Intu Eldon Square Fashion Spooktacular*

I don't know about you but the fact that another month starts next week terrifies me, at the moment I'm really feeling as though life is starting to pass me by! As scary as it seems though, it does mean that we're one step closer to my favourite time of year, Christmas. I love Christmas but strange as it sounds I've heard a few people say that it isn't their favourite time of year. There are loads of reasons I guess why that could be, but a lot of people seem to to prefer another holiday or special day and for that reason a certain day next week is their favourite day of the year, What am I talking about? Well Halloween of course!

I must admit that as an adult I can take Halloween or I can leave it, I carve a pumpkin, and get sweets ready for the trick or treaters but I can honestly say that I don't get that excited about it any more. I think I was more a fan of it as a child, with my bin bag costume, my hollowed out turnip and my witches hat but Halloween has come on a long way since then, and maybe that's why some many adults get so excited about it and dress up and decorate their homes as if it was Christmas.

When things become popular understandably retailers jump on the band waggon and play a role in creating the hype. Look in any store or online and the words Glamourween, Do Horror In Style, Hauntingly Beautiful or Scream Queens will jump out at you as retailers promote their Halloween themed fashion, accessories and home ware.

Is that a bad thing? No not my eyes I'm all for people having fun, and whether you're a fan of all things spooky or not, and you live in the North East, take my advice and head to Intu Eldon Square over the next few days to get both some spooky home and fashion advice, and some fashion hints and tips for the Autumn and Winter seasons ahead

On Monday night, myself and a small, select group of North East bloggers were invited down to Intu Eldon Square to experience everything that the Fashion Spooktacular has to offer and to experience a little bit of what's going to be going on over the next few days.

Conveniently sited near to New Look, Debenhams, and Dorothy Perkins, Intu have created their very own spooky themed walk in capsule wardrobe. Step inside and you'll find rails of clothing featuring some of the seasons key fashion and accessory trends from stores throughout Eldon Square including Adidas, Top Shop, and Oasis, intermingled with Halloween themed accessories, such as masks and hats from the likes of Claires, Accessorize and Ann Summers, and even some Halloween home items including pumpkins, wreaths and even black cats.

With Halloween themed music including Thriller by Michael Jackson, Black Magic By Little Mix, and of course the Time Warp from Rocky Horror playing in the background, we started off the evening as bloggers do with some food and drink and some lovely paella, tapas and sangria, courtesy of Tapas Revolution which is now open in the centre new Grey's Quarter.

Then clutching our sangria and day of the dead, skull themed plates we then had the opportunity to get some seasonal themed style advice.

Over the next three days, the team from Intu Eldon Square will be giving you the opportunity to attend their fashion spooktacular and get not only some Halloween style advice but also some more general autumn and winter fashion tips. There are three workshops a day and they are free to attend.

27th and 29th October 2017

11.30am - Creepy Crawly Homeware 

How to achieve the chicest Halloween home

1.30pm - How To Pick A Wicked Winter Coat

Explore some of the seasons key outerwear trends and find out the style advice your need to pick your own perfect winter coat

3.30pm Autumn Winter Capsule Wardrobe Wizardry 

Personal style advice on to pick on trend pieces that can be paired together to maximise your look in the seasons ahead

28th October 2017

11.30am - How To Pick A Wicked Winter Coat

1.30pm Our Top Ten Must Have Autumn / Winter Items

Showcasing some of the key pieces for Autumn / Winter 2017 including boots, statement t-shirts and knits

3.30pm - Scarily Good Halloween Costume Ideas

Tips on how to find and create the chicest Halloween costumes, and well as fun costume ideas for the little ones.

All of the styling sessions and workshops will held by a member of the style team and if you're lucky enough you might get to meet the Fashion Fortune Teller herself, or as she's known in real life Emma, you can find all about Emma and what she does on her own website Stylissimo and let me tell you this lady knows her stuff. She is an image consultant and personal shopper, a fashion blogger and writer and she is also a personal and commercial stylist and she is going to be on hand to answer all of you fashion and style questions over the next few days. 

On the night Emma told us a little bit about the workshops and what exactly each one covers before giving us a taster of the Scarily Good Halloween Costume Ideas session. Yes I know you can go out and buy a costume off the peg but surely there are more glamorous ways to create a Halloween fashion statement? 

Well, there are and Emma gave us some great hints and tips on how to create a chic Halloween look by taking some clothing pieces from some of the stores in the centre and teaming them with cute Halloween themed accessories, and make up sets to create some both fun and stylish looks.

I'm all for versatility when it comes my wardrobe, and although it doesn't look like as times, I do try to shop carefully and consider things like cost per wear when I choosing more expensive pieces, so her advice was perfect for my way of thinking. Whilst a lot of the pieces could be worn as part of a stylish Halloween ensemble, a lot of them could also be dressed down or worn casually or they could even be recycled and used as Christmas party outfits, by changing how you wear them and by changing your accessories. She showed us some beautifully pieces but I fell head over heels in love with this black velvet kimono style jacket from River Island. You can't see it too clearly here but it's covered in pearls and beading and whilst it would look great over a plain black dress you could also dress it down and wear it over jeans and a statement t-shirt, it also comes in the River Island Curve range too which is a bonus.

As I seem to have said quite a lot recently I do love a blog and press events, but the ones that really stand out to me are when you actually get to do something, be it try a new product, learn a new skill, or get really involved in some way and as result the next part of the night was right up my street.

The team from Intu Eldon Square had teamed up with several of the centres stores to set myself and my fellow bloggers some challenges, either individually or in pairs, so after being handed a envelope with our names on, we all went our separate ways, some of us were making bath bombs in Lush, one blogger had an Urban Decay makeover, some went to eat, and some us went to stores such as John Lewis and Top Shop, to create seasonal themed home ware settings and seasonal outfits.

I was paired up with the lovely Laura, and we headed to Dorothy Perkins, where we were asked to create a Christmas party outfit with shoes and accessories with a budget of £100. I'm not going to lie I let Laura take the lead, I love her style, and some of things that she wears, so it was interesting to see how she puts an outfit together. We decided to go for something just that little bit different, sequins, glitter and sparkle are brilliant and they have their place but we went for something that you could actually wear again either together or as separate pieces on a day to day basis. We teamed a khaki (that's what it says online but it's really a vintage, bottle green) Pu mini skirt up with an oriental design, statement print bardot style top, and then picking out some of the colours in the top, we chose a pair of burgundy Mary Jane style, suede effect heels, and a black patent clutch to mix up the textures a bit, and then we finished the look with a pair of long black tassel earrings to compliment the oriental feel, and the off the shoulder top.

It was good fun not only experiencing how somebody else looks at clothing but also because we had a chance to have a good look around the store and believe me they have a lot of things in at the moment that I want!

After snapping a few pics and saying thank you to the team at Dorothy Perkins we headed back to the Fashion Spooktacular zone to compare our experiences with Emma and our fellow bloggers. The next part of the evening and the next thing that the team at Intu had treated us to was a potion cocktail experience at The Alchemist, which is a popular cocktail bar and restaurant which is  also located in Greys Quarter. Unfortunately due to my reliance on public transport on the night I had to pass, and headed home with my arms laden with goodies, including this beautiful flower arrangement / bouquet from Katherines Florists.

Apologies that this photo is taken in the amazing surroundings of Eldon Square Bus Station but I was paranoid that it wouldn't last the journey, thankfully though it did, and now both myself and my mum are getting the chance to enjoy the beautiful autumnal toned flowers and foliage. I'm particularly loving the orange Physalis that remind of little pumpkins.

We also received a lovely day of the dead, sugar skull themed loot bag full of goodies including Halloween themed sweets, a brooch from Tiger, a notepad from Accessorize, a NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream, a Lush Butterball Ballistic make up samples from Urban Decay and Inglot, and discount vouchers from Burtons, Dorothy Perkins, and Monsoon, a makeover voucher for Inglot and we were also very kindly gifted an Intu gift card which I will be putting to good use soon, what will I buy though decisions, decisions!

I'd like to say a huge thank you to Intu Eldon Square for hosting the event, on what was a very trying evening with fire alarms and what not, I also want to thank Emma, and the team from Tapas Revolution, and of course Dorothy Perkins and all of the other retailers involved. If you're in Newcastle over the next few days I would definitely recommend that you pop into Intu Eldon Square, and take advantage of the Fashion Spooktacular and get your self some style tips, for the season ahead. You can find out more about the Fashion Spooktacular and what Intu Eldon Square has to offer on their official website. Any questions please leave me a comment and I will see you tomorrow with a very rare outfit post x 

*Blog Press / Event 

  Some Photographs Kindly Provided By Intu Eldon Square

Exploring John Lewis, Newcastle -- The Beauty Retreat And The Beauty Hall*

I don't know if this applies to other bloggers, but in my world at least, blogger and press events are like buses, you don't attend anything or get any invites for what seems like forever and then in the space of a couple of days 4 invitations appear in your inbox!

It's been a busy couple of weeks in LouLouLand heading to events and what not and now I'm just trying to get my photos edited, and get my thoughts together, so that in my next few posts I can tell exactly what I've been up to. I know posts about events aren't for everyone but I promise you they aren't just about bloggers and journalists showing off and drinking fizz, when you attend an event yes probably will have a bit of fun, but at the same you're experiencing new products and new things and you're learning things that you can pass onto your readers In essence I guess we do reconnaissance work and suss things out so you don't have to.

Last Wednesday I was one of a number of North East bloggers that were lucky enough to be invited along to John Lewis, in Intu Eldon Square in Newcastle city centre, to attend what was to be their very first official blog event. John Lewis is one of the big 3 department stores in Newcastle city centre, and it's another store that has it's roots firmly planted right herein the North East. Formerly known as Bainbridge's, the store originally started trading on a small scale in Newcastle in around 1838 and ultimately became one of the first true department stores in the world, it changed hands and locations several times over the years before eventually be taken over by the John Lewis Partnership in 1952. The store traded successfully as Bainbridge's for many years before the Partners voted in 2002 to somewhat controversially change the name to John Lewis (at least in my mums eyes - it will always be Bainbridge's to her ;)

The purpose of last weeks event was to give us an opportunity to see just exactly what John Lewis has to offer the beauty lover, from the numerous cosmetic counters in the beauty haul, to the self selection stands and of course the Beauty Retreat.

Heading into the Beauty Retreat area of the store we greeted with glasses of bubbly, event programmes, and goodie bags, and we given the opportunity to have a chat, to try some canapes, and to enjoy the live music provided by a very talented local singer and musician, David. We then a had a talk from the Beauty Retreat Manager, Clare Meadows, about the Beauty Retreat and the night ahead. There were quite a lot of us in attendance so we were split into two groups to make sure we had an opportunity to try everything that was on offer to us. Whilst one group explored the beauty hall and the beauty counters, the other group had the opportunity to try out some of the brands that the beauty retreat has to offer, and try out some of their 10 minute taster treatments

In it's simplest terms the John Lewis, Newcastle Beauty Retreat is a spa within a store, with subdued lighting, and calming colours, the first room that you enter is a combined reception area and a treatment area where you can get brow and hair removal treatments from Blink and Jessica manicures and hand treatments, both of which we had the opportunity to try on the night.

Go upstairs in the Beauty Retreat and you're greeted with a Clarins Spa offering everything from facials to massages and self tanning. Clarins were offering pressure point massage tasters on the night but I'd already made my mind up what I wanted to try and that was downstairs.

As well as the reception and treatment areas, the Beauty Retreat also features 4 individually decorated, and furnished treatment rooms that are devoted to some of the biggest spa and skincare brands on the UK scene, ESPA, Liz Earle, Elemis and Decleor. As tempting as it was try everything that was on offer, time was really was of the essence, there were still a lot of bloggers who wanted treatments, and we only had an hour before the two groups swapped over so we had to be selective over what treatments we tried

On reflection I probably played it safe, and top of my list were two brands that I loved and I've used on and off for years, Liz Earle and Elemis. Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish is a cult product and rightfully so, it does exactly what it says it does, but the team from Liz Earle were giving us the opportunity to try out some of the newer versions of the classic C+P. Whilst keeping the base the same Liz Earle have started to experiment a little bit, and have introduced several versions with different essential oil blends. I tried a couple but the stand out for me was definitely the Rose and Lavender, I sometimes find the eucalyptus in the original too stimulating but this one felt more calming on the skin and I think it's something that would be lovely to use at night.

Another skincare brand that I love has to be Elemis, Pro Collagen Marine Cream is probably the best moisturiser I have ever used, and I can honestly say that I've loved nearly everything from them that I've tried. Again the treatment room was perfectly suited to the brand with the subdued lighting and beautiful aromas emanating from all sides, and what Elemis were offering us on the night was a taste of their Deep Drainage Facial. This wasn't about make up removal, so the make up stayed put, this massage was all about the feeling and the sensation. I was only lying on the massage bed for a few minutes but I could easily have stayed there all night. My therapist gave a gentle facial massage with just enough pressure and positioning to relieve all of the tension in my head, my sinuses and in all my facial bones and muscles. When she'd finished my head literally felt lighter, and despite the bubbly, and the warmth of the room I felt very clear headed and refreshed.

Speaking of refreshing, something that I love and that I always find relaxes me is a head and neck massages, hell any massage come to think of it, and when I saw that French, aromatherapy brand Decleor were offering a relaxing neck and shoulder massage, I knew I had to give it a try. If you've ever tried anything from Decleor you'll know that it's not only about results, it's also about the power of the scent. Like all of the spa rooms, they were lightly fragranced, with products (including the new advent calendar) on display and the lighting was both calming and subtle. Although I was wearing a dress, sitting down my therapist still had enough access to both my neck and my shoulders to undo some serious knots. Even though this was just a massage taster the therapist was really professional and enquired about the strength of pressure and how the massage felt throughout. After only a few minutes my neck felt less achy and I noticed a definite improvement in my all be it common muscle pain and tightness. She finished the massage with an application of their Circulagel, which is crammed full of menthol and camphor and gives the skin that fabulous hot, cold feeling. Although it's specifically designed for tired and aching legs, this product is great for relaxing sore and achy muscles all over the body and it's definitely something that spoonies like me need in out lives

By this time it was time to swap over and it was time for my group to attack the beauty hall and see exactly what John Lewis has to offer. The Newcastle store has most of the big beauty brands that you would expect and a few more besides, showcased in a spacious and light, and airy environment. It goes without saying that anyone can go up to a counter and ask for advice but on the night, a lot of the counters were offering some special demonstrations and makeovers just for us. We could try everything from the new Dyson Supersonic Hairdryer, to crimping and hair styling with GHD, to focus makeovers from Bobbi Brown, Chanel, and Benefit.

Again I wanted to try everything that was on offer, but that just wasn't realistic, so I settled for heading to just two counters, Bare Minerals and NARS. On the night Bare Minerals were offering a statement lip tutorial but being the beauty junkie that I am I wanted to find out a little bit more about their new foundation release Bare Pro. The lovely MUA, Sophie colour matched me and then applied a little bit of the product so I could see how it felt it on the skin, the colour match was perfect and since it's supposed to be great for concealing large pores, I've added it to my ever expanding beauty wishlist.

One of the most popular counters in John Lewis, Newcastle has to be NARS. Although it's a department store staple in many southern stores, we only have two department stores in the North East that stock it and John Lewis s one of them.

I was greeted warmly by their make up artist, Jane, who as well as being super friendly, was also very knowledgeable about the brand and it's history. I asked her a few what could be seen as difficult questions about the brands ownership, and their decision to sell in China, and she was more than happy to answer them and clarify a few issues with me, not only did she do that but she also gave me one of the best on counter makeovers that I've ever had.

The NARS demonstration that we were offered on the night was entitled, "Make Up Your Mind" and the focus was NARS' signature smokey eye look, which Jane created by using their Velvet Shadow Sticks, as well as just making up my eyes though, Jane went on a gave me a full face make over featuring everything from the new Orgasm Liquid Blush, to the Orgasm Lipstick, and the Sun Wash Bronzing Powder. I also found out that I've been using the wrong shade of NARS foundation so Jane matched me perfectly to Mont Blanc and gave me a full list of accompanying products in the correct shades.

The result was a relatively fresh, neutral face look, which was counterbalanced by the most amazing, cover girl, catwalk, rock chick smokey eye look. I really did look runway ready as I snapped several selfies of my new glam look whilst in the make up chair, sods law though when I took the pictures off my camera and phone, they were are awful, blurred and unusable, to say I was devastated was an understatement. All that hard work and nothing to show for out. I was gutted but I was so impressed with the makeover that I wouldn't hesitate to return to NARS in John Lewis in the future, for another make up masterclass.

By the time my rock chick transformation was finished though, the night was just about drawing to a close, so we headed back into the Beauty Retreat to finish the remaining canapes and cross our fingers that our lucky numbers might come up in the raffle. Alas I wasn't a winner but three lovely ladies walked away with goodies from Molton Brown, Trilogy and Charlotte Tilbury. Then after a lot of thank you's and chatter, a group of North East bloggers and their plus ones felt pampered and glamorous as hell and they headed off into the night clutching their goodie bags full of beauty samples and Charbonnel and Walker Champagne Truffles

It really was an amazing night, as well as getting to spend some time with some of my fellow bloggers both old and new, I learnt an awful from all of the brands that I spoke to and I left with a product wishlist as long as my arm, and if anyone is listening I would love a series of Elemis facials and Decleor massages in my Christmas stocking! I can live in hope I guess haha. I just want to thank everyone at John Lewis, Newcastle and of course all of the counters, therapists, brands and make up artists who looked after us last Wednesday night, and of course David for the fabulous musical accompaniments. You can find out more about John Lewis Newcastle and exactly what services they have to offer on the official John Lewis website.

*Blogger Event

The Fragrance Shop Bank Holiday Flash Sale*

If you follow me on my blog or any of my other social media channels, you'll probably haven't learnt several things about me - no not the obvious things that I love food, or my cats, or that technology hates me, instead you'll probably have learnt that I love a bargain!

I love shopping at the best of times but if there's a chance of a free gift, or a discount believe me that I'm normally first in the queue. Shops must love me for that I guess and as my mam says they probably see you coming, but as long as you're staying within your own budget and not (cough) buying things that you don't need then it's a pretty savvy way to shop.

I've decided to start another little series on my blog - it doesn't have a name yet and I'm sure it ever will, but from now, every now and then, I'm either going to be sharing some of favourite bargain buys with you or I'm going to pointing you in of the direction of some of my favourite sales, free gifts and discounts.

It's a bank holiday weekend here in the UK, and I know for a lot of that one of your favourite bank holiday activities is to go shopping, well if you're after a new perfume or a fragrance for yourself or  for someone you love then it might be worth heading to the The Fragrance Shop.

If you go online, or you pop into any branch between 12pm and 2pm, until Monday then you can get 15% off everything, and that includes high end fragrances from Tom Ford, Chanel, and Dior! Better still if you're a fellow North Easterner then pop into the Intu Eldon Square store and you'll get some free samples with your purchase. A discount and some free samples? what more could you want! If your not lucky enough to live up north then you can find your nearest branch of The Fragrance Shop via their website.

That reminds me, I really must do an updated perfume collection video, I wear perfume every single day and it safe to say that I'm a bit of a fragrance addict, in fact I actually currently have a perfume wishlist! Should I succumb to temptation or should I hang on for a couple of weeks and see what the birthday fairies bring? Decisions, decisions! x I'm always looking for new fragrance recommendations so let me your favourites in the comments x

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