An Autumn Meetup

Back a couple weekends ago, Teddy bears & Cardigans (my mother-in-law) and I went to a local blogger meetup held at Chapter Arts Centre (if you're local and you've never been to chapter, you really should go - we're long time frequent visitors/supporters of the venue - great cinema, lovely food and family friendly). We were one of the first to arrive so we helped to set up the tables.

Only 10 mins later and pretty much everyone had arrived.  Quite a few of us mingled and said hello to unfamiliar faces and caught up with friends.  The food Chapter laid on was amazing, a special shoutout has to go to the brownies they made - they were seriously drool-worthy!

We basically just chatted for a couple hours and then went on our merry way.  A big thank you to A Mini Norris Blog for organising the lovely meetup - it was lovely to finally meet you!

Kerry also put a lot of time and effort into organising some humongous goody bags for us all!  Here's a look at what was inside.

There were 2 different goody bags, one was (I believe) from the lovely people over at the Celtic Manor.  In the bag were lovely Elemis treats, a perfume sample from St Kitts Herbery, some Crabtree & Evelyn nail polish, a Benefit sample of their pore products and some Soap Nskin body wash.

Pink Parcel also had a box in the bag - it's a monthly subscription service where around the time you're 'due on', they send you a box of stuff.  In this box was lots and lots of tampons including a little black bag to keep some in for your handbag.  A 'down there' wash, and the best bit, a box 'for you' which included some pampering treats for when you're feeling a bit 'blah' with mother nature. My favourite inclusion in that part of the box was the cuttle little arrow necklace, the hair ties, the OPI nail polish and the L'Oreal mascara - a decent amounts worth.  It costs £7.95* a month which is pretty amazing, the OPI nail polish alone is worth more than that.  You can specify if you prefer tampons or towels, and then you select the brand you'd prefer, and you can specify how heavy your flow is - lets face it, if you typically have really heavy periods, them sending you light towels would be useless.

What a fab idea for a box! Oh and it's slim enough to fit through your letter box :) Check them out here.

I'm far from over going through all the goody's!!! The lovely people over at Neal's yard also sent over some lovely gift sets - mine was 'Unwind' - very apt with a baby! This featured a bubble bath, and some body butter - all made with organic and natural ingredients.  How pretty is the packaging!?

A lovely local candle man called Mr Gauci also gave us some cute candles - (it's the I <3 Wales tin), it doesn't say what the scent is on it, so I can't tell you, but I can say that it smells spicy, like cinnamon - perfect for Autumn :)

Also, Valley Mill gave us this cute adorable little box of roast chestnut scented wax melts, they're like little pretty discs.  These smell absolutely divine! A box costs £6.95* and the entire box will give you about 60 hours of roast chestnut burn time :)

There was also a subscription box of sweets included - possibly the strangest type of subscription box I've seen yet - I'm afraid I only have remnants to photograph! Being the terrible blogger I am, I can't seem to find their leaflet in the bag - I'll update this post when I can find out who they are and how much it costs.

Also inside the box were these beautiful mens socks from the London Sock Co - they feel super soft and well made, but unfortunately since my hubby has massive feet, I'll be giving these to my Dad for Christmas :)  Also inside was a lovely little jar of jam which I'm yet to try, from 'Welsh Lady Preserves'. Also a lovely pizza dough mix (dry) which I just need to add water to (I think) - I might make some of my homemade BBQ sauce to use as a base for this, mmmmmm, thanks Sweetpea Pantry!

Last and by no means least are 2 things perfect for the little ones in your lives.  On the right is the contents of a Toucan Box (petite) - it costs £3.95 +98p P&P every fortnight - inside is everything you need to create something - fab idea!!!!  On the left are 'Play time friends' - little toy characters with a Christmas theme (how cute!) - I can't find anyone to link to online for these, so once again I'll update this post if I find a link :)

All in all it was a lovely afternoon with great company, mouthwatering food, and very generous goody bags - thank you to all brands involved and again to Kerry for organising.

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*Post contains PR samples

Bling Brow Benefit blogger & press event

 

Back a few days ago I was invited to a blogger & PR event by the lovely people at Benefit.  They were doing a road show with the lovely @lisa_benefit (head makeup artist, trend and brow expert for Benefit UK) and Jared Bailey (global brow expert).

I've met Lisa at a Benefit event before, she's super lovely and such an experienced makeup artist, so I was really honoured for her to give me the full Benefit brow treatment.  Don't forget, this woman has done Cara Delevingne's makeup - needless to say, I felt special ;)

So to begin with Jared showed us how to find your perfect arch and define your brows perfectly, this I did already know, thanks to previous Benefit tuition but it's good to have it refreshed.  Between Lisa, Jarad and some experienced Benebabes we had the full Benefit treatment on our brows including a tint.  

The purpose of the event was also to showcase a new product they have coming out called BlingBrow.  They've teamed up with Swarovski crystal elements to make a kit (pictured above) ready for the festive season to add self-adhesive crystals to your brows.

There's 3 suggested ways to wear them, 3 in a row just past the arch (Touch O'Bling) this will cost £4 a brow or £8 for both.  Then there's having the crystals above the brows (Over the top Bling) - £8. Then having the crystals actually over your brows (Big time bling) £16.  They're self-adhesive and reusable.  You can leave them on for up to 3 days too.

They're also selling a kit (pictured) which is officially out on the 1st November 2014 and will cost £19.50 which has the crystal and rose gold coloured gems inside.  However, if you have Benefit apply them for you, you can pick from up to 8 different colours.

This (for me) is perfect for Christmas party's and New Years partys - but I'm sure that across the UK (and World) for glam nights out girls will be donning these on their brows for extra sparkle and bling!

Will you be Blinging out your brows?

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*This post contains PR samples

An evening with Giorgio Armani at Debenhams

Last Thursday I was invited to a lovely blogger evening at the Giorgio Armani counter at my local Debenhams store.  Like all blogger events, as much as it's lovely to get a proper introduction to a brand, it's also lovely to catch up or meet other local bloggers.  There was about 8 of us there, a couple of familiar faces and lots of new ones :)

We were greeted with bubbly, chocolates and grapes and really friendly staff.  They had a station all set up ready to demonstrate some of their products in use on a model (finished look on the 3rd pic).  As they used each product, they passed it around to we could swatch it and get a feel for it.  I was super impressed with their single eye shadows, the pigmentation was pretty insane, they were creamy and blendable, they're kinda like the L'Oreal Infallible - pressed loose shadow.

After the demonstration was finished we had a good look through all the different products, and I bought one of the single eyeshadows, I just couldn't see myself leaving without it!  It's a single eye shadow in shade 3 - which is a purple with gold running through it, absolutely stunning!  I've worn it the last two days and it's really long wearing, love!

When we left they handed us a little goody bag each, inside was a full size mascara and some samples of their foundation, lipsticks etc, I'm excited to try all of them!

All in all a lovely evening, thank you to Giorgio Armani for inviting me, looking forward to many more visits!

This months Biggest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Casey from A Topsy Turvy Blog

 

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