Sunday 26 October 2014

Lush Leeds Christmas Event

Meow *meows twenty times in a row because I'm so excited about this post*,
So this week, I was invited to a very special event. It was the Lush Christmas Event in Leeds. As I attempt to blog about anything and everything, I classed myself as a blogger and was invited to this very exclusive bloggers event... I would like to credit and thank Aaron Thomas Hastings for his amazing photography skills and companionship on this adventure!

Basically, I met Aaron and travelled to Leeds.. We tried to participate in a treasure hunt to do with Pulp & Patent Pending which failed so badly.. After this epic fail, we went to McDonalds and lurked via their Wi-Fi (thank goodness for free Wi-Fi...) After so long, we travelled to Lush.. Check the vlog out to understand this in a visual content.. Yes I am plugging my own video..

When we got there (after I fast paced around Trinity Leeds to get to Lush), we were greeted by a member of Lush staff asking for our names on the guestlist.. I kinda felt a bit like I was at a VIP club being let in seeing as I am sad like that..

Music At Lush Leeds Spa

As soon as you stepped into the shop, the building smelt of festive Christmas scents and the music that was blaring all throughout the shop just screamed Christmas.

 Once we got into the actual store, we were allowed to roam around.. Y'know the usual? Be awkward, take pictures and roam around until someone starts to say what they think about the product that you're taking photos of or sniffing.. Us bloggers don't do social interaction well unless we can all talk about something that we love..

Once us bloggers had took edgy photos of cosmetic products that screamed Christmas..  We wondered around looking and smelling... I kinda awkwardly walked about as there was so much going on and I kinda didn't know what to do and Aaron was following me around like a lost puppy as I had brought him as a sort of birthday treat as his birthday is next week and I wouldn't see him then and to meet new people... A lovely member of staff said, "Why don't you build a snowman?" Aaron instantly said "why not" and we filmed a bit whilst he sung the obvious song from Frozen... I smelt the soap whilst he was sculpting.. The product that I am referring to is the Snowman FUN. This comes in a packet where you get 60% white and 20% orange and black to create a snowman.. You can then use this to also as a bath bomb, body wash, shower gel and other things.. The white bit smells like the Carrot Soap from the Easter collection which smells really good.. The only way that I can describe it really is to say that its kind of like carrot cake but more floral instead of spice.. It costs around £5.. Whilst we were at the Snowman Station... There was the Gold Fun which is at the same price with the same soft play dough texture but instead of white and smelling florally it smelt more of the gorgeous caramel scent of Honey I Washed The Kids soap and had a glorious gold shine to it (Me nor Aaron got any pictures of the Gold FUN because I couldn't put it down because it smelt that good!)


Aaron's cute little Snowman

Once Aaron had made his little snowman (picture above), his hands were covered in black and I had a professional camera that wasn't mine in my hands so we were confused about what to do about the charcoal effect on his hands. Luckily, Lush had provided some soaps to use once you had finished making your cute little snowman..  They also had shampoo bars to try out which weren't/might not be technically out yet.. We smelt all except the shampoo bars..
New Shampoo Bars

We just looked at them in awe and touched them (they felt amazing!) The soaps that I tried were the Yog Nog, Reindeer Rock and Baked Alaska.. The Yog Nog has soya yoghurt and a mixture of festive spices.. The smell to me was slightly rich but the spices cut through it so it was a pleasant smell.. It kinda reminded me of a mixture of the Charity pot and the Honey I Washed The Kids rolled into one with a few sprinkles of spice.. It melted very quickly when I picked it up which is from the butters therefore it will do great things for your skin.. It is priced at £3.40 per 100g. Reindeer Rock has a mixture of berries within the product including lingonberries (ooh exotic!) The smell of this soap is very berry like.. Its weird to word it but if you have ever tried the Comforter bubble bar before then you will love this soap! It also has little pictures of reindeers on which makes it really festive (I am not sure if this soap is in the picture below but I have some pictures of it so you shall see it within the post.. The last of the three festive soaps igos Baked Alaska... This is such a pretty soap when you cut into it.. It reveals different sections of colours and it just makes it look so attractive to look at.. The smell is impeccable.. It's so powerful, citrusy and bold.. It just reminds you of like a citrusy (not just lemon) meringue pie.. A hybrid of grapefruit dipped in sugar and lemon meringue pie if you must... £3.25 per 100g.. There is also Fairy Ring which I nearly forgot.. This final festive soap has more of a musky masculine scent to it as this contains mushrooms which gives the product a very earthy/woody/musky sort of smell. It is shaped in a toadstool just to remind everyone that it contains mushroom.. It looks too pretty to be a soap and should be on a Super Mario Bros game.. £4.10 per 100g. 

Yog Nog, Baked Alaska & Fairy Ring
After this, we went to get a drink and something to eat.. As I said, when one hears cake.. One has to get some cake! We wandered around and then found two clean glasses... The bottles were in a champagne bottle styled bottle.. These were placed on the iced display which is normally used to keep the fresh face masks fresh.. I found a bottle of Apple & Cranberry sparkling juice which sounded great and Aaron chose Apple & Elderflower.. I didn't realise how much was in the bottle and just kept pouring until instead of filling a glass half full.. It was nearly overflowing.. Ah well... We both grabbed a cake by a local bakery that I don't know the name of unfortunately but one line of cakes were chocolate and the other line were normal Victoria sponges.. As I didn't want to screw my stomach up a lot.

Cute Victoria Sponge's


Close up of Chocolate Cake

 
Glass of Sparkling Apple & Cranberry Juice
Once we drunk our glasses of sparkling juice and ate our cakes (and felt good about ourselves), we wondered around the corner towards the section of soaps.. The lovely member of staff showed us which ones were the seasonal ones and which ones weren't.. She gave us a little debrief about them and what they contained and let us feel the texture of them.. Especially with the Yog Nog one, we could feel the butters getting to work.. We took pictures of the soaps on display as I checked to see if they had my favourite soap on show (Honey I Washed The Kids.) We then went on to see all the shower gels in action.. We had another chat with the same member of staff and asked her what her favourite shower gel was... She said 'The Olive Branch' as she uses it on her German Shepherd dog as her dog has Eczema... We also asked her how she copes with the amount of glitter she sees in the year (as most Christmas seasonal stuff contains glitter) and asked her if she loves throwing her knowledge about beauty and cosmetics into day to day conversations with friends.. We then went onto smell the lovable, vibrant, recognisable Snow Fairy and smelt every soap and shower gel going!

Big Block Of Yog Nog Soap


Blocks of Fairy Ring


Blocks of Baked Alaska


Bottles of Snow Fairy


Blocks of Reindeer Rock


Block of Baked Alaska Cut Into Pieces
Once we had our smell of Snow Fairy and a random conversation with a lovely staff member, we wondered around to the massage bars but we passed the makeup stand.. Aaron instantly stopped and went, LET'S PUT SOME ON ME FOR A PHOTO!'.. I was very tempted to grab a liquid eyeliner pen and apply to his face but I resisted and told him that they didn't do nail polish and walked away from it after he took snapshots after it.. I did flicker at the lip scrubs (around £3.75?) as they were a great invention but we both strolled towards the massage bars...
Line of Makeup Testers

More Testers Of Makeup
We finally got to the massage bars! We wondered around and smelt some of the massage bars.. Aaron had no clue what they were so I described the concept of them to him and told him how staff can massage your arm to try a certain bar out.. I then went on to go on about how the butters melt on your skin and how it leaves such a good feeling! I then found the Strawberry Feels Forever and the Each Peach (And Two's A Pair) which I absolutely love and made Aaron smell them (I think he got sick of smelling everything at some point.) Both are £5.95 but they last a long time and have great benefits for the skin within.. We then went and took more photos of the massage bars whilst I demonstrated a few on my hands as they are amazing! We also found Let The Good Times Roll which is a cleanser which smells like popcorn as it is Fall Out Boy lyrics so me and Aaron started to sing Fall Out Boy within the store.. (It's £6,75!)
Wiccy Magic Muscles & Tender Is The Night

A Selection Of Massage Bars

I saw a demonstration going on and Aaron followed therefore we went and watched... We saw the last of one which was representing a mermaid but I can not remember what the name of the product was.. The lovely woman doing the demos said that she was just going to get some clean water and do some demos for us.. I think we started with the Bonfire/Guy Fawkes Night selection which were Northern Lights and Sparkler.. The Northern Lights smelt slightly florally but very mellow and very delicate like the Twilight bath bomb with an added kick whereas the Sparkler smelt a bit like Dragons Egg but with an added kick and slight boost of floral added. £3.50 each. We then went on to see the Golden Wonder and how it's a bath bomb within a bath bomb within a bath bomb and how it takes 10 days just to make one with such precision... It has golden lustre, edible golden stars and other things in.. It smells very decadent and rich.. It contains cognac and lime.. You can definitely smell the lime which cuts through the richness and the added bonus of looking like a present just makes it extraordinary.. Priced at £3.50, it is definitely a me gift to buy yourself whilst Christmas shopping for everyone else... We also smelt a mixture of other products including the Shoot For The Stars, Magic Wand, Drummers Drumming and Dashing Santa... Shoot For The Stars had changed colour this year to a lighter shade of blue but still had the infamous scent of Honey I Washed The Kids... Under the water, it bursted through with different colours with a main highlight of blue whilst a literal trail of sliver glitter which looked like a glittery line of cocaine but it looked so magnificent in the water.. £3.50
Shoot For The Stars

Golden Wonder (I think?)

Dashing Santa - £2.95

I think Northern Lights but sorry for not knowing..

Might be Sparkler.. Sorry.. I can't remember

Dashing Santa again..

Northern Lights.. I'm sure of it

I think Sparkler.. Sorry..

Shoot For The Stars (I think..)

We then went and wandered around and took photos of the bath bombs and some of the bubble bars/bath melts but mainly bath bombs.. This was the final thing that we took photos of as it was getting late and Aaron had to drag me out of the shop.. We sung and danced along with staff as well.. I fiddled with the products and smelt them and forced Aaron to smell basically everything and then planned to leave as we had to get a train and then I had to get a bus home.. Here are some photos and I'll try to label prices with photos..
Star Light Star Bright - £3.50

Sparkly Pumpkin - £3.50

Wizard Bubble Bar - £3.25

The Melting Snowman - £2.25

Lord Of Misrule - £3.50

Lord Of Misrule - £3.50

Me looking at a demo ft Sunnyside - £3.75

Wizard - £3.25

The Melting Snowman again

Festive Gift Boxes

Jingle Bells Gift Box - £29.45

Butterbear - £1.95

The Christmas Penguin - £3.25

Snow Angel Bath Melt - £3.95

Holly Golightly Bubble Bar - £3.75

The Christmas Hedgehog Bubble Bar - £3.25

So after this, we headed to the door where we were given a goody bag with a gift set in.. The staff said good night to us all and hoped that we had a great time.. I had such an amazing time.. As soon as I headed out the door, I heard mine jingling and later realised it was the Jingle Bells gift box.. I squealed and shouted that it was jingling within Leeds city centre at 10pm at night... Oops.. We headed towards the train station, hugged and then I went home..
I have done a vlog on this and if you want to watch it then you can watch it here.. http://youtu.be/DYbMXcXloYM

I hope that you watch the video and if you do then don't forget to Like, Comment with your favourite Lush product and Subscribe!
I can not thank Lush and Lush Leeds Spa (the Leeds Lush shop) enough for inviting me and letting me enjoy the night and test out everything..
If you don't know what to get someone for Christmas then I urge you to get something from Lush for them this Christmas!

Meow!
Thank you and I hope to see you reading my next blog (about the gift box) when it's up!