On a high after the Bru Christmas Preview (read the post), the next Christmas event on the agenda was something I'd had in my diary for what seemed like an eternity, the Blogosphere Christmas Market. After seeing so much on social media about the tea party event they put on earlier in the year, I knew that I had to get myself down to the next one.
So on the first Saturday of November, on a very chilly morning, I headed down to London with gal pals Shani (Shani Coles) and Izzy (A Dose of Chatter), and spent a few hours taking aaaalll the Chistmassy Instagrams in Liberty (if you haven't seen their festive floor yet, oh my god it's so magical!), getting high on the wonderful candle scents in Anthropologie and demolishing a Wholefoods buffet box while trying to shield it from the pigeons. If that's not a perfect morning, I don't know what is!
Just after lunch, we headed down to the Strand Gallery, which was in walking distance from Picadilly Circus, and were greeted by the always lovely Blogosphere Magazine girls, Alice (editor-in-chief) and Albertine (editorial/events). After having them at our #EastMidsMeetUp event (read the post) in the summer, it was lovely to see them both again! Alice was wearing the most fetching bauble earrings, which I really wish I got a snap of, they were amazing!
The Strand Gallery was smaller than I expected, although it was split over two floors, which gave it an intimate feel. We decided to tackle downstairs first, and the first brand we spoke to was 7th Heaven, previously known as Montagne Jeunesse (you know the ones, the face masks with women with fruit on their faces). Following the rebrand, they have launched a load of new products, including charcoal masks, sheet masks and treats for your hair, feet and nails. That's right, they don't just do face masks!
Next was the So... Fragrances stand, and it was lovely to see the girls again after chatting at the Blogger's Ball in the summer (read the post). The team were showcasing their newly launched body mists, which I had seen on a lot of blogs, so I was really excited to finally try them. They also had their selection of sets on hand, perfect for Christmas gifting. Keep your eyes peeled for a full review on the body mists, as well as their original line of fragrances.
The last brand on the lower level was Social Superstore, which allows you to create a "shop" section on you blog, a bit like a wishlist style, and is basically an affiliate link service. They also had a competition running to be in with the chance of winning a beauty advent calendar if you signed up to their service. I'm going to be honest, I didn't really want to sign up to something without really doing my research, and had decided I would rather do it when I got home, but I found them to be a little pushy.
We went back upstairs and had a look at the Latest In Beauty stand, which was easily the most beautifully presented of all of the brands at the event. They had a selection of products which they feature in their boxes, and some of them were quite impressive! Sometimes I'm a bit put off by subscription boxes as you end up getting a lot of unknown brands, but this looks great. I think you can also choose some of the products that are in the boxes too, which is great as I used to get Birchbox and I definitely had some disappointing boxes! Latest In Beauty also kindly gifted us two products from the selection, the Charles Worthington Moisture Seal Leave-in Conditioner and the WOW Sheet Mask.
Finally, we paid a visit to the brand I was most eagerly anticipating, The London Tea Company. I was previously unfamiliar with the brand, but was instantly blown away by the quirky branding and bright packaging. They gave us a preview of their upcoming launch, the Purple Tea. This is an alternative to green tea, with hibiscus and pomegranate to make it a lot more palatable.
The ladies were also showing off their seasonal offering, the Winter Wondermint tea. As a HUGE peppermint tea lover, I was excited as soon as I saw this, and after sampling, I am pleased to confirm that it is the minty-est mint tea there is (great descriptive skills there Kirst), as it not only has mint leaves, but also contains peppermint oil too. It comes in pyramid bags, which is great as I'm totally lazy when it comes to using loose-leaf tea. I predict this will become my next obsession!
The Blogosphere team kindly gave us a goody bag, which included a copy of Issue 10 (which I already have so will be passing the other one on to a friend), as well as a tube of the Janina Naturals Charcoal Toothpaste. I've been using this ever since the event, and I have to say that I'm really rather impressed. It is super minty, so leaves my mouth feeling a lot more clean and fresh than my usual toothpaste.
WAS IT WORTH THE TICKET PRICE?
Because I paid for a ticket to this event (£15), I think it needs approaching a little differently to the typical blogger/brand event, and I've tried to think about what made this event different. Honestly, I didn't see much of a difference between this and other events I had attended, with the exception being the number of people at the event. £15 certainly isn't cheap for a ticket, especially I already had the magazine, so essentially I was paying for it twice.
The event was very small, meaning that there was more of a chance for a one-to-one chat with the brands, which differs to something like the Bloggers Ball. It was nice not to have to battle through a crowd to speak to a brand. However, the smaller numbers meant there wasn't as much of a buzz around the room, and there wasn't much socialisation either, at least in the 3-5pm sitting. Having less attendees meant that we also got around the brands very quickly. The event was scheduled for two hours, yet we had finished chatting to the brands well within the first hour and didn't really know what to do with the rest of the time.
However did go home with goody bags bursting with products, so we definitely got our money's worth, and luckily I had planned to review the So... Body Mists anyway. I also really like 7th Heaven as a brand, so was really happy to have more of their products to try. I'll be doing separate reviews of both brands, so look out for those within the next month or so. Thanks to the team at Blogosphere Magazine for putting on the event, as well as all the brands that gifted products. I thoroughly enjoyed my day in London!
Have you been to any of the Blogosphere events?
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