Selfridges Christmas Beauty Event...

I've been crazy busy so far with so many things to do in time for Christmas, not to mention my looming deadlines for January... don't remind me about them!

I was wandering through the Bullring the other day, and a handsome man in a rather sharp suit accosted me outside Selfridges, telling me all about this Christmas Beauty event which had been organised for two days later (the 1st December). I was told that tickets cost just £10, which was redeemable against purchase on the day of the event. In exchange for my £10, I would get a beauty goodie bag, a glass or two of champagne, a yummy mince pie and a handful of make-up application master classes from some of the major brands in Selfridges. I took a leaflet and walked on, dreaming about all of the beauty goodies I'm craving for Christmas and thought I wouldn't think of it again!

However, that day my dad expressed an interest in a Bullring shopping trip (this means he was desperately lacking in Christmas shopping) so before I knew it, I was stood outside Selfridges with my little sister in tow and a belly full of Jamie's Kitchen!

A couple of hours earlier I'd headed into Selfridges and purchased two tickets and signed myself up for an Estee Lauder foundation lesson, an eyeshadow masterclass at Bobbi Brown and a blush-match with Clinique. However, by the time I'd finished my dinner with my parents, I'd missed the final two so headed straight to Estee Lauder where the lovely Jay removed my 'face' and reapplied a more flawless version of it! Of course, he used the esteemed Double Wear Foundation and the Double Wear Stay-in-Place concealer amongst other great products and my

skin looked and felt so smooth whilst also feeling so lightweight!

There was a 'performance' by some creepy clown-looking version of Santa Claus (and we all know how I feel about clowns...) and some gospel-choir style band of about three women and two men who seemed to be shouting the lyrics at us. This is no exaggeration. I remember the rendition of Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You to be particularly cutting complete with screeching and the 'I've-got-attitude-so-I'm-going-to-wiggle-my-head-from-side-to-side-and-do-twinkle-fingers-up-and-down-by-the-side-of-my-face-as-I-can't-hold-a-note-and-it-makes-it-look-like-I've-done-it-deliberately' dance moves. Fantastic. The music was actually so loud, that Jay and I were having to shout into each others' ears which although he seemed very nice, I have to admit it is a bit too close for comfort with a strange man with a foundation brush for my liking... Nonetheless, he is a wizard with that brush and I felt so much more beautiful than I usually do, haha.

As I previously mentioned, my dad needed to get some Christmas shopping done, namely for me, so I figured that would be how I could get my £10 redeemed as there were numerous beauty goodies I was dying for for Christmas, from benefit, Urban Decay and Nails INC. Of course, I'm a complete idiot and didn't realize that Selfridges no longer have a benefit counter and seems never to have had Urban Decay or Nails INC. I was temporarily gutted, until I remembered that Selfridges DOES HAVE a MAC counter and also NARS. Plus, Debenhams have the three that I was looking for with a fantastic 10% off offer on the same day, so the disaster was generally averted! Thank goodness for that...

I had the best beauty day ever really! I'm not going to reveal the bits and bobs I chose from the various make-up counters as honestly I'm trying to forget so I'm surprised on Christmas morning... According to my dad, they've all been sent off to Santa Claus now and are ready in the sleigh. Eeeep!

And now for the bit which you all want to know about; the goodie bag. I was going to record a goodie bag haul for the event but the items are all so small that I figured a picture would be best. I got a Balenciaga Paris 10. Avenue George V mini fragrance, and also an Acqua di Parma one too. I got this really cute hot pink cosmetics bag from Juicy Couture with a delux sample size of Viva la Body Lotion by them too. I got a little tube of Dior's Creme Reparation Rides (also known as Wrinkle Correction Eye Cream), Alien by Thierry Mugler Body Lotion and also a sample of Fekkai's Shea Butter which is lush! The best bits in the goodie bag though were, by far, the little sample tube of NARS's Firming Foundation, Super Orgasm skin Illuminator highlighter and Clinique's exfoliating Clarifying Lotion 2. Honestly, the goodie bag wasn't amazing, but considering the whole event was essentially free once I'd redeemed each of my two £10 tickets on a couple of Christmas purchases courtesy of the Bank of Daddy I really can't complain. Furthermore, I got two of everything as my sister is nowhere near as much of a beauty fanatic as I am so she gave me her bag and the entire contents! Great success :)

So in all Selfridges Christmas Beauty Event was an evening well spent. I know that a few different department stores run this kind of event around Christmas time, and it seeks that House of Fraser were giving an even better goodie bag. However, I much prefer Selfridges at the moment as I find it to be a much friendlier environment, so I'm quite content with what I got. I would definitely recommend this kind of event to anyone who loves beauty. Get some girls together and head on a night out afterwards when your make-up has been done by some of the best brands in the industry... not many people will be looking as good as you one the likes of Estee Lauder's Jay has had anything to do with it.

Have you been to this kind of event before? What was in your goodie bag? Was anyone in Selfridges that night?

Let me know

Love

gabriellasofia

x

Haute Future Haute Haul... The Clothes Show Part 1: Barry M...

I know it's taken a while for me to get these up, but this is the first in a three part mini-haul-series... These are the bits and bobs that I got from the lovely people at Barry M cosmetics, and all for the amazing price of just £10!!! I could hardly believe it myself...

As I say in the video, none of the colours are named, which is ridiculous. Like, I don't know why they would do that? But whatever, they have. So, I can only list the instore prices of the products in general. Each of these items can be purchased at www.boots.com;

Barry M makeup bag - £4.99
Nail Paint - £2.99
Fabulous Glossy Tubes - £3.99
Glitter Liquid Liner Pen - £4.99
Dazzle Dust - £4.50
Lipgloss Wands - £4.49
Eye Liner Pencil - £2.99
Eye Liner Pen - £3.99
Shimmering Eye and Lip Crayon - £4.59
Metallic Liquid Eye Liner - £4.79

So I managed to work out that I got about £52 worth of Barry M products! That's if we remember that I got three Nail Paints and two Dazzle Dusts. That's a saving of £42!!! Amazing :)

I will be uploading Part 2 shortly, which will be my Models Own haul from The Clothes Show, so hit subscribe and keep an eye out for that! More info regarding my giveaway will be coming soon, so stay tuned!

Please take the time to check out my other sites... I have a Twitter, a Facebook AND a blog too and there will be a giveaway soon where you'll need to be following at least one of these to be able to be entered so don't forget to his follow, like and subscribe!

Please follow me on Twitter at:

http://twitter.com/hautefuture

Subscribe to my Youtube channel where I post hauls, tutorials, outfits of the day and WAY more:

http://www.youtube.com/user/HauteFuture?feature=watch

Also check out my facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/HauteFuture/149057205180776

Please rate, like, follow, comment and subscribe and I promise there will be loads of beauty, fashion, lifestyle, culture and gossip material going up on here each week :)

Thanks for watching, guys and I'll see you soon!

Love

gabriellasofia x

Beauty Without Breaking the Bank...

This is going to be a relatively short post, but I wanted to tackle it because so many people have been asking recently how I can afford so many beauty products all the time and I wanted to give some great tips on how you can try the latest products without spiralling into a pathetic mess of debt and only eating Pot Noodle for the rest of your life... So here goes! :)

1) Be a cheeky scrounger. I know that sounds terrible, but if you don't ask then you don't get and most department store beauty counters in particular have a treasure trove full of products that they can give away for free if you show an interest in their products. For example, my recent review of Clarins' Eclat du Jour range was entirely funded by free mini-samples which absolutely anyone can get! (That review can be found at

http://hautefuture.blogspot.com/2011/09/review-clarins-eclat-du-jour-range.html.) Benefit will often dispense a little of their foundation or skincare formulas into a little pot for prospective customers to take home and try. Most make-up counters will give you a free make-over if you simply tell them your make-up bag is in need of a revamp, which means you can have a perfectly done Estee Lauder face in time for prom or a hot date without spending a penny. Even a store like Lush, where most products can be tried in-store anyway will give out a little free sample of a new product if you ask at the till as you're purchasing another product.

So you don't want to be cheeky? Simply say, 'I'm looking for a new product/range and I've heard great things about *INSERT BRAND* I was wondering if I could take away some sample-sized products to try/have a quick makeover before deciding if the brand is right for me.' With the makeover, don't feel pressured to buy as soon as the assistant is finished. Tell her that you are going to go and shop for a couple of hours to see how the products hold up (any beauty fanatic should understand this as our skin changes throughout the day and some products may break us out, or melt, or dry our skin) and that you if all goes well that you might be back later to purchase a couple of items.

I love when a company gives things away for free, because that tells me that they are confident enough in their product that they know that once I've tried it, I will come back. So as for those stingy companies that refuse to give out samples, they probably aren't the sort of brand you want to buy from anyway.

2) Enter competitions. Virtually all magazines, beauty brands and stores selling cosmetics run competitions almost every day whereby you can win beauty products. It's literally just a case of 'Like'ing their facebook pages and checking them and their websites frequently. I recently won a luxury sample-sized Burberry Body Eau de Parfum literally just by clicking 'Like' on their facebook page. For these last couple of days in September, http://30days.co.uk/ is a good place to start. Devote half an hour a day to entering competitions and just wait for the wins to roll on in! Also, sign up for Free Stuff World's newsletter http://www.freestuffworld.co.uk as they often advertise about free samples companies are giving.

3) If you are only interested in trying the latest products on the market and not a brand or product in particular, try subscribing to GlossyBox at http://www.glossybox.co.uk/ or Boudoir Prive at http://www.boudoirprive.co.uk/. These are two companies which have begun in the UK over the past couple of months, and basically the idea is that you pay a non-committal subscription fee of £10 a month (although I've heard rumors that GlossyBoxes may go up to £12 a month) and in return you receive a parcel of 5 or 6 luxury-sample-sized beauty products which are brand new to the market. It's great value for money and allows subscribers to build up their collection whilst trying out some of the hottest products before others can purchase them. Personally, I haven't subscribed to either just yet as I wanted to read a couple of reviews first. It seems like GlossyBox is better for getting better known brands such as OPI and Nars products, but Boudoir Prive tends to deliver more product for your money. Either way, £10 for five luxury-brand beauty products is an absolute steal!

4) Get the Boots magazine! Health and Beauty often has tons of discounts in the back which can be really useful. Also, make sure you have a Boots Advantage Card, Debenhams Beauty Club Card, Superdrug Beauty Card or the equivalent points card for wherever you usually buy your products. These cards offer you points in exchange for spending money with them. For example, at Boots for every £1 you spend, you get 4 pence worth of points. I currently have over £20 worth of points on my card which means I've spent A LOT of money in Boots. Oh dear.

5) Get a job in a high street pharmacy or department store beauty counter! At most beauty counters you are encouraged to apply a full face of tester products by whichever brand you work for, plus you'll get a discount as you would if you worked in Boots or Superdrug. Both are currently looking for staff for over the Christmas break as are most major department stores. Plus you are likely to get the first glance at any brand new products... result!

So those are my top five tips. I have a couple more but they take a little more effort...

6) Start reviewing products on a blog or video blog and once you've posted these to the internet, advertise them on the company's facebook page and email the company's inquiries department. This can usually be found on the 'Contact Us' tab of any beauty brand's website. Flatter the company and drop the hint that you'd love to try more of their products in the future and just see what happens! I personally haven't received any products after doing this although companies almost always reply saying thank you for taking the time to use and review their products and I guess if you get enough readers and followers and review enough of their products eventually they might send you some bits. Having said that, my friend and fellow blogger Vikki (who can be found at http://victorias-vintage.blogspot.com/) has been quite successful with it in the past.

7) Invest money in events where you are likely to receive a goodie bag. This is a biggie because it usually costs money to buy tickets to events, but it's good because not only do you get the experience of going to the event, but also a bunch of products you didn't have before. At the Marie Claire Inspire and Mentor events, so far the goodie bags have been worth around £60, which considering you often only pay £35 for the ticket is NOT BAD. It's a similar case with conventions such as IMATS, The Clothes Show Live and Britain's and Ireland's Next Top Model Live.

I hope that has been helpful to you all. If you have a beauty obsession like me, it really doesn't have to cost you a fortune at all. If it did, I wouldn't do it :) What are your money saving beauty tips? Let me know; I can do with all the help I can get!

gabriellasofia

Marie Claire Inspire and Mentor Part 2

So I know it’s been a long time since I promised this blog, but here it is! My review of Marie Claire’s Inspire and Mentor evening of Getting into Beauty with Liz Earle...

It was Wednesday the 11^th of May and I woke up feeling rough. After eating a ‘bad prawn’ a couple of nights before I was absolutely gutted thinking I wouldn’t make it. I had originally planned to get the 11.50am train to London even though the event didn’t actually start until 6.30pm, but this was because I know my skill levels in terms of navigating areas I’m not familiar with and didn’t want to get so lost that I might miss the whole thing. And I’d planned to mooch the shops for a little while too! However, due to my food poisoning, I was vomiting at that time and had to lie in bed for a couple of hours to prevent myself from keeling right over. Not the best way to feel on a day when you are hoping to meet a potential future employer. But, you know, I’m a trooper and managed somehow to yank myself out of bed, crawl over to the mirror and begin applying a face of make-up. Due to my sickly pallor I realised it was best to go all out with the bronzer to make myself appear a little less of a corpse.

Having missed my morning train, I shelled out nearly £25 for a new ticket and managed to catch a train at around 3.00pm. I slept on the journey and when I arrived in Euston I felt much better, success! So the event was to take place at the Charlotte Street Hotel located quite near to Goodge Street station. This actually ended up being a million times easier for me to find than I imagined as Goodge Street and Euston are just a couple of stops away from one another on my most highly frequented line, the Northern line. I arrived nearly an hour early, so I went and bought a Coke in KFC. Classy, I know.

The hotel was absolutely beautiful. I thought it was a restaurant upon arrival as there were tables located outside the front of the hotel under a canopy, but I soon realised that this was due to the expensive hotel bar being located close to the front of the building... this meant that cool City Slicker Londoners could sit outside with champers in hand reminding me how cool it looks to smoke... (not that I ever would.) The hotel reminded me a little of a members only club which I was fortunate enough to visit for my aunt’s birthday last year, in that it was full of plush sofas in homely yet luxurious and expensive looking lounges. The corridors and staircases were narrow, yet were carpeted thick and were surrounded by autumn-coloured walls making the whole atmosphere very warm and comfortable.

Heading down to the basement where the event was to take place I spotted a group of ladies of all ages dressed to impress in a vast array of different styles. There was one girl with a face painted with Burlesque style make-up, whilst another wore a long cotton maxi dress with a denim jacket. Then I spotted a younger girl perhaps just a little older than me wearing bright pink jeans with a vivid blue cardigan (clearly no stranger to the colour-blocking trend) and an older lady with a mid-length summer dress in black and white. I loved how different everyone looked and I immediately felt like I’d make the right decision in staying true to my own personal style (I had chosen a pair of high-waisted, rust-coloured, peg-leg trousers and a cream crop-top with a terracotta number printed on the front.)

After a few minutes of waiting outside the room, our names were ticked off a guest list and we entered the reception room where there was champagne, orange juice, red, white and rose wine and water waiting in glasses for us and a table of snacky nibbles for us to pick at while we mingled with one another. This went on for about half an hour which was great as I was able to chat with a couple of other girls who were also interested in working in magazines. We compared our experience so far and swapped numbers before being led into a very modern lecture theatre style cinema room.

And it was then, as I sank into one of the poofy orange-leather chairs that I saw her: Liz Earle. Please see my blog entitled Marie Claire Inspire and Mentor Part 1 if you don’t know who she is, but you really should as she is an absolute legend!

The best things that Liz Earle taught me which I will remember for life are:

1) Crawl, walk, run – never rush into something, even though you may be excited make sure you plan for every eventuality then it stands a better chance of being as perfect as you want it to be!

2) If you enjoy what you do, you’ll never see your job as ‘work’.

3) Choose a business partner with a different skill-set to your own, because if you just double up then you are going to miss vital areas in which you could excel.

So the lecture was set up almost as an interview with Helen Russell the Digital Editor of Marie Claire posing questions and Liz Earle using these as I kind of prompt for her to tell her story and offer us some advice. Despite the Q and A-based technique, the interview style adopted by Helen was very relaxed which meant that Liz seemed to feel comfortable enough to crack a few jokes and the whole atmosphere was very warm with both women smiling from ear to ear throughout! I literally loved it! How often to you get to sit in on a chat between two of your biggest role models, whilst learning from their experiences? Well, hopefully more often if the success of the Inspire and Mentor campaign so far is anything to go by!

And then there was the goodie bag... Oooh this was amazing! So as we took our seats, we each had a Marie Claire canvas bag bursting open with the good quality products which I have been using ever since. What was inside? – I hear you ask. Well, naturally we got a copy of the June issue of Marie Claire complete with the free gift of a Body Shop Body Butter (I got mine in the mango flavour which is so sweet and delicious I actually want to lick my skin once it’s on!) I subscribe to Marie Claire, so usually this wouldn’t have been a great free gift to me, but unfortunately the night before attending the event, an absolute clod went and spilt a can of Pepsi all over my copy before I had chance to read it, so the free mag was more than welcome to me.

Next I realised that there was a big paper bag with the Liz Earle logo plastered across it... could it be that Liz Earle had given us some samples? No. Not sample. But FULL-SIZED PRODUCTS!!! Yes, that’s right. I received a Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser Starter Kit (which usually retails at £13.25), Liz Earle Instant Boost Skin Tonic (£11.75) and the Liz Earle Superskin Moisturiser (which can be bought for a whopping £33.20 but is totally worth it!) I couldn’t believe she had been so generous to have literally given us not only £58.20 worth of free products but also her time and experience for just a £35 entrance fee. Honestly, she is so generous and it will be totally worth it for her as since starting these products a couple of weeks ago, already I can’t imagine life without them. Look out for a review on the Liz Earle brand coming soon! Please take my word for it and purchase these items at www.uk.lizearle.com and I promise you won’t be sorry. I’m actually going to go one step further on that and say if you are in any doubt about this brand just look at these photos of Liz herself... she is in her late forties, works under the stress of running her own international business AND has a family and yet her skin is flawless. She literally has the best most glowingly beautiful, luminescent, bright skin I have ever seen. She is her brand’s greatest advert in my opinion.

Also, if you are interested, she was wearing Shimmer Brick by Bobbi Brown on her cheeks. I know this because I asked. I simply couldn’t resist enquiring about the warm rosiness on her apples which just screamed ‘Youth’ to me. Seriously, this woman is a goddess.

So at the end of the lecture I made a move – I had a train to catch home – but not before having a bit of a chinwag with the lovely Helen Russell. This woman has such an inspiring energy and made me feel like I was the first person to ever ask about working in magazines. I found she was really attentive, interested in me and eager to share her knowledge... I don’t wish to speak too soon, but we discussed the possibility of work experience with the Marie Claire Digital team and she is expecting to receive my CV any day now (once my exams are over I’m going to send it to Neil Robinson the Media Digital Director at IPC... he came and did a talk about getting into the publishing industry at my university in March and we have stayed in contact since. He suggested sending my CV to him first then he would forward it on for me and Helen seemed to support this suggestion.)

In all Getting into Beauty with Liz Earle was a fantastic experience and I commend her for being involved in a campaign as positive and influential as Marie Claire’s Inspire and Mentor. It’s not often that I, as a poor student, will turn around and say, ‘That was totally worth the money’, but you know what? If Liz Earle did another one of these events, I’d be prepared to pay double because it was just that good!

Keep your eyes peeled for Part 3 of this series which will be a similar report to this but on the topic of Getting into Business with Carole White Co-Founder of Premier Model Management.

If you do just one thing today, check out the campaign at www.marieclaire.co.uk.

gabriellasofia