A taste of star treatment

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September 11, 2010 6:27 PM |
By TIFF 2010 Team

Jessica Lloyd provides a make-up touch up. (Submitted by Anastasia Tubanos)

By Anastasia Tubanos, citizen contributor

I had the pleasure of checking out TDotTV and Greg May Hair Architect's BMW Gifting Lounge in Yorkville on Friday and experienced some of the celebrity perks at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Gifting lounges are exactly what they sound like: A venue -- in this case, the Hugo Store on Cumberland Street -- with a handful of high-end vendors set up and hand-picked celebrities perusing through, getting free gifts and hopefully buying into a product enough to want to "endorse" it by posing in a photo with it.

Although I didn't take advantage of the full experience being offered at this particular gifting lounge, I can see why being a celebrity would be appealing. Sure, there would be some intrusive downsides to being recognizable, like being chased around by paparazzi and having little to no privacy.

But one of the upsides is being showered with free gifts. In this case, in the form of relaxing facials and skin consultations by Mayavii Skin Care, hair touch-ups to red carpet styling by Greg May himself and celebrity makeup artist Jessica Lloyd finishing up the spa-like experience with a fresh, camera-ready look. I was told there was even a masseuse on location. Now that's some classy A-list treatment.

Even though this was the inaugural year for the BMW Gifting Lounge, Justin Edmead, CEO of TDotTV, said it was an incredibly positive investment for his brand.

"What better time of year than TIFF to really get our name out there and do something different?" says Edmead. "All the other gifting suites are in hotels or office space. We wanted to do something different and leave our mark. I think we knocked it out of the park."

You can follow Anastasia throughout #TIFF10 on Twitter at @atubanos

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CBC News Your Voice has assembled a team of citizen bloggers and CBC staff to bring you a 360-degree view of Toronto during this year's festival, which runs Sept. 9 to 19. The TIFF 2010 Street Level blog will connect you to the event, from the red carpet parties to the concerts to the film premieres.

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