National Beauty Blogging Event 2011 + A Little Giveaway (CLOSED)

Yesterday morning I headed over to ExCel in east London with Angel (highheelsandlipgloss.com) for the National Beauty Blogging Event (check out her video on it here).  Despite London Transport doing its damnedest to thwart us, we somehow made it on time! The event took place in a conference room separate to the main Professional Beauty exhibition going on on the main floor which we got to have a look around after the talks.


First up was a makeup demo by celeb MUA Daniel Sandler on how to achieve the perfect natural looking complexion.  He had lots of interesting tips and tricks, such as just putting foundation on your eye lids to even out tone and freshen and open up your eyes without using eyeshadow if you want a natural look/are in a rush.  I think the model looks a little like Kylie.

Next up another celeb MUA, Jackie Tyson did rock chick look using a MAC paintpot to do most of the work to create a winged smoky eye look.  She's worked with Katie Perry, Lily Allen and Pixie Lott to name a few.

And then of course it was time to get ma nails did!  Kiss nails were one of the exhibitors and I forgot the name of the lovely lady who gave me a set of glue on french manicure nails.  One day later they're still going strong even though I'm very hard on my nails.  I can't believe how fast and easy they were to apply. Keep going for a mini nails giveaway at the end of this post!

I filed them down to make them more presentable for work.

There were six other speakers, Carol Churchill who is Emmerdale's Make Up Designer gave great insight to just how much planning and organisation goes into TV make up.  For me the most entertaining speaker was Gavin Duffy from Ireland's Dragon's Den who gave a hilarious recount of the journey of TanOrganic, the brainchild of Noelle O'Connor, from Den to shelf.  It's the first all natural, organic tan and his talk really got me thinking about those few weeks a year when I use St. Moriz.  There's no denying St. Moriz is pure chemicals and I always get extremely dry and irritated skin, especially on my legs, whenever I use it for more than three days in the row.

For me, TanOrganic's USP is that it's supposed to work well with Celtic (I say 'ginger') skin, resulting in a pleasant golden brown glow rather than orange Oompa Loompa effect.  TanOrganic's price point is slightly below St. Tropez at £29.50/34.99Euro for 240mls, and P&P to the UK is meant to be FOC, but on the website it looks like it's coming out at 1 cent - can't argue with that! I won't be cracking this open until early summer, or my next cruise, whichever's first but will definitely give a detailed review.

I got some great skincare and can't wait to give it all a try.  If there's anything outstanding I'll do a review.

Of course I couldn't walk around hundreds of beauty stands without buying something, and since I've been lusting after the Exotic Frangipani Monoi Moisture Melt, and I got it in a set for £25, while this product along normally costs nearly £30.  I almost bought a 'pro' Clarisonic for £80 (although the first time we inquired about the price they said it was £70).  I'm glad I resisted though as I'm trying to cut back on frivolous spending :)

I've wanted the SPF30 Liquid Layer For The Longest Time.  It's a really fast absorbing, non greasy facial SPF.  Can't wait to crack it out when we finally get some rays!  At the moment I'm making do with SPF15.

Crown Brushes had a stand and I was less than impressed.  They had lots of 88 eye shadow palettes and brush sets which I've seen on coastalscents.com for much cheaper, even factoring in the hefty shipping fee.  The brushes weren't great quality, except for this slim duo fibre which I picked up for £7.  I'm going through a cream blush mania and this brush should give me perfect application.

Well done if you've made it this far!  For your dedication I'm giving away a couple of Kiss Broadway Nail sets.

To enter: ensure you are a Google Friend Connect public follower of this blog and leave a comment below saying 'enter me' or something to that effect.  Please include some way for me to contact you (e-mail or link to your blog) so I can contact you if you win.

The giveaway is open worldwide. 

If you are under 18 years old, please get permission from your parents before entering. 

If you win you must be willing to provide a postal address. 

One winner will be selected at random from all valid entries using Random.org 

The giveaway closes on Friday 11th March at Midnight GMT

I will announce the winner and contact them on Saturday 12th March 2011.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

Good luck! x

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