Elle 25 Year Anniversary Event at Harvey Nichols, Bristol (and haul)

Hello lovelies!  I thought I'd tell you about an event I went to on Tuesday evening at Harvey Nichols in Bristol.  It was an Elle beauty event to celebrate their 25th anniversary.  I paid £15 for the evening, with the promise of demonstrations, goodie bags, cocktails and canapes and the Elle beauty team on hand.  The ticket price was redeemable off the price of purchases.

I'd never been to an event like this before, but from reading other people's blog posts about the previous Elle events in Harvey Nichols in London, Leeds, Birmingham and Edinburgh, I was quite excited.  It's a shame that I left disappointed.  Yes there were cocktails and canapes, but as I'm on a weight loss challenge at the moment I had to stick to a glass of OJ and resist the canapes.  But where were the demonstrations?  I was there for almost 2 out of the 3 hours and in that time there was just one proper demonstration, a makeover by Shu Uemura.  All the counters were offering make-overs, but as I hate other people doing my makeup, I decided to resist.  I did have a hand and arm massage from Jo Malone which was really lovely and has made me really want the orange blossom scent from the range.  But other than that, there was little else going on.  At the Nails Inc counter, you still had to pay for a manicure; I would've thought for a special event like this they would have been free.

If you've ever been to Harvey Nicks in Bristol, you'll know that it is very small.  There isn't a huge number of beauty counters, so it was actually quite difficult to spend two hours looking at all the products, even for a beauty addict like me!  Some of the counters had loads of extra staff who weren't doing a lot, whereas others had only one member of staff who was busy and harried (Chanel).

I eventually couldn't resist the hard sell any longer, and got out my credit card (I know I'm supposed to be on a spending diet...).  I bought 3 Nails Inc polishes for £20, but got £15 off from my ticket price.  I then spotted a little shelf of Butter London polishes.  I'd not seen these in the flesh before, but I'd been craving All Hail McQueen, so I bought that for £10.  I also bought two tubes of Sexy Mother Pucker lip gloss from Soap & Glory.  I then decided to buy Chanel Intimitable Intense Mascara... Whoops!

What I was sorely disappointed in was the lack of swag.  I entered a Laura Mercier competition, but other than that, there were no freebies at all.  Where was the promised goodie bag??!!  That's half the reason for going!  There also didn't seem to be any Elle staff on hand, or if there were, they didn't identify themselves.  When I bought my Chanel mascara, the Chanel lady was busy carrying out another make-over, so a different member of Harvey Nicks staff served me.  She asked me if I wanted a bag for my mascara - come on, it's Chanel!  Of course I want a bag for that!!!  She also didn't give me any free samples.  I'd seen the proper Chanel lady filling up her customers bags with freebies!  So I left with nothing that I hadn't paid for.  It was a poor show from both Harvey Nicks and Elle.

Anyway, after my rant, here's my haul:

Nails Inc polish in St John's Wood

Nails Inc polish in Neal Street

Nails Inc polish in Duke Street

Butter London polish in All Hail McQueen

Sexy Mother Pucker by Soap and Glory

Inimitable Intense Mascara by Chanel.

By the way, one of the Nails Inc polishes (Duke Street) and one of the Soap & Glory glosses will be part of a forthcoming 100 followers giveaway I have planned.

Thanks for reading! xx

Style Icon - Anita Roddick

I thought I'd do a style icon post with a difference this evening.  My style icon is the late Dame Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop.  Although Anita was not known mainly for her personal style, she was been hugely influential in beauty trends, environmentalism, anti-cruelty cosmetics and ethical consumerism, being about 30 years ahead of the rest of most beauty retailers (with some notable exceptions).  She was also hugely successful in bringing The Body Shop to the world and promoting her values, which are slowly becoming the norm for ethical consumers all around the world.

All images from Google Images

Anita started The Body Shop in Kensington Gardens in Brighton back in the 1970s, when her husband left her alone with her two daughters, whilst he went travelling around South America.  The Body Shop was her way of supporting her family as a temporarily single mother, and she did it on a shoestring.  For those of you who can remember the 'Old' Body Shop, back in the 1980s and early 1990s, the range of products was relatively limited, but each product was available in multiple sizes.  This characteristic of The Body Shop was a hang-over from its start-up days, when Anita could only afford to make a limited number of products, so to fill up the shop, she produced them all in different sizes.

Anita outside the first Body Shop

In The Body Shop's formative years, Anita was an early pioneer of recycling, simply because she couldn't afford to buy new products and bottles all the time.  She was also a pioneer of unconventional marketing techniques, that more quirky PR agencies might try today.  For instance, the first shop was located between two undertakers who were less than pleased that a shop called The Body Shop had opened up right next to them.  When they asked her to change the shop's name, she called in the local paper, getting loads of attention as a result.  Another tactic was using one of the shop's USP - the smell.  Anita used to dribble perfume all the way from the nearest carpark to the shop everyday to entice customers in, following their noses.

And it worked!  The Body Shop grew and grew to a large multi-national company selling ethical, cruelty free cosmetics and beauty products to women around the world, whilst championing various causes and campaigning.

Now, The Body Shop today is certainly not The Body Shop of old.  It's now owned by L'Oreal who have a less than perfect record on animal testing and ethics.  The Body Shop was also heavily criticised by Naomi Klein in her anti-corporate manifesto No Logo.

However, for me, Anita's original ideas, passion and ethics still live on, with The Body Shop's focus still firmly on fair trade, ethical consumerism and anti-cruelty, just with a larger platform, due to its global exposure.

When I was a young teenage, The Body Shop was my favourite shop.  I would spend hours choosing what to spend my £5 birthday gift voucher on, and because you could buy very small sized bottles for under a pound, you could get quite a few bits for your money.  It's a shame that it's so much more expensive now, although it's still relatively affordable when compared to many high-end ranges, and I suppose you're paying for the sourcing, ethics and values of the company as well as the products.

My Mum and her best friend took me and my sister and my Mum's friends daughters to The Body Shop factory in Littlehampton when we were teenagers.  You could go on a tour of the factory and see everything from research and development to manufacturing and shipping.  Doesn't sound very interesting does it??  No, you're wrong, it was the best trip of my childhood!  It was so good that I decided I wanted to be a biochemist so I could go and work there developing products!  So I did science A-levels and went to university to study biochemistry in Brighton.  I then dragged all my uni flatmates on a tour of the factory and they loved it as well!  Sadly, my biochemistry career faltered after 2 years of uni - I'm not a natural scientist, and it appears that The Body Shop no longer have a UK factory, so I suppose there are no more tours.

So although you can criticise The Body Shop now, I think that this is a brilliant, iconic, British brand, and that Anita Roddick was a brilliantly, inspirational business woman with vision, who has altered all our shopping habits for the better.

Dame Anita Roddick - you certainly are a style icon!

Thanks for reading!  xx

Fancy a Brazilian?

Hello ladies

Just a quick post this morning to let you Bristolian ladies know that Groupon who do mob deals in Bristol are offering a Brazilian Blow Dry for £68 at Emersons Hair and Beauty Salon, instead of the usual £200 price.  I'm tempted to book it myself.  If enough people book it, we all get the deal!

The deal is available until 23.59 tonight, so you've got to be quick!

I'm not affiliated with Groupon - I just thought this was a good offer and wanted to share it with you.

Thanks for reading! xx

NOTD - Illamasqua Veridian

Hello ladies.  I thought I'd do a nail of the day for you using Veridian nail polish from Illamasqua's Autumn/Winter 2010 Art of Darkness collection.  So here it is in all it's green/teal loveliness!

This is a simply stunning shade, with a depth of colour that I love.   It has a sparkle to it without being shimmery, but it's not one of those polishes with hidden shimmer, a la Paradoxal, you can detect the shimmer in all lighting conditions.

Application was quick and easy - if you were heavy handed, you could probably get away with just one coat.  However, I opted for two coats to get the perfect opaque finish.  It was very simple and easy to apply, with a good brush and a non-streaky finish. It dried relatively quickly and I managed not to smudge it!

I've been wearing it for three days now, with a topcoat, and it still looks pretty good, just some minor tipwear.

I think it makes a dramatic change from all the greige, gruples and khakis I've been wearing recently.  Although it's not an everyday colour, I'd certainly wear it for a party or big night out!

And how gorgeous would it look with Barry M Intense Nail Effect on top?  I imagine it would be stunning!

Thanks for reading!  xx

Beauty Bloggers Christmas Weight Loss Challenge - The Beginning

Hello ladies.  It's day one of the Beauty Bloggers Christmas Weight Loss Challenge.  The aim is to lose 1/2 stone by 6th December.  That's 8 weeks so it's achievable.

Image from Google Images

The following lovely bloggers have all joined in - anyone else is more than welcome!

Fudge Smoothies
Who is She???
Margaret
Behind the Shoes
Real Girls Beauty

ETA - the following have also joined the challenge:

Stacey @ The HQ of Beauty
Leanne @ Obsessive Cosmetics Disorder
Gidders1 (via Twitter)
Sweet Like Jelly

Also, good luck to:

Lucy @ Beauty and the Blogger
Alice @ Super Gorgeous

with your own diets!
I've started by reactivating my Weight Watchers online account, I'll be pointing my meals today, and going for a mile walk at lunchtime.  I've won't have a chance to do any other exercise today, and I know I won't tomorrow, but a little walk is better than nothing (and burns about 100 calories).

Other ideas to up my activity are doing  my printing at the photocopier rather than my desk printer - I've worked out that 10 trips a day is an additional mile a week!!  Also, I'm parking about 5 minutes walk away from my office.  That stops me driving round and round looking for a space, as well as netting me about 2 extra miles a week.

Have you got any other activity-upping ideas?

I'm going to weigh-in once a week and update every Monday.  I'm quite open about how much I weigh, but I know it's a private thing to many ladies, so I suggest that  we just post how much we've lost, rather than our starting weights etc. 

Good luck ladies!  Imagine how great we'll look in our Christmas party dresses in only 8 short weeks!  Of we go!!!!

Thanks for reading!  xx

Sample Sunday

Happy lazy Sunday ladies.  I'm enjoying a very lazy Sunday after staying up late to watch the Japanese Grand Prix qualifying, and then watching the race on iPlayer this morning (no I wasn't mad enough to get up at 5.30, depsite being a massive F1 fan)!

So, my sample Sunday today is Adidas Hair & Body After Sport Shower Gel.  No, it doesn't seem very exciting does it?  I used it purely to try and extend the life of my dwindling collection of shower gels, as I'm trying to not buy any more until the end of November.  It wasn't, as if I'd done any sport this morning (ahem).  I'd watched some sport, so maybe that counts?

I used the shower gel on my body only, not my hair.  I think it's probably designed for a sporty man, or at least one who thinks they're sporty, and likes to only take one bottle into the shower.  Despite this, the fragrance was quite fresh and unisex - I hate using unisex products that smell 'manly'.  It had a bit of citrus zing, and I even detected a hint of lavender in the formula that was quite pleasant.

The shower gel lathered up well on my shower puff and seemed to do a good job of washing my body, as you'd expect really.  My skin doesn't feel to tight afterwards, although it certainly wan't moisturising. 

This shower gel is definitely in the 'clean and fresh' shower gel camp, which I quite like.  I categorise shower gels as either 'clean and fresh' or 'moisturising and gentle'. Both have their merits, but I always feel cleaner after a 'clean and fresh' one.  I've been using the Sanctuary cream body wash recently, and whilst it's a lovely formula, it firmly a 'moisturing and gentle' type product.  Does this make any sense?  Does anyone else categorise their shower gels like this?

Anyway, the sample was pretty generous, so I'll have another shower with it tomorrow.

All in all, a nice little product, and one I'd nick off my boyfriend if he bought it.  I wouldn't buy it myself though, it's definitely a shower gel catering for men, and there are better examples of 'clean and fresh' shower gels out there.

By the way, it hasn't escaped my notice that I have nearly reached 100 followers. That's pretty soon after I hit 50.  It's fantastic that so many people take the time to read my blog - thanks to every single one of you - you're all fabulous!  I will do a small little giveaway when I reach the magic 100.  I can't promise much, as I am skint as you like at the moment.  But I do appreciate it so much, so I'm sure I can rustle up a few goodies for you all!

Enjoy your Sunday afternoon everyone, and thanks for reading!   xx

Christmas Weight Loss Challenge - Lose Half a Stone by December

Hello everyone.  I've never blogged about weight issues, but like probably most woman in the western world, I feel that I am overweight and need to lose weight.  Not that I am particularly overweight, but with my 5ft 5 frame, and an apple body shape, I carry all my excess weight around my belly, boobs, back (yuck!) and my face.  I know that I'm lucky that I have no issues with my legs or bum - they are as skinny as I want them to be, and I can wear micro mini skirts into my 30s without looking like I'm trying too hard.  However, this makes buying clothes a nightmare.  I range from size 12 in some styles, to finding size 16 a squeeze in others.  But my legs and bum are probably only size 8!  Trousers are particularly bad, as to get them to fit my waist, they usually hang of my legs and look awful.  If they fit my legs, I can't do them up!

My weight has fluctuated throughout my adult life.  In my late teens and early 20s I managed to hold 9 stone dead on.  Slowly my weight crept up to 10 stone, which I managed to maintain by walking the 2.5 miles each way to work and back each day, but eating whatever I liked.  Then I went back to uni in my mid-20s and began to pile on the pounds through poor diet and lack of exercise.  I started doing Weight Watchers in 2005/6 when I hit more than 11 1/2 stone, and got down to about 10 1/2 stone.  Since then, I've maintained between 10 - 11 stone, occasionally doing Weight Watchers when I've felt heavy.

My friend and I had a bit of a weight loss challenge going over the summer - we each wanted to lose at least a stone, and we did well to lose over half a stone each, despite giving up half way through.  Since then, I've been maintaining at 10 stone dead on, but we decided to have a little weight loss challenge for the next 8 weeks, so we're looking fabulous for the Christmas party season.  We start on Monday, weighing in every Monday until 6th December.  My aim is to lose at least half a stone, to take me to 9 1/2 stone - any more will be a bonus!  This should be easily achievable as it's less than 1lb a week, so I can even have a slip-up without worrying too much. 

I'll be doing a quick update post every Monday to keep me in check - if anyone else wants to join me, you're more than welcome - it all helps with a bit of moral support!

All images from Google Images

I'll be following Weight Watchers online, and counting my points.  I'll also be doing some running, walking and a few classes at the gym.  Let's hope the weight comes off!

Let me know if you want to join me, and we can have a weekly Monday weigh in!

Thanks for reading!  xx