On Monday, myself and Charlotte headed down to the Bloggers Hangout Event, held at Provision Studios in Hoxton, to coincide with London Fashion Week. This was the first event of this kind that I had been to. Previously I'd only ever been to specific brand events or local blogger meet-ups, so it was great to experience something more focused on networking.
After a 20 minute battle with Google Maps after emerging from the tube station (what on earth did we all do before Google Maps?), we arrived at the event. On first impressions, the room was quite small and was already packed full of bloggers, although that thankfully subsided after about half an hour or so and we were able move freely between the brands.
We started off with The Hawaiian Fish Company. We were greeted with a pot of Poke, a Hawaiian delicacy which refers to slicing or dicing fish. A Polynesian version of sushi, Poke combines sushi rice, sweet pineapple and smoked tuna, topped with sesame seeds and an obligatory dash of hot sauce. Sushi is one of my absolute favourite foods, so I really enjoyed this, and it was the first time I properly tasted raw tuna. You can currently find The Hawaiian Fish Company at various London markets and catering for events, although word on the grapevine is that they are aiming for their pots to be available in supermarkets.
COCO-LOCO
After all the chilli sauce on the poke, we were more than eyeing up the dairy-free, gluten-free and vegan ice creams from Naturally CocoNuts. As the name suggests, the base for these "Nice Creams" is coconut milk, and it gives a beautiful flavour and creamy consistency. I tried the Sumptuous Strawberry flavour, which was lovely and there was no way of guessing it was dairy-free. Another awesome contender in the coconut department was The Coconut Collaborative. These guys mainly produce coconut-based yoghurts, but it was their chocolate ganache that really had me interested. This was so chocolatey, rich and moreish, and you definitely couldn't tell it was dairy-free.
A brand that was high on my "must-try list" was CO YO. I've seen this on blogs and social media for such a long time but haven't seen it anywhere locally. I don't actually like the taste of dairy yoghurt, so I had high hopes for this one, and it definitely delivered. The plain would go beautifully with fruit for breakfast pots, and the cherry one was also stunning. One of my favourite brands of the day!
GUILT-FREE SNACKS
Pic's Peanut Butter, hailing from New Zealand, champions healthy, natural nut butters. I liked that they had a more typical texture and taste in comparison to some of the other "healthy" PBs I'd tried. The cashew butter was a real stand-out with its naturally sweet flavour, although I don't think it is available yet in the UK. We moved on, scouring out some more sweet treats. As soon as we saw Pudology, we were sold. All dairy and gluten-free, so basically healthy and the Millionaire's Shortbread pud tasted just as indulgent as the real deal.
We then popped along to Crobar, an intriguing concept of using cricket flour to create high protein snack bars. This is a sustainable source of protein in comparison to eating meat, and in chocolate and peanut flavours, there is no way of guessing you are actually eating bugs. Also ther showcasing their healthy snacks were Raw Gorilla. Their granolas and grab bags of mini Munchies are both grain-free and delicious!
Popkakery was one of the highlights of the day. Specialising in cake pops, they can completely personalise the experience. From their custom Pop a Card gifts, to personalised marshmallows and cake pop gift boxes, these are brilliant for weddings and parties. I took home one of the chocolate covered marshmallow pops and it was one of the most delicious sweets I've ever had. The chocolate was creamy and the marshmallow was really soft and gooey. I'll be stocking up on these for sure!
IT'S TEA O'CLOCK!
One of the brands I was most excited to check out was The Bluebird Tea Co. It's no secret that I have more tea running through my veins than blood, and I'm always keen to discover exciting new brands. The Bluebird Tea Co market themselves as tea mixologists and even run workshops on the art! We tried a beautiful matcha iced lemonade, and I took home some of the Strawberry Lemonade Tea, which is their best-selling fruit infusion and is lovely served hot. I think it would also be amazing cold, and I have my eye on getting one of their Cold Brew Tea Bottles.
Another brand that I was really happy to be introduced to was Miracle Tree with their moringa-based teas. The owner Amit was so passionate about the products, and after trying the honey & vanilla flavour, I can confirm that the teas live up to the hype. Naturally caffeine-free, these would be perfect for the evenings. Some of the other flavours, like mango or mint sound amazing and I'll definitely be adding these to my tea cupboard. Yes, that's how crazy my tea obsession is, my stash needs a whole cupboard...
HAPPY HOUR
Next up is possibly my favourite category of them all, the drinks! We spent a good while chatting to the lovely guy at Cranes, finding out all about their range of Cranberry-based ciders. These offer a lower calorie option in comparison to traditional ciders, in three different flavours: classic Cranberry, Strawberry & Kiwi and Raspberry & Pomegranate. This is definitely one for you if you are a fan of flavoured ciders. I'm not a huge cider drinker, but I loved these. You'll probably be seeing these on the blog again, as I managed to nab a bottle of each flavour to take home, so I'll report back on which is my favourite flavour!
All cidered-up, we headed straight for Cocktail Mania, who offer homemade cocktails in a jar. This is starting to somewhat resemble a bar crawl... We could not ignore their three huge urns of colourful rum-based cocktails. I tried a passionfruit and pineapple one which was gorgeous, as well as a funky lime one too. These are my kind of cocktails, you know the one's where you can't actually taste any alcohol? Good stuff!
We finished with a pit-stop at Swansea-based Pop Cycle. This is an interesting endeavour, selling alcoholic ice lollies, or poptails from their tricycle! There were many different flavours, but we just had to go for the G&T option, made with Da Mhile botanical organic Welsh gin. This would make a great summer refresher, if only I still lived in Wales!
HAPPY HOUR
Next up is possibly my favourite category of them all, the drinks! We spent a good while chatting to the lovely guy at Cranes, finding out all about their range of Cranberry-based ciders. These offer a lower calorie option in comparison to traditional ciders, in three different flavours: classic Cranberry, Strawberry & Kiwi and Raspberry & Pomegranate. This is definitely one for you if you are a fan of flavoured ciders. I'm not a huge cider drinker, but I loved these. You'll probably be seeing these on the blog again, as I managed to nab a bottle of each flavour to take home, so I'll report back on which is my favourite flavour!
All cidered-up, we headed straight for Cocktail Mania, who offer homemade cocktails in a jar. This is starting to somewhat resemble a bar crawl... We could not ignore their three huge urns of colourful rum-based cocktails. I tried a passionfruit and pineapple one which was gorgeous, as well as a funky lime one too. These are my kind of cocktails, you know the one's where you can't actually taste any alcohol? Good stuff!
All cidered-up, we headed straight for Cocktail Mania, who offer homemade cocktails in a jar. This is starting to somewhat resemble a bar crawl... We could not ignore their three huge urns of colourful rum-based cocktails. I tried a passionfruit and pineapple one which was gorgeous, as well as a funky lime one too. These are my kind of cocktails, you know the one's where you can't actually taste any alcohol? Good stuff!
We finished with a pit-stop at Swansea-based Pop Cycle. This is an interesting endeavour, selling alcoholic ice lollies, or poptails from their tricycle! There were many different flavours, but we just had to go for the G&T option, made with Da Mhile botanical organic Welsh gin. This would make a great summer refresher, if only I still lived in Wales!
THE BEAUTY BRANDS
Supernatural Beauty was the first beauty brand we spoke to, and were instantly captivated by the passion of the owners, Tyron and Jenny. Started when their son developed eczema, they wanted to create something more natural to treat the skin. They have since developed a range of premium skincare. All the products had the most beautiful aromatherapeutic (definitely not a word!) scents and it's a brand I am excited to try out for myself, especially their Righteous Body Butter!
It was also lovely to chat to ARK Skincare, a brand that I have been aware of due to social media for quite some time. I loved their philosophy of having a moisturiser tailored to your age range, and then mixing it up with different serums depending on how your skin is feeling. They acknowledge that having dry or oily skin is a temporary state, not something you are born with nor something you will have forever, and that's very much how I approach skincare too.
I'm going to end with perhaps one of the most exciting brands of all, and that is Naturgin. They focus on creating natural permanent home hair colours. The best thing about it for me is that the dyes contain no ammonia, meaning there is no horrible scent, and the formula is also really gentle on the hair too. The lovely ladies, who had flown all the way from Denmark for the event, also spoke about how it is even gentle enough to use on hair post-chemotherapy, which is absolutely brilliant, and I'm sure that will be news to many cancer survivor's ears. They have launched a selection of their colours with Lloyd's Pharmacy in the UK. The only difficulty is choosing which colour to go for first!
Overall I did enjoy my first Bloggers Hangout event. I found all the brand representatives really friendly, although it wasn't that relevant to my niche as it was a lot more focused on lifestyle and food rather than beauty or fashion. I have to say that I didn't think there was much relevance to fashion week with the event, other than being on the same day.
My camera really seemed to struggle with the low lighting at the event, even when I changed the ISO. If you have the Olympus PEN please share your tips on the best settings for events!
Have you ever been to a Bloggers Hangout event?
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