Glad you had a good time. I can see why some people are upset as it seems like later sessions ran out of a lot. Even at the Gold session it was a bit of a mixed bag. I enjoyed the day but when you add up the travel expenses etc. I don't think I'd fight too hard for tickets again.
I think there was very little difference between Gold and GA goodie bags from what I've seen. Maybe as @MrsBnow12 said it was the Shiseido/Keratase full size but I'm sure I've seen a couple of GA bags that had the Keratase.
I was lucky to get a full size hair mask at Keratase but it was one of those purple ones for blonde hair to remove brassiness. My plus one does have blonde hair so I gave it to her so she was thrilled to have 2 but a lot of people in the queue with us were POC with black hair, so I was a bit umm maybe a more generic use product would be better here! I think earlier on they had been giving out hair oils or other types of products so it was just a luck of the draw thing as to what they had when you managed to get to the front.
I'm not sure I'll ever get over Marc Jacobs after running there expecting a blush thanks to the influencer videos. I was so confused when she asked if I'd like a pencil sharpener. 😂😂😂
Glowery were pretty amazing and I got a lot to try from them thanks to their fab game. From videos I've seen they managed to keep the same energy through the whole weekend, which is impressive.
One Size and Hourglass had nice gifts and seemed genuinely happy to hand them out. I love the One Size Powder melt spray and mine will be empty soon so getting another one was fab.
The SDJ stand was lovely, it was only minis but quite a few of them and they were so friendly. I discovered I like their new Intense line much more than I expected to and the chilled juice shot they handed out in the queue was so needed at that point.
Le Monde Gourmand perfume had a lovely guy running the stand and he gave us both 30ml perfumes. The Creme Brulee scent is gorgeous. I've reluctantly put it in DD's bag because she'll like it and I've got so much new perfume thanks to advents.
Ouai had a really good stand, were very engaging and the gift bag was really thoughtful. Mine had the bond product which I've never tried but some had Detox shampoos.
Yepoda had some good prizes and I won a large tub of toner pads. I did read they ran out at some point though, which is a shame.
There's some brands I now think quite highly of and some maybe less so (yes you MJ...)
I took stock of everything I acquired today and have kept some stuff I will enjoy trying. The rest I've filled a couple of bags with for my DD and a friend's teen DD.
Overall it was fun and different but I feel like they oversold tickets for the size of the venue and hyped it a bit too much vs reality. I'd have rather paid twice the amount for the Gold ticket and had to queue less with more time to browse, have a make over and visit a masterclass. Spending 20 mins in a queue to play a game and then get a sample you'd get at checkout in SpaceNK didn't feel like the best use of time. Once you were at the front you were aware of taking other people's time up if you tried to engage with the brand for long.
Hopefully if they do one again they come up with some better crowd management systems. I've seen in the US some have a card you get stamped at each brand to stop people going more than once and hopefully giving everyone a chance to get around more of the stands with ease.