Much Needed Self-Care: Generation Beauty 2014

Wow, am I behind on posts!  I think for the sake of keeping at least one blog somewhat updated, I will just write here from here on out!  I may consolidate posts from other blogs in the future, but for now I will just link to them as needed.

It's been a rough couple of months, mentally, physically, and financially.  After an emotionally draining trip to the Philippines I promised myself that I would not cancel any of my planned trips for this year, even if it meant a big dent in my bank account.  One of those trips happened this past weekend, when I attended Ipsy's Generation Beauty in Los Angeles with one of my good buddies!

Generation Beauty is essentially a cosmetics convention with workshops, branded booths, and meet-ups with popular beauty bloggers and youtube personalities.  While I wear makeup and spend way too much money at Sephora and Ulta, I consider myself a novice when it comes to anything cosmetics related.  I figured this convention would be a learning experience.  Also - let's be brutally honest here - I wanted swag.  Who doesn't like free stuff, especially when it's makeup!

Here's a brief pictorial summary of my weekend:

Here's the event venue at L.A. Live!  While it looks empty here, there were actually several thousand people in attendance.

Not so cheap Los Angeles gas prices.  Makes my Bay Area gas look like a bargain!

Back to the convention!  Generation Beauty really promoted the use of social media.  This particular Proactiv vending machine dispensed a product if you tweeted certain hashtags.  Other companies had twitter contests, from which my friend won a Temptu airbrush machine worth over $200!

Cargo was one of my favorite booths.  The staff members were super nice and did a really thorough job in finding products that worked with my problem skin!  They also gave me tons of samples and a few full-sized products.  I'll be using this brand a lot now, since I used Cargo's Generation Beauty online 30% sale to buy most of their HD line!

Lush Cosmetics is one of my favorite places to get soap and hair care products.  Several days after posting this image on Instagram I received a message that I had won their #freshnewlush contest!  More reason to love Lush!  I'll share pictures once my prize arrives.

A cheesesteak sandwich because I was hungry after walking around all weekend.

Swag!

Generation Beauty was a great way to get away, hang out with my friend, and try out new beauty and skin care products.  With all the swag I got, there's really no excuse for me not to put more effort into my daily makeup routine (which currently involves slapping SPF and powder on my face and running out the door).  Except maybe sleeping an extra 10 minutes every morning.

More posts to come!  Let's see how I do in keeping this blog updated.