Bottomless Lunch, Cocktails and Cider in Bristol

Back in October we finally (and I mean FINALLY) met up with the lovely Sophie (Sophie Rose) and Laura (previously Lola and Behold, now Laura Kate Life)

We've known these ladies from the very beginning of The CSI Girls, which is actually 6 years old this week - Happy Bloggerversary to us! We've spoken regularly on Instagram and Twitter with these ladies for the entire duration of this and we all thought it was about time we met up as rarely a day goes by without some kind of social interaction. So we picked a day in October and it happened!!

Neal's Yard Remedies Organic Pamper Party

Good afternoon!

Our last post for the 'event weekend' is from Neal's Yard Remedies. We were very excited to be invited to the pamper party happening in Bristol this week, and after a bit of a delay getting completely lost (oops!) we eventually arrived at the apartment where the party had already started.

The lovely Sue was giving a demonstration facial which was really interesting as we could pick up on tips and tricks and see the products in action.

One of the new products on the scene with NYR is the Frankincense Intense Concentrate, which is basically a concentrated version of the Frankincense Intense cream and is a best seller for its effects already. The concentrate is a serum type product which promises to deliver even more of a punch than it's original product. The concentrate will retail at £65 for 30ml compared to the original cream which is £55 for 50ml.

It was lovely to be hands on with the products as they were being used and we had the most moisturised and best smelling hands in the whole of the UK after we'd finished testing everything!

They had the whole range there including cleansers, toners, mists, serums and creams galore. We also tried out some of their other products including roller balls with essential oils and body butters.

We were very lucky to leave with a goodie bag with a full size pot of the Wild Rose Beauty Balm. As you can see from the gift bag and packaging of the balm itself, it's currently celebrating its 10th Anniversary and so has a special design by Alice Shields. I absolutely love that they've done this and the packaging is gorgeous, although it's still NYR with its blue glass pot it has a gorgeous flowery label covered in bright colours.

After playing with all the products i have been making an extensive wishlist for future purchases. Having recently been to an interview where it turns out I'd be involved in animal testing I have been looking at things a little differently. We love products that are 'free from' and NYR definitely have that covered by the endless list of awards and accolades that you can find on their website here, it is seriously impressive.

They also as a rule never test on animals, so not only are they free from all the chemical nasties they also don't partake in unnecessary actions to develop their products which is great. I can definitely see my skincare shifting towards NYR a lot faster than expected!

It surprised me how many products NYR have in their books; not only the skincare and other products of the same kind, but also a make up range, superfood and tea range, and remedies and therapies section too.

We had a lovely evening and would like to thank Sue and Jessica for a fun and informative evening!

We even grabbed a few cans of Pimms to drink on the train back to Cardiff to finish off our night!

What's your favourite products form Neal's Yard Remedies? Have you tried the Wild Rose Beauty Balm?
Have you made the shift to cruelty free products?

L & M xxx

Benefit's Stay Flawless Event

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to be invited to the latest Benefit event for the launch of their new Stay Flawless primer.

Unfortunately M's last exam was the day after the event so I had to go it alone, but there were lots of lovely girls who I'd met before and had the pleasure of meeting lots of new bloggers!

The event took place in The Living Room in Bristol, right next to the Imax theatre on the harbourside.

As soon as I walked in I loved it; the place had high ceilings, lots of lighting and a wall full of wine bottles, who wouldn't like that?!

It was also full of men in suits which was a little intimidating seeing as I turned up in jeans and converse but I soon got over that when the rest of the girls were dressed the same as me.

After having a quick catch up we were called over to the area and offered champagne and juices before taking a seat.



The reason for the event was to launch their new primer 'Stay Flawless'
It allegedly keeps your make up looking flawless for up to 15 hours.

Lisa PD was there for the launch again and gave us her demonstration using the lovely Rachel as her model:



The primer is applied to the skin in circle type motions before Hello Flawless is applied as quick as possible on top.
The Stay Flawless primer is in a stick form, I love stick things. I feel like a child when I was younger and applying lipstick to my entire face. It's similar to their Fake Up concealers in that it's so easy to apply and you really can't make a mistake.

The theory behind the primer is that it acts as a Make Up Magnet....and they had these amazing items to show us how it works:



So here we have your face (on the right), and your two products: Hello Flawless and Stay Flawless.

When you use Hello Flawless straight onto your skin....


The two things just don't stick well enough to each other, and coincidentally one slides straight off the other:



However, when Stay Flawless primer is used, the foundation sticks to the primer which sticks to your skin and therefore gives a long lasting, flawless face for the day!
It truly acts as a 'Make up Magnet'.



Lisa has tested out the primer herself and put her photos on Instagram to prove the make up stayed on.
After 12 hours her face was still flawless but after that the make up did start to show some shine coming through, which is why the primer only states up to 15 hours wear.
I like that they've been honest and stated that it could be UP TO 15 hours, not for definite.
As Lisa says, a primer that lasts 12 hours is nothing short of a miracle and I would be so happy if my make up stayed on my face for 12 hours perfectly!



What i particularly love about Benefit events is how lovely and friendly all of the Benebabes are. Not only are they really helpful for make up advice but they're also really nice to chat to and its lovely to have a rummage in their make up desk which conveniently seems to be near me at each event!

I also love that they have their own decorations for each event, like the cushions. The Stay Flawless ones were perfect for this time of year and so cute with their cross stitching pattern!



Luckily for us we got to leave with a goodie bag with not only a Stay Flawless primer to test out, but the Benefit foundation brush and also a bottle of Hello Flawless foundation which we were colour matched for at the event.
I was so excited when I found this out as I've always wanted to try the Hello Flawless foundation due to it's hydrating complex, the fact it's oil free and contains SPF25 AS WELL as being brightening. Phew! No wonder it's been on my wishlist for so long.



There were also plenty of nibbles at the event, and we were all cooing over these amazing chocolate covered strawberries and mini amaretto biscuits.





I was also lucky enough to win a competition whilst there for a Bronze of Champions kit which I cannot wait to use over the next few weeks!

I'll be back with a full review of the primer and foundation to see if it lives up to expectations....and trust me when I say I'll be doing an extensive review of it's lasting capabilities!


What's your favourite primer? Have you tried Hello Flawless foundation?

Thanks again to the Benefit girls (particularly Rachel, Jo, Lisa and Alyson) for another fun event, they're always a pleasure to attend and I always look forward to the next one!

L xxx

Don't forget to check out our giveaway here

Bristol Blogger Meet Up (BBMeet)

Hi all!

Hope you're having a great week! If not...never fear as it's well over the half way mark and the weekend is nearly here woop!

You've probably seen some posts and tweets about the Bristol blogger Meet up last weekend (#bbmeet) so we thought we'd our own two cents to the mix.

I had been to an event and met some other bloggers before but M hadn't so this was a great thing for us both to go to, especially as it was in Cabot Circus which I was yet to go to since it was built (shocker!)

We agreed to go a few weeks before but due to us both being so busy we hadn't had much chance to read the tweets about it and so had no idea who was going, how many nor that there was a goodie bag!

We turned up at Frankie and Benny's at 11am along with everyone else and were so shocked to find that there was around 35 of us taking up 2 rather long tables!

We sat down and started chatting to some really lovely girls, all with their own blogs and got chatting about our nails, hair, favourites etc as I'm sure you can imagine.

It was great to network and meet with so many new people, and meet up with others I've met previously (aka Georgina from Twinklin Pixi)

We were both far too busy chatting and eating to take any photos (oops!) so instead I will show you a few quick snaps of the goody bag that we received:

I genuinely couldn't believe how much stuff was in there, it was such a shock considering we didn't even know we were getting them!

A massive massive thank you to Sasha and Alessia for arranging this, it surpassed any expectation I had as I just imagined it was a few of us meeting up for food and drinks.
I am SO EXCITED to start using these you would not believe!

Also a big shout out to Alessia's mum for the absolutely gorgeous tags that she made for each bag, how cute are these??

The only downside was the fact that there were so many people that we didn't get to meet everyone, nor exchange links as I'm sure there are some great blogs/bloggers that we've missed.

So we were thinking of compiling a list of everyone who attended so you can 'meet' those that you never got around to talking to :)

So comment below with your link if you attended and I'll add them into this post so everyone can see!

If you could share this post through twitter etc as well I'd be really grateful as through the hashtag I've seen some lovely blogs that I didn't know about before.

I'll add as many as I can and the rest is up to you!
Comment, tweet, share etc etc. Let's get everyone who went on this list!

It was lovely to meet everyone that we spoke to and cannot wait for another meet up again!

Fancy arranging another one soon Sasha and Alessia?? ;)

L and M xxx