#GlamourBeautyFest

I had the best Sunday in ages last weekend. I decided to take a trip to London and attend Glamour magazine's beauty festival.
Whilst flicking through Glamour magazine last month (which I buy religiously every month) I noticed they were promoting their #GlamourBeautyFest and it intrigued me. I read the full article on what was happening at the event and by the end I was looking where I could book tickets!

I've never been to an event of this nature before, but with a talk from Jim Chapman, Estee Lalonde, Fleur Da Force and Alex Steinherr, and a whole host of brands from the beauty world attending I didn't want it to be a case of FOMO!
The event it's self was held in the Saatchi gallery in Chelsea. Which I had been to previously to help behind the scenes for a fashion show for Look magazine, so I was ok with were to go (I like to think I have a good sense of direction, but sometime's I still get lost!).



As I didn't have a close female companion to take with me (though I think my sister will kill me when I say this!) I decided to take my ever faithful husband Dan with me. He's very patient so ideal to tag along and he also wanted to hear the talk from the vloggers as he is interested in how to improve his youtube channel.
We had originally planned to go up first thing in the morning, the day of the event, but realised with works on the train line, we'd be on a journey twice as long as normal, thus having to get up super early!
Dan, after my recommendation of The Grosvenor Hotel at Victoria being right at the train station, so easy to find, Dan booked a room for the night before.

So I finished work early on Saturday, packed my bag and headed off on the train to London. I had previously picked up a new paper back called 'The bucket list to mend a broken heart'. The reason I wanted to read it, is a bit vain, but the main character is called Abi and the story is set in Portsmouth, which is figuratively just down the road!

Anyway I digress. I read the book for the whole journey and at about 6:30pm arrived at London Victoria. We found the hotel by not even leaving the train station as there is an entrance in the train station inside to it!
We booked in, went up to our room on the top floor and I remarked to Dan 'Oh have we got a pent house suite?!' and the answer was sadly no. Never mind, the room was still more than adequate.

Hotel room, room 605

A double bed, tea making facilities (a hotel is not a hotel with out being able to have a cup of tea in your room in my humble opinion!) and even a Bose sound system (when would I use that I don't know!) but what I liked best of all was the bathroom. Heaven know's why! I think as it was a reasonable size, and I swear it had underfloor heating, and it was clean. I don't like it when a hotel
bathroom looks old and worn, like you can tell lots of people have used it before (obvs in a hotel room that will happen, but I prefer to not be able to tell if that makes any sense!).
We then headed off in search for some food. We ended up back in Victoria station (tourists we are not!) and had a KFC!

Fancy Bose speaker

I was soo tired by this point so we then went back to our room and got all snuggled in the bed. One thing about hotels that does bother me (I'm not picky, no! Not at all governor!) is that I like a good duvet. Nice and warm and cosy. Not the super thin blankets that they put on the bed. And one pillow! I need two, or three or more! But hey, this was for one night, this Princess can bear this for one night!

Complimentary toiletries

Just my cup of tea!

Awoke the following morning after not getting the best nights sleep due to a rattling air con blowing on and off throughout the night. But still I was excited to be going to the event. Luckily the weather had been holding out and the sun was beginning to break through and the temperature wasn't too bad.
I wasn't sure what to wear to such an event and after much deliberation the weeks before I was umming and ahhing. I end up wearing my black denim dungaree dress from Primark, with my stripey Topshop jumper underneath, with black tights and my black ankle platform boots from New Look. Bordering more on casual but I think it looked passable.

We left the hotel room, checked out and headed off in the direction of the event. After a minor wrong turn we found the venue in good time and waited outside. As we where queuing our paper tickets were scanned and we were given a red wrist band to wear.
After a short wait we were directed to a room where the talk was being held. Inside the room was rows of white benches for the audience, with a white stage set up with white chairs for the guest speakers. After about ten minutes, once all the audience was seated Jim Chapman came out and introduced himself. He was then followed out by Fleur, Estee and Alex.

Estee Lalonde

Host with the most, Jim Chapman

Alex, Estee, Fleur and Jim

Alex, Estee, Fleur and Jim chin wagging!

Jim then proceeded to ask the guest speakers various questions about how they started vlogging/blogging, what keeps them motivated and how do they deal with any haters. They had some great experiences to talk about and were all very personable.
It's a shame I didn't film it, but I wasn't sure if that would be ok, but I did take some photo's if that suffices in any way!

This way

After about 50 minutes the talk ended and we exited the room and were free to look around the rest of the venue. There are three floors to the venue with different brands in each one with stylists on hand


to offer hair tutorials and make up advice. In one room was a stall (if that's the right word!) selling a goody bag. I love a goody bag I do! This one was from Glamour itself and it didn't take much to convince me to buy it!
Included was a years subscription to Glamour magazine, physical and digital copies, along with a t-shirt, mug and make up bag especially designed for the event and also a few other goodies inside the bag, such as hair bands and a necklace! All for £29! And it came in a lovely silver foil tote :)

I could Benefit from this!

I'm at your mercy, Laura Mercier!

I then had a good mooch around the rest of the venue. I started at the top of the building and worked my way down. At the bottom was hair product brand OGX and they were offering free hair braiding (or plating). So I waited in a que (Dan patiently waiting to the side) and contemplated what to ask for. As I was waiting I saw one girl have an amazing French plaint going in a circle around her head (looks better than I described it!) and another had two French plaits expertly done. They looked so good. When it came to my turn I opted for a half up braid. Essentially one either side of my head, meeting at the back, with the rest of my hair down. The stylist did it so neatly and made it look so easy. No way I can do that myself! But the end result, in my opinion, that whilst it was done well, it only made to emphasize the largeness of my forehead. Not the best look. Still she did such a precise job of it I didn't want to take it out. Always the way. Out of 100 people, I would be the 1 person looking like an eejit, while the remaining 99 look amazing. Such is life!

Liz Earle stand

NARS stand

OGX hair

OGX hair products

By that point I was happy to leave as there was ques for each brand to have your makeup or hair done and my patience is not good at the best of times so Dan and myself headed off to Mayfair.

Kate Spade stationery at Peter Jones

Now I wouldn't normally venture into the district of million pound apartments (and trust me there is, I looked in the windows of an estate agents in the area) and super cars, but Dan had a voucher for afternoon tea at The Hilton Green Park Hotel in Mayfair that he got as a leaving present from his previous job. The voucher was due to expire so we thought our trip to London should include afternoon tea!

Never truer words said- note pad from Peter Jones

After what felt like walking forever (and taking a detour into Peter Jones, in Sloane Square on the way) we found the hotel but we were about an hour early.

With not much else in the area to do or go we continued to walk as we knew that Oxford Street wasn't too far away.

It ended up feeling like the other side of London by the time we found Oxford Street as we ended up going around the houses and getting a bit lost! Dan was eager to have a pit stop so I left him with a cold drink in Marks and Spencer's cafe whilst I had about half an hour to look around Oxford Street.
Oxford Street, half an hour! Those words shouldn't be in a sentence together, unless it's to add, not possible!
I was keen to find Forever 21 as all the other shops I can visit more local branches to me, but this is the nearest Forever 21 I can get to. After going the wrong direction in Oxford Street, I found Forever 21 and had the biggest dash around ever. I ended up purchasing a beige and black large stripe jersey dress, black leggings for all of £4 and a white sweater with 'Don't know, don't care' written on the front in gold foil.
I then found Dan outside Marks and Spencer's and we headed back towards the hotel for our afternoon tea.

Primark in Oxford Street- didn't brave it!

Iconic Selfridges

By this point I was famished and tired, as we were still carrying the goody bags from the morning (oh hard life Abbie!) and I was relieved to get to the venue to sit down for some food.
The afternoon tea was fine, pretty much standard, with finger sandwiches, pasteries and scones with jam and cream. We followed this with a cup of tea. So civilised and British!

Afternoon tea :)

After we finished (and being fleeced £6-weekend surcharge my foot) we headed back along behind Buckingham Palace (not literally behind, but the road that leads behind it) towards Victoria station.
Luckily we didn't have to wait too long and we got seats together on the train. I was so tired by this point from all the walking and lack of sleep, so I was happy to finally sit down for a couple of hours. The train was going via Hove on the way back so took about half an hour longer, plus a bus for the final part of the journey as there was works on the line.

And finally I was home. A cup of tea was in order and as was looking through my goody bags, which you can see in my previus blog post.

A long but eventful day. I would recommend the Glamour Beauty Festival if you love your make up brands and looking to do something a bit different.

Thank you for reading this ramble of a post. I hope you enjoyed it and be sure to look out for my next blog post about today's blogger meet up in Brighton!

Take care, love,