Hello all~
I did mention that I wanted to start blogging about events that I go to so this is me trying to live up to that.
At the end of May (and beginning of June) I went to Premiere Orlando 2015. Premiere is an education and trade show for professionals in the beauty industry ONLY.
What does this mean? You can only attend if you are a licensed cosmetologist, barber, esthetician, nail tech etc. (There are some exceptions...like if you own a salon and spa.)
The show is a 3 day event consisting of Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Saturday is, at least in Orlando, an education day. This is usually the day that they host classes that you have to pay for , for a "hands-on" class but they also have free classes throughout the day.
Sunday and Monday are mainly "exhibit" days where all the brands have ELABORATE booths where you can purchase their products for a special "show" price.
I had originally wanted to take a few paid classes but, with the wedding coming up, I had to save where I could. Instead, I just went to the show on sunday and monday for the floor since I always learn so much there anyways. Andddddd the shopping is great, haha.
Follow the jump for the whole story!
We ended up getting into Orlando LATEEEEEE Friday night. The drive to Orlandia from Jax was only 2.5 hours but coming from Tallahassee, it's 4 hours! Kills me every time.
We arrived at our hotel around 12 o'clock and there was a HUGE line!
You definitely know when you're staying in a not-so-great-but-cheap hotel when the lights for their sign aren't fully lit! We stayed in The Metropolitan Resort but, if you went by the sign, it was the Metropolitian Re.
The check-in line took about 45 minutes since there were a lot of tourists checking in late or asking the desk clerks questions.
When we finally checked in, we made our way up into the rickety elevator and into our room.
Say "hello" to my room! The double rooms were cheaper then the kings so I went ahead and got hat one. xD
The walls were FILTHY!
And there were stains all over the floor. YUCK!
I did check the sheets and everything to make sure that those were at least clean. I even lifted up all the mattresses to make sure there were no bed-bugs. xD All was fine for the beds...except one beds was so over used that it sunk in, in the center. xD
Nothing wrong with this toilet..it was just super short and weird. LOL
After we checked in, we were SUPER thirsty and went to check out the drink and ice machine that the map given to us by the hotel claimed was right around the corner. What met us was just holes and hookups in the wall. xD
We left to go to the walgreens down the street and there were 4 police cars in the front! Talk about bad luck picking this hotel, haha.
Over all, I spent about $150 for the hotel for 4 nights so it was a cheap place to sleep.
On saturday, to make time pass, Trey and I decided to check out the cool attractions near us. We were on I-drive so there's TONS of attractions everywhere but the Orlando Eye had just opened and it was right next to a cute little aquarium. I hadn't been to an aquarium in soooo long so we decided to go ahead and see that since heights and I don't always get a long. xD
As we walked to the area (it was like..2 blocks away) I bought advanced tickets on my phone! It's about 5 dollars cheaper per person if you buy them online and they just scan it when you go up there.
How they have it set up is super cool!
Madam Tussauds, the Orlando Eye and Sea Life are all connected by a common area with a food court and then you have separate entrances through that. Very smart idea since it could be a pretty sweet field trip area with food.
Outside, there's other restaurants and fun gift shops.
As you enter the aquarium, they give you wrist bands, scan them and then take some funny pictures that will great you at the end of the line.
Throughout the exhibit, there's tons of cute little facts about the fishes you'll see as well as little indentions in the tanks that you can stick your head in for cool pictures, betters look and just a nice experience. I'm a kid at heart so of course I went into each one, haha.
In the common area, they also have a gift shop for legoland and this is out in that lobby. It even spins!
I caught up with one of my friends and we eventually went bowling after this...and then out to dinner after much persuasion. (Did I mention I'm a hermit?)
~Sunday~
I didn't really do anything too fun that morning...I got up around 8-9 ish, went out to breakfast at Perkins, returned to the hotel and got ready.
I wasn't in a huge rush since I already had my game plan. Get what I absolutely needed on sunday and get the rest on monday when the prices went down.
I didn't want to have my normal hair for the show so I wore a wig!
This was a picture I snapped as I headed towards the escalators that would take me down to the front. It really doesn't show how massive this show is. There was THOUSANDS of people. I wouldn't be surprised if there was like..30+ thousand people.
Last year I had to wait in line for a while..but I was pretty "late" so no wait! 8D
This was probably one of THE cutest displays. Farm House Fresh always has an adorable set up!
There's usually tons of half naked guys walking around because stylists are THIRSTY people, haha.
I just happened to be near the HOTHEADS booth when I got sucked in. The main stylist working is probably the very image of what I think a stereotypical stylist looks like. Very tall, tan, polished looking with TONS of rhinestones. His shoes were covered in them, his suit had rhinestone accents, rhinestone watch, etc. He was also so confident that it just commanded your attention. That or the loud music, haha. Either way, very entertaining and fun to watch!
I walked around for about 4-5 hours and bought a few things (that'll be at the end of the post) but I did really well budgeting! 8D Last year I just went crazy and bought too much, haha. This year I was much more organized and definitely knew what I wanted.
On Monday, I knew that I had wanted to be there when it closed so I didn't show up until about 12.
I walked around with some friends and this is the day that I collected the bags and samples.
If you can even say that there were samples to get.
Out of the whole show I only received 3 samples. 3. Samples. Most of the booths only gave out a bag or sample with purchase and I thought that it was absolutely RIDICULOUS.
One of the main goals of this show is to get people interested in your product. One of the best ways is to give them samples to test out your product and to come back for more after they've fallen in love with the sample.
This was all i got. I did get a few bags, my favorite being the super adorable and colorful Amika one but it was such a let down. Last year I left with TONS of freebies. :/
I still enjoyed the show but mainly for the company.
This was probably the best display of the whole show. Not only did they have adorable models who interacted with event-goers, but they really put thought into their exhibit and got people involved.
I ended up getting quite a few good deals at the show but I didn't get as many as there have been in the past.
At 5 o'clock, when they're closing and usually trying to get rid of stuff, I tried to get some deals on cosmetics only to be met with workers saying "It's still in stock so no discount". I really wanted to say "Really? Who else do you think is going to stop by and get stuff? It's closed." I was weak those and still bought some stuff. xD
This was all that I got at the show (except for a whole case of lotion gift sets for $5 from the Salon Centric booth!)
I mainly stocked up on lashes (Sassi was having a 6 for $9 deal on unbranded lashes that were exactly like the ardell ones I picked up. I mean really...they're the EXACT same. I would know. I have both.)
A contour palette was on my list of things to get and I found an amazing one from Pinnacle cosmetics. It was more expensive then I had wanted but I figured it still wasn't a bad deal compared to retail value.
I stopped by Morphe for some shadow singles, got some quads from crown for my bridesmaid bags, etc.
Overall:
Premiere this year was still fun and I'd still recommend it to people...but it was definitely smaller then last year. And the great deals that I remembered weren't there...
I may have left out TONS of stuff (I'm pretty tired but I know that if I don't finish this tonight, I'll forget where I was xD) so, if you have any questions, leave a comment below!
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