A recap of MECCALAND 2019

Friday, 24 May 2019

For those who don't know, Meccaland is a beauty festival event held by the cosmetics retailer Mecca Maxima/Cosmetica. They have a variety of high end beauty brands and sell their beautiful products, attempting to match the prices in the US. It's basically beauty heaven in Australia, and it's one of my favourite places to shop.

Meccaland is a dreamy event in which brands have the opportunity to put their best foot forward. Think of it as Coachella for makeup and skincare. Jam packed with masterclasses, giveaways, goodie bags, freebies, makeovers, learning experiences and swatching heaven; it's an event that every beauty obsessed lover must attend!

Meccaland consisted of five beauty worlds: The Queendom, The Wild Flowers, Popstar Park, City of Lights and Temple of You. Each world had a certain number of brands representing them, making it easier to navigate the event and hit up the brands you're looking forward to.

I attended Session 2 on the Saturday morning with a Fun Pass ticket, and walking in was an incredible sight filled with loads of photo opportunities already. I was overwhelmed. So much was going on, but it was exciting. But figuring out which 'world' to tackle first was a hard choice. One of my friends who'd previously gone the night before said to bee-line for the beauty loop box section first though, since they were more likely to be quick to sell out. They were able to pick what to put in their beauty loop boxes the night before, whereas my session had them pre-packed already. Still, I got some decent goodies in mine so I wasn't disappointed at all.

I knew for certain that there were a couple of brand booths I wanted to hit up first before doing a solo walk-around; Go-To skincare, Tatcha, Clinique, Frank Body, Stila Cosmetics and Laura Mercier.
Mecca's own makeup brand MECCA MAX had a super cool and utterly cute ferris wheel, which I sadly did not go on because I thought going alone was just way too sad, haha, but it looked really awesome and I can only imagine how great the view at the top would have been!

There were a ton of interactive experiences to get your hands into, which really made the entire event a whole lot of fun. Mecca's staff were extremely friendly and always willing to help you out in any way that they can, which in my case was to have someone take my photos.
All around the festival were stations for food, touching up, charging your phone and even one to fill up your Meccaland water bottles! So cool! It was very important to stay hydrated because it could get HOT in there.

Loads of beauty gurus, influencers and experts attended the event too. More specifically to hold masterclasses and for meet & greets. I only had one person I had set out to meet and it was Mecca Beauty Junkie Gin! She is the epitome of my beauty icon. I love her makeup looks because they are tailored and perfect for asian eyes and skin tones. She is so so lovely in person, with extremely flawless skin, and I was so grateful to the fact that she stuck around and had quite a nice long chat about all things beauty with me. I look like a complete mess in my photo with her, but it's still getting framed, to be honest!

The main stage had consistently provided masterclasses and interviews with beauty bosses. It was really interesting to listen to some of the top beauty experts and get some inside tips and tricks. I loved watching Zoe Foster-Blake, but totally forgot to snap a pic! But she is just as gorgeous and funny as you'd think she is.
Hearing people who have been in the industry for years talk about what beauty means to them, and how to apply makeup and skincare properly was so inspiring. You just felt lucky to be in the same room as them because they are beauty legends, sharing their own personal wisdom.

At Meccaland, I did make a few purchases that I had intended. I'd received gift cards to spend at Mecca all the way back from Christmas time and had purposely saved them up for this beauty festival as soon as I found out it was going to be held in Sydney this year. So of course naturally I had to show them a little (or a lot) of love.

The one thing I definitely had in mind on purchasing was the Go-To skincare 'tiny stuff set' because I'm currently obsessed with minis as they're perfect for trying out new products and brands without doing a full commitment (until you know your skin loves them as much as your eyes do).
While at their booth though, I tried a tester of their cleanser. I'm always on the hunt for a good cleanser, and since I had some makeup swatches sprawled all over my arm, I decided to put the cleanser to the test and see how well it cleansed my arms, and boy, it got rid of those swatches in an instant. I was very impressed, so I just had to buy it too!

A few other sneaky purchases made by yours truly were:
→ Frank Body original coffee lip scrub (which smells ah-mazing by the way!)
→ Drunk Elephant Smoothie Kit consisting of the C-Firma Day Serum & Lala Retro Whipped Cream
→ Hourglass Cosmetics Veil Translucent Loose Setting Powder mini
→ Go-To Skincare Transformazing Sheet Face Mask
→ MECCALAND Beauty Mirror

I'm really happy with everything I picked because they're products I've been wanting for a while, and I heavily researched so that I wouldn't waste my money and just splurge for the sake of it (which is something I tend to do when I'm at events like this. The peer pressure is real, guys.)

I even had the opportunity to meet some of my online friends in person, which is always such a treat!
Creating these friendships online and wishing you could hang out in real life is always really tricky because sometimes you can live so far away from each other, but I loved being able to spend a few minutes chatting with them at the event and making our virtual friendships a reality! Of course we had to document them with a photo.

All in all, I had an incredible time. My feet were so sore by the end of the session and I just had to get home to my hubby and babies. Even though I attended alone, it was so crowded and full, it was hard to feel lonely when you were smacking into a person everywhere you turned. And in all honesty, I think I preferred being at this event alone because I really had total and full control of everything I wanted to do. Did I want to go check out the Clinique booth for the 3rd time? Sure, why not. Should I spend the next 30 minutes at the Laura Mercier booth just swatching lipsticks? Girl, do it! Too long of a line to take a photo on the NARS bubble? No worries, just circle back a few times later and selfie on your own.

It really put me out of my comfort zone, that's for sure. But it was something I had to experience. I used to be a quite outgoing person before becoming a mother, and this beauty festival sort of brought that inner me back out. It was a spiritual self-realisation that I can do things by myself, and that I should do things alone more often. Taking care of ME is important too, and doing things that make ME happy should always be a priority. And it didn't hurt that beautiful makeup and skincare were everywhere I turned.