Pre BeautyCon LA, I had a pretty good idea about just how beauty obsessed our culture actually is, not even just here in LA but all over the world, but it wasn’t until I stepped out of that LA Mart elevator on to the 2nd floor where the convention was being held did I discover the magnitude of just how much the beauty world means to us girls. By girls I mostly mean pre-teens/teens/early 20 somethings but my goodness, “#realtalk” as the girls would say, I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced anything quite like BeautyCon LA. It’s a buzzed about event with so much estrogen and hyper energy, and really, it all happens because of our insatiable innate desire to test and own essentially every single beauty product known to man. It’s a strange thing we girls do – I have eyeshadows, lotion, lipsticks, shower gel, face creams, that I’ve collected over the years that I refuse to give up, and the only possible reason as to why that may be is because beauty stuff is just freakin fun? And it makes us feel good? So imagine being 12-16 again and walking into a place like BeautyCon LA… holy heaven on earth. I can only imagine it was the “BEST DAY EVERRRRR” for so many of those girls.
I had a blast checking out/trying the products alongside my fellow beauty buffs, but playing observer for the day and experiencing the event through my 25-year-old eyes was a trip – the view sounds more like “that is a genius activation” vs “ohmygod COVER GIRL IS DOING MAKEUP!!!!” Which was totally ok, I genuinely enjoyed seeing and participating in just how creative each beauty company got with their space; it was beyond what I’d expected from a convention, but I suppose I should have known better when it comes to the beauty community.
Elle Mag had an epic fun promo wall for girls to take pictures in front of, “#BeautyConLA” was spattered along several white/pink walls for more girls to alert the world on their awesome whereabouts, beauty royalty like CoverGirl, Tarte, NYX, Stila, and Too Faced were helping girls with makeup, and Luster White was brightening smiles – there was so much nail polish, lipstick, hair tools, and every other beauty product under the sun happening, it could make your head spin. To round out the event though, there were of course plenty of Beauty and Fashion stars in attendance like Jeannie Mai (love her beyond words), the gorgeous and a repeatedly #womancrushwednesday of mine, Amiee Song of Song of Style, Pretty Little Liars babe Shay Mitchell, Fashion Queen Kelly Osbourne, and tons of darling YouTube stars that make me feel really old – all there to speak on a variety of panels to share with the fans. If it weren’t for the lines I would have loved to hear a few of the girls speak, but alas I left it up to the young, true beauty babes to attend in my place. Their incredible capacity for patience was truly admirable, mine however? questionable.
As I was leaving the event, I sat outside of the venue on a bench for a minute just taking in the silence and sunshine, a man next to me struck up a conversation and was telling me how he was waiting for his 10-year-old daughter inside who had won a ticket to BeautyCon LA and had been anxiously anticipating this day for weeks; he was so sweet about how much it clearly meant to her to be there to see some of the girls she looked up to so much on YouTube etc. He asked me, “how long do you think she’ll be in there for?”, I said, “If she stops at every booth like I think she will, she’ll be there till it ends.” Being the awesome dad this guy was, he totally understood how much that day meant to her. It’s crazy what the “beauty” world does for girls, isn’t it – BeautyCon LA had “fun” and “happiness” written all over it.
LA I gotta say, you were a great host, only a city like you can make this kind of event reality.
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