Continuing on from the first instalment of my #EastMidsMeetUp posts where I spoke about the actual event and planning, today I'm going to be going into detail about the goodie bags and raffle prizes. I mentioned in my first post that I was in charge of getting brands involved, so my job basically was to sort out the goodie bags and to source raffle prizes. We managed to raise £200 to split between Bowel Cancer UK and Rainbow's Hospice, and I want to thank everyone who bought raffle tickets, and all the brands that donated products. Both are extremely worthy causes and this small amount can make a real difference to the people they help.
I put together one goodie bag, which I'll be talking about here, and there was also a goodie bag that Emmie put together, which included things like a Lush soap sample, some Witch Skincare and some bits from Vita Coco. I think we both did a great job between us, getting some great brands involved and everyone seemed really happy with their bags!
I'm going to start of with Matalan, who kindly provided the gift bags. Not being a group of fashion bloggers, I was surprised they wanted to work with us, but they came up trumps, kitting us out with a set of blog photo props cute homeware bits, including these mason jar sippy cups (these have been great for keeping me hydrated during the day), Love Is... wooden plaques and clear glass heart tealight holders. So if you see 40 bloggers with the same Instagram/blog photo backgrounds, yeah that's my fault... Matalan have some gorgeous items on their website at the moment, so they're definitely worth a look if you're looking for affordable homewares.
We had some fab raffle prizes, including a SensatioNail Kit, some coffee scrubs from Willow Body (which will be featuring in a post very soon) and a cleansing brush from No7. No7 also really kindly donated some bits for the goodie bags, so each of our bloggers went away with either a Stay Perfect Shade & Define shadow stick, Metallic Eyes Pencil or Amazing Eyes Pencil.
Being bloggers, we could not forget stationary. For the raffle, we had items from brands such as That Lame Company, Oh Deer and The Happiness Planner. We also had the lovely Busy B pop a pencil in our goodie bags. Covering refreshments, we had Tg Green Teas involved, sharing their delicious iced green teas. They also kindly donated a raffle prize, which included an infuser bottle and traditional teas to make their own iced teas!
We tried to cater to all genres of blogs, so of course there were some beauty products. I was so excited to have brush brand L.A.B.2 work with us. They really kindly sent us a Strokes of Genius Brush Kit for each of the goodie bags, which turned out to be one of the star items!
We also managed to get new budget beauty brand, Covershoot Cosmetics involved, who provided a selection of beauty products including Contour Palettes, Brow Palettes, Eye Palettes and Nail Polish Remover Pots. I'm actually going to be doing a post once I've given these beauty products a bit more of a go, but from what I've tried so far, I'm really impressed with the brand, especially considering it's affordability.
We also had Collection Cosmetics send over a bunch of their Eyes Uncovered Nude Bronze Palettes. I love Collection and they were actually the first beauty brand I ever bought from, so it was really exciting having them involved with the event. I've tried the Little Mix version of this palette (review) and they are easily some of the best eyeshadows in the drugstore! Each blogger will have had one of either a Collection or Covershoot Cosmetics palette in their goodie bag.
Also on the beauty front, we had the lovely people at Scent City send over a bunch of fragrance samples from different niche perfume houses. They're a really cool website that separates their scents according to personality, taking the scare-factor away from niche perfumery. I actually have a post in the pipeline on a couple of perfumes from Scent City, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
I was so pleased that one of my favourite skincare brands Merumaya were able to get involved with the event. They donated a #BeautyHasNoAge limited edition makeup bag for the raffle and made sure each one of our bloggers received a full size Melting Cleansing Balm. I actually have a giveaway over on my Twitter right now for one of these, so if you didn't make it to the event you can still be in with a chance of getting your hands on one of these!
WIN a @MERUMAYA Melting Cleansing Balm! FOLLOW + RT this tweet to enter. Ends 11/09/16 8pm #beautyhasnoage #giveaway pic.twitter.com/lJJR4hJQ4G— Kirstie (@BehindTheScent) August 28, 2016
We had some fab raffle prizes, including a SensatioNail Kit, some coffee scrubs from Willow Body (which will be featuring in a post very soon) and a cleansing brush from No7. No7 also really kindly donated some bits for the goodie bags, so each of our bloggers went away with either a Stay Perfect Shade & Define shadow stick, Metallic Eyes Pencil or Amazing Eyes Pencil.
We also had the lovely people from Carex donate one of their Love Hearts hand soaps to each blogger. I'm a huge fan of their fun soaps (read my review here), and this new one doesn't disappoint with its fizzy sherbet scent. Also for the raffle, we had a box from The Cereal Club (this sounds like the best idea, check it out if you're bored of breakfasts as you get a different cereal sent every 2 weeks!). We had a canvas from Jessops (P.S. there's a new store in Leicester's Highcross!), a hair treatment from KH Hair, lash extensions from Angel Eyes, bundles of hair products from KeraStraight... We had so many amazing prizes that I've probably forgotten a ton of them!
Overall, the event was amazing and I want to have positive memories of it but there is something I'd like to address. I hate to be negative, but we unfortunately had two of each of our Lush and Matalan goodie bags go missing at the event. Now I'm not pointing fingers, because I'd like to trust that the bloggers we invite to our events wouldn't take more than they should, meaning that others had to miss out.
We meticulously counted our goodie bags, and had a checklist system when giving out the bags, but at the end we still had one blogger and even an organiser go home without a goodie bag. As well as disappointing these bloggers, the brands who have so graciously sent over products have missed out on that coverage. I'm working on sending out replacement goodie bags to these bloggers at my own expense, which angers me to have to do so because people just shouldn't be dishonest! We unfortunately are having to rethink our strategies for future events because of this.
Again, Im so sorry to be negative. I want to thank everyone who attended for for their amazing posts about the event and the goodie bags! As organisers, that coverage reflects on us, so I'm really thankful to everyone who has written a blog post, vlogged the day or shared their goodie bag products on Twitter and Instagram.
Overall, the event was amazing and I want to have positive memories of it but there is something I'd like to address. I hate to be negative, but we unfortunately had two of each of our Lush and Matalan goodie bags go missing at the event. Now I'm not pointing fingers, because I'd like to trust that the bloggers we invite to our events wouldn't take more than they should, meaning that others had to miss out.
We meticulously counted our goodie bags, and had a checklist system when giving out the bags, but at the end we still had one blogger and even an organiser go home without a goodie bag. As well as disappointing these bloggers, the brands who have so graciously sent over products have missed out on that coverage. I'm working on sending out replacement goodie bags to these bloggers at my own expense, which angers me to have to do so because people just shouldn't be dishonest! We unfortunately are having to rethink our strategies for future events because of this.
Again, Im so sorry to be negative. I want to thank everyone who attended for for their amazing posts about the event and the goodie bags! As organisers, that coverage reflects on us, so I'm really thankful to everyone who has written a blog post, vlogged the day or shared their goodie bag products on Twitter and Instagram.
If you came to the #EastMidsMeetUp, what was your favourite item from the goodie bag?
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