What You Need To Know About The Chicago Makeup Show

I recently attended the Chicago makeup show. It was my first time going and I was pretty excited to see what they would have there and the deals going on. The makeup show is a pro-only event which means you have to be a makeup artist or student to get in. Sadly, it’s not open to the public even though it’s the largest show in the United States. BUT, the good news is that I can share all the great makeup I found here so that you can be in the know as well.

(c)Jeremy Franklin, Photographer

The Chicago Makeup Show provides over 70 beauty brands, workshops, seminars and keynote forums. It is a great place to build a makeup kit or grab stuff to add to an existing makeup bag.  At the show some of the products are discounted 50%, 60%, even 70% off. Great news if you are a makeup artist because you can resupply your makeup inventory at a great rate.

Here is a quick video of my top five makeup picks from the show:

Good News!!! You can buy makeup I found at the Chicago Makeup Show directly in the video. Just click on the product links at the bottom of the screen.

There was everything from makeup to brushes to bags, to lighting systems. Brands like Kat Von D, AJ Crimson, Kevyn Aucoin, Crown Brush, Glamor and many more were there.  

(c)Emma Thompson

Even if you don’t need any additional makeup the workshops are worth the time. Some of the workshops they had this year are Understanding Color Theory and Color Correction by Orlando Santiago, Emphasis Eyes by Danessa Myricks, Defining Beauty by Bethany Townes, and lastly Fundamentals of Complexion and Contour by Orlando Santiago. They also had kit focus on artist kit building and some of the artist who taught these were James Vincent, Bethany Townes, Danessa Myricks, and Orlando Santiago.

Sseminars included Getting the Most Out of Your Eyeshadows, Beauty in Balance, Art of Brows, Perfecting Your Canvas, Men’s Grooming, Reality Skin vs Celebrity Skin, A Career in Makeup, Our Industry Today, Quite a Character and this is just naming a few! I hope to share a bit of what I’ve learned here so that we can all have a bit more makeup tips and tricks in our lives.

(c)Emma Thompson

The Chicago Makeup Show was great and I had a lot of fun shopping and learning, but there are cons to everything and, thankfully, this show only had one. The venue, in my opinion, was much too small for this type of show. It was held at the Revel Fulton Market and they had over 4,500 people attend this event.  It was hard to walk around the floor and get to the booths and there was a significant wait in line to get a chance to look at many of the different products. Other than that the show was great and I would definitely return. If you are a makeup artist or student I recommend going to the show. If you just love makeup I recommend staying tuned here as I’ll be sharing a lot more in the days and weeks to come.