie from BD about one of my favourite topics, the crazy prices of cosmetics in Australia and why we resort to buying online. Sorry Jackie if I chewed your ear off!

I loved catching up with other bloggers. 

Me, Jen from My Funny Valentine and Anni from Haute And Stylish

Me and Paula from The Concealer
Image taken by Liz Giacco for The Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend, and are not to be reproduced, republished or reused without inclusion of this credit. Images remain the property of The Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend.

The dinner was absolutely delicious, and just look at that dessert!

Day 2 Events
Alpha H breakfast event
Here is the tweet that I sent during this event.

And seriously, they are the nicest people I have ever met who are incredibly passionate about their product. At this event they launched their Liquid Gold Skin Perfecting System and we were each given a 3 month supply to trial. I've already started trialling my Liquid Gold range, so I will blog about it after I've used it long enough to give an informed opinion. 

Face of Australia Masterclass
At this event the gorgeous Tina from FOA (who also happens to have her own blog, Chasing Elixir), led us through a makeup masterclass, giving us a chance to play with makeup and experiment on with the looks that Kirsty Dolores the MUA was doing.

Key Note Speaker
The key note spaker was RESCU founder and editor Bahar Etminan who gave a somewhat controversial talk about the business of beauty blogging and how to be a professional blogger.

Marusya from Crashing Red has done a fantastic summary of Bahar's talk in her post Blogging for Love or Money.

And that wraps up my weekend, the best part of which was a chance to catch up with other beauty bloggers in person. Kimmi and Jacie did a fantastic job of organising everything, and if they happen to organise one for next year I will be the first to put my name down for it.


If you still want more information about the ABBW, a list of blog mentions about the ABBW can be found HERE some of which also show you each of the products in the goody bags.

Where you at IMATS or ABBW? What are your thoughts on it? If you attended and have done a post on it link me in the comments.