Blog Club Bettie & Baldwins

I have been a baaaaad blogger, and bad blog club attendee by not blogging about this till mid February.  As I mentioned in my last post the last few months have been so hectic that I haven't been able to think straight.  I used to make Tuesdays my admin day, so that meant doing my books, campaigns, blog posts and editing pictures but that has gone out the window since Christmas.  But now I am sort of settled and I want to start blogging twice a week again.  

So in December (I know) we had our Blog Club Christmas party at the very cool Bettie and Baldwins hair and nail salon. Unlike our normal blog club where we discuss a specific topic (you can read about previous blog clubs here) this was more of a mixer.  Kadi was doing mini manicures all evening 

We were very kindly given snacks and drinks by British Corner Shop, an online shop that caters for British expats, and a surprise raffle which consisted of a huge festive hamper, again donated by the British Corner Shop, ice skating tickets donated by The Mall Cribbs Causeway, Panto Tickets given by the Bristol Hippodrome and a body shop hamper! I won nothing, but I am pretty used to never winning a bloody thing! 

I had a mani by the excellent Kadi and the whole event was just a great opportunity to chat to people in a non structured way.  For the past few months I have thought a lot bout how isolating running your own business is and how important networking and clubs like Blogclub actually are to me.  It is possible I will be looking to hire a freelance person to come in once a week so we can ~bounce~ ideas round off each other, and for them to take over the social media, or rather put more effort in than I do! 

We were also given a really lovely goody bag from Lush Cribbs who are just the nicest Lush people ever, fact.  Thank you so much to Kadi for having Blog Club at the Salon, I am coming to get my hair and nails did asap. 

The next Blogclub is at True Digital on Wednesday 25th Feb, and all about Google Analytics. So if you are a Blogger who can get to Bristol then I would highly recommend you coming! You can get your free ticket here 

Neal's Yard Remedies Event

Last week I was invited by Neal's Yard Remedies and the Soil Association to have a taster pamper party session in Bristol as part of organic beauty week.   I hadn't really used any Neal's Yard Remedies before but I knew they were organic products, so I was interested in going and finding out more!  

The PR team had booked an apartment suit in Bristol so the event could feel more like what a pamper party might feel like, we were greeted with champagne and snacks and we heard a bit more about the brand.  The vast majority of Neal's Yard Remedies products and ingredients are certified organic by the soil association and are all vegetarian friendly,  and most vegan friendly. 

Sophia from Sofia Bianca volunteered to have the mini facial by Neal's Yard Remedies representative Sue Adlam.  We focused on cleanse tone and moisturise.  Now, I don't know about you, but I do try and cleanse tone and moisturise as regularly as possible but I was never really sure why all parts were equally important.  I probably don't cleanse as much as I should, I rely on toner to do a lot of my make up removing and skin cleaning in general, I am not a fan of washing my face in water (I realise this makes me sound a bit disgusting) and it seems a lot of effort.  I was unaware however that there is an option to cleanse without foam and washing your face off, with a cream based cleanser! The rejuvenating frankincense facial cleanser was a foaming one but was a lot lighter than what I usually use and smelt AMAZING.  In fact all the frankincense products were really great smelling.

Sue then used face mist which rehydrated your face, and it comes in bottles sizes that you can take on a plane, and then facial oil.  I have a really hard time accepting that it is ok to put oil on your face.  I was lucky then I never really suffered with bad skin but my skin is fairly greasy, so putting oil on top of that made me recoil in horror.  I tried it and I really don't think it was for me.

Sue then introduced us to what is Neal's Yard Remedies biggest selling product 'Wild Rose Beauty Balm' and I can totally see why it is.  It can be used as a multitude of things, a bit like petroleum jelly in texture, you can use it as a face mask, moisturiser, lip balm, for burns, dry skin and the list goes on and on! 

After Sophia's facial we had a look at some other products, including Beauty Sleep Concentrate; a face serum that helps you sleep and rehydrate your face (I am desperate to try this out and I take sleeping tablets and would like to try some alternatives).  

Thank you so much to the NYR PR team, the soil association and Sue for inviting me to what was a great evening and for my Wild Rose Beauty Balm!