ChickAdvisor Showcase Toronto Recap

Ever considered going to a ChickAdvisor Showcase?  I went to my first one yesterday in Toronto and thought I would share my experiences so you have a better idea of what to expect and can decide if it is worth the ticket price.

I know many of you will only care about the products, so if you want to skip what will probably be a long and picture heavy post, this is everything we took home after trying at the ChickAdvisor Showcase.  We tried everything from skincare to wine!  Of course, the nail polish was my favourite (obviously) and it was great to meet some of the other “Chicks” both bloggers and non-bloggers!

For those who are interested in the experience at the ChickAdvisor Showcase, we started with afternoon tea, mini sandwiches, lots of delicious cakes and snacks and of course a selection of tea (or coffee for those who don’t drink tea).  While we grabbed our food, we were entertained by a DJ and got to chat with other Chicks at our table or while getting food and had a sneaky look through our goodie bags to see what we got to take home.  I found a table with Jill from Beauty Vixen and Meredith from Et Tu and You but there were numerous other people from the Canadian Beauty Bloggers Network there too.

Not everything is in your bag, there was a golden ChickAdvisor mug (with two random poker chips that made a lot of sense later in the day) and a mirror on the table and the items to test get brought out at the start of each review session, so you can’t just grab your bag and run – but why would you want to?

After a quick introductory speech, we got down to the first of the review products at the Showcase.  A moment of shock and horror as they asked us to remove our makeup – in public!  This is the part where you get a big tip if you are still reading.  They have a photo booth where you can take fun pics with your friends.  Use it before taking off your makeup so you don’t have a big shiny forehead like me in your picture!

We then moved on to the makeup portion of the ChickAdvisor Showcase, starting with The Estee Edit Pore Vanishing Stick which made use feel slightly less naked without our makeup.  I would bring an easy to apply foundation with you to quickly smooth over it.  It was very hard to see how the stick would wear in order to review it without putting makeup on and quite a few of us found that it was hard for us to tell how other items were as we focused on our skin rather than the products.

Next up we were given a Mary Kay lipstick along with the one in our goodie bags, so you get to take two home.  These were both Gel Semi Matte and well liked by everyone at the table despite the $21 price-point.  I got Midnight Red and Powerful Pink and we enjoyed a few minutes of looking for the lipstick that flew out of my hands bounced off Jill and hid until the end of the event when we found it right under our table!  Then sans any eye makeup or curling our lashes, we tried out L’oreal’s Voluminous Feline mascara.  I won’t go into too much detail about these as I will review them on the blog at some point.

During these review sessions, you get 15 minutes or so to play with the product, snap a pic to share on social media and login to ChickAdvisor and post your review, so they are busy sessions, especially if you are also chatting.  So we were very grateful for a break to grab any more food wanted and catchup plus many people headed for the phone charging station to give their batteries a boost.

This is where those red and white poker chips come in, the next ChickAdvisor Showcase session was Hardy’s Wine which we got to enjoy during the break as well as getting a bottle to take home.  You left a poker chip showing which of the wines you wanted to try out and could leave the table for a bit and stretch (or in my case, go and remove the nail polish they told you not to wear at the CND remover station).  I tried the Riesling-Gewurtztraminer while others got the Shiraz-Cabernet and we got a quick lesson in wine tasting from a Hardy’s Expert.

Then on to hair, we tried Dove Advanced Hair Series Serum in Oil which we applied to the ends of our hair,  My day before curled ends bounced back up with this without feeling greasy so I was actually quite impressed.  I didn’t notice much difference in the feel of my hair but it was shiny and didn’t make it greasy looking.

Finally, we moved on to nail polish and tried out CND Creative Play.  Like the Mary Kay samples, we got a one in our goodie bags too but they brought out a set including base coat, colour and top coat.  I received Cue the Violets in my bag and Crimson Like It Hot in my set.  Then 100 or so people all painted their nails at once with much concentration as there was no polish remover at the table for touching up any flooded cuticles or messy edges and we were sitting quite close to each other so some banging of elbows.  We got a lesson from a CND expert in applying the polish using the CND Creative Play precision brush.

Thankfully, Creative Play polishes dry fairly quickly as that was the last ChickAdvisor Showcase session and we carefully filled in our reviews as our nails dried and then packed our products away in our goodie bags while we got to enjoy some more music and get our photos at the photo booth (again, do this before taking off your makeup).

The tickets for Toronto were $45 at it was held at the Fairmont Royal York, so a really nice location (apart from fighting the crowds to get there when both the Blue Jays and World Cup of Hockey Semi Finals games started just a short walk away at the same time and the subway was down for maintenance).  You definitely receive more than $45 in product and enjoy some great food and company so is definitely worth it for me.  Have you been to one?  What did you think?