Hello everyone, I am extremely excited to be writing this post as I was lucky enough to gain a press pass for this years CLOTHES SHOW LIVE. I had an absolutely incredible day, which you'll be aware of if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook. I've been going to Clothes Show for as long as I can remember but it just made it even more special having a press pass. I felt like a VIP for the day. Firstly i'm going to apologise for how photo heavy this post is, but it's difficult to explain what clothes show is like unless you've actually been before. Basically, it is like a humongous market with loads of different stages and sections. My favourite section is the beauty section, the clothing section is slightly jumblesaleish but there is more of a boutique clothing section with more expensive couture pieces which gets me every time. There's obviously a hair section, where you can see famous hair dressers do hair styles, talks and cuts and of course there are catwalks, fashion shows and models everywhere. I arrived at around 10.30, later than I wanted to but we got stuck in loads of traffic and it's miles from Leeds and getting up early isn't my best trait unfortunately. I was escorted by two lovely guards into the press office where they gave me my own press pass - how exciting.
Please watch my first ever VLOG about the day to get a feel for the atmosphere:
I don't even know where to start when describing my day. I chose to go on Monday 10th, I wish I went on the Sunday too as the celebrities vary from day to day but I work on weekends so this was pretty much impossible. It was a lot calmer on the Monday than it is on weekends though, I usually always go on a weekend and I am quite glad that I didn't this year as it was a lot calmer. The main person that I wanted to have a chat with was Lee Stafford, he is the guru of hair and if you haven't seen his bright pink hair products in Boots then shame on you, even bigger shame on you if you haven't tried them yet. His quirky named products don't just look glamorous, they are incredible. I've always loved Lee as a person after watching him on The Secret Millionaire, his heartwarming story made me realise what a genuine person he really is. He did various shows throughout the day where he would throw free products out to thousands of screaming girls (at one point, it went silent and i screamed at the top of my voice just to get his attention, he looked right at me haha, fan girl moment, my brother was not amused, who was also on the front row with me). I am embarrassing!
He discussed his new products with us and my favourite was easily his curling wand, i've wanted a curling wand for ages as I use GHDS and even though they're the curly ones, my hair still goes square at some points, I asked for his wand for Christmas and hope I get it as it was on special offer at Clothes Show for only £15.00 which is riduclouly cheap. He also had an offer where if you paid £10.00, you got a goodie bag with products in it worth £50.00, I of course was in the front of the queue for this. I cannot believe how good the goodie bag was. I wish I had bought a few of them to give to my friends as birthday presents/christmas presents, they'd make the perfect pink package. Above you can see the curls created effortlessly by the curling wand (hopefully soon to be mine!) I'm all for curly hair at the moment. Below you can see the goodies that came inside my goodie bag, all for £10.00, I usually pay £10.00 for at least two of his products so these are really going to come to use. Bargain.
Okay, so possibly my highlight OF the day... after seeing thousands of girls chasing Lee everywhere and me just not being able to get in there at all, being crazy, I decided to just stand on stage next to him whilst he was talking about the goodie bags. There were girls everywhere but I decided to stand right next to him, eventually I got his eye contact and I explained that i'd tweeted his beautiful Fiance, Jessica Jane Clement and I was a blogger who said I could not wait to meet them both. I've met him before but only for a quick photo, but amazingly, me and Lee had a full on cversation, he touched my hair numerous times and my brother caught it all on film by accident! Jess then came over and said she remembered me tweeting her, then as if that wasn't good enough, he handed me the products of his which he believed would work for my hair. It was possibly one of the best moments of my life standing and having a casual chat with the God of hair and his incredible girlfriend, they made me feel so relaxed though, they honestly are just normal people. Afterwards, we went and found his girlfriend again because my brother is pretty much in love with her, she was so bubbly and kind, we spoke for ages and she absolutely made my brothers day. It made me dragging him round all day filming me just a bit sweeter. She let him get a photo with her, and we were talking about the dress that she wore on i'm a celebrity, as it was incredible, and I was asking her if Lee does her hair etc. I genuinley love her. On the photo above you can actually see me talking to Lee and Jess and you can see him discussing his products with me. Below you can see my brother and the naturally stunning Jess. Lee and Jess are the most genuine couple, I'm honoured to have met and chatted to them.
So I of course met loads of people throughout the day, bought far too many items and took too many photos. First stop was the SleepInRollers stall, if you're a regular blog reader you'll have probably seen my review of their pink sleep in rollers, this year at Clothes Show I was lucky enough to get a goodie bag which included their gorgeous black and gold sparkly rollers and their huge brush for vavavom big hair. If you haven't heard about Sleeprollers I suggest you get some pronto because they're absolutely incredible. Hollie Wakenham who is most famous for her YouTube beauty videos was in charge of the stall and she was absolutely lovely, I didn't even realise it was her until she said. Then it clicked and I was like wow you are stunning. She genuinley is a beautiful girl and it was a pleasure to meet her. Above you can see a photo of me and Hollie, me with my Sleep In Rollers goodie bag in one arm. I had far too many bags to carry this day. Here's to great hair though. I am insanely excited to try these out over the Christmas period, curls galore.
I also saw Sam Faiers from TOWIE who I think is incredible stunning, she was doing a book signing on the Monday. I love her make up and think she always looks naturally pretty. Unfortunately the bouncers who were 'looking after' Sam were a bit mental and literally wouldn't let anyone get near her, they were screaming and pretty much and capped the queue when only about 20 people were in it. If I was a huge die hard fan of hers i'd have been absolutely gutted. Katie Price was doing signings the day before. I also met inventor Tom, the woman on his stall wouldn't let me get a photo with him and said I had to buy his products first so I went and told him that i'd blogged about him before and he was so lovely to me.
Okay so what did I buy?!
If you bought two models own nail varnishes for £10.00 you got a massive goody bag with some of the above in! I bought some Sleek blushers which are insanely gorgeous and I got the eyebrow make up kit as well. Review coming soon of course.
A Jamie Laing Candy Kittens t-shirt
And wow, breathe, HAUL. So many Lee Stafford products, Sleep-In Rollers, so much stuff from them, Elemis Goodies, I Love Kandi hoodie (the list continues) - which I am in love with, if you've read my review about Kandi tracksuits well this is even better, I haven't taken it off since I got it, you can buy your own here. The onesies which they make are absolutely incredible too, so make sure you have a look. Also I bought lots of Quontum fashion goodies as their dresses are reduced at CSL to £10+!
And now, finally - ME. My face on the day.
-Dior perfect foundation with the matching powder, I used my -Shu Uemura UV underbase primer before hand and used -MAC studio fix concealer to contour. On my cheeks I wore -NARS - Orgasm Blush. My eye make up is eye shadows from the -Urban Decay Vice Palette and -MAC Zoom lash mascara. My lipstick, is of course, -MAC - Myth lipstick. I went for the more natural and contoured looked as I wanted to look fresh faced.
Now to the hair, my hair was curled using GHDS and I put extra extensions in for thickness from the lovely http://www.cliphair.co.uk , the lovely ladies here sent me the most perfect colour, and finally extensions which are perfectly thick. I love ridiculously thick extensions and you get so much in their double wefted pack that I can only fit half the pack on my head. What I absolutely love about these extensions is the quality of them, they literally feel like perfection, they are the softest smoothest things ever and they take heat so well. The length is 20inch which is perfect for me as I always curl my hair. Another incredible thing about them is that the clips are pre-sewn into the perfect sized strips so there's no hassle when you get them, but also, they give you 2 little strips with just one clip on, these tiny strips are the perfect size for the fringe where you don't want a full strand of extensions but need something there to even out a short fringe. I have had so many compliments on my hair since I started wearnig these extensions, they cope so well with nights out, daily wear and tear and just general life - they don't even look like extensions as they are so real and natural. Another great thing is that they curl so easily which is great for me, they're very easy to style. Please make sure you check them out: http://www.cliphair.co.uk If you want to see more photos, go on my instagram: emshelx , I'm forever uploading photos of how incredible they make my hair look and feel. Thanks Clipinhair! Speak to them on twitter here, they're lovely... https://twitter.com/Cliphairlimited
The outfit. I went for a simple outfit because I can't handle people who go over board at clothes show and really dress up for the day, it's a long day so comfort is key. I got my jumper from FASHIONUNION which is a great online website, the jumper is blue and sparkly so perfect for the christmas period and was only around £9.00 which is unbelievable when you look at the quality of it. My shoes which are Chelsea Boots are also from there, I have pretty much the same ones from AllSaints yet these are about 100x better than my AllSaints ones and only cost around £30.00, I love the matte finish on my FashionUnion boots and the size of the heel is absolutely perfect. I was walking around for hours and my feet didn't even hurt. I think these shoes may be glued to my feet from now on. I absolutely love FASHIONUNION and cannot believe that I've only just discovered this website, check it out here. My leather jacket is from ZARA and is just a standard collarless jacket which I never take off and my skirt is a high waisted skater skirt from the one and only, American Apparel.
HAIR INTERVIEWS. I was lucky enough to be able to go backstage and interview the incredible stylists. I interviewed Paul Mitchell's hair team, who gave me some great advice (you can hear about it in the video) but basically they explained to me that I should start a hair diary, instead of having my hair straight one day and curly the next, wash it so that it gradually gets curly throughout the week, without having to use heat. Another important thing that they told me is that people can actually over use products, which is really bad for the hair. They also told me not to wash my hair as much and of course, to use lots of heat protection. I love all of their products and it sounds like they're gonna be releasing some beautiful ones soon, watch this space. I haven't used their stuff for a while and unfortunately didn't have time to pick any up at the show but i'll make sure I grab some and do a review for you all. You can view their products here: www.paulmitchell.com
BEAUTY INTERVIEWS. Next I was lucky enough to interview the incredible lady behind the make up of everyone at Clothes Show, what a terrifying yet exciting responsibility. Everything that she told me was incredible, I was in awe of all of the professionals that I spoke to at Clothes Show as they really are the best in the industry. You can also hear more about them in the video but to summarise, her main rules were, pile on the mascara, enough is never enough, it instantly wakes you up. Don't say no to highstreet brands such as GOSH and Boujois, but she said if money isn't an option, go for Chanel everytime - hopefully I can treat myself to some Chanel stuff after Christmas. I also asked her about contouring and she gave me a really good lesson on it, you can also see this on the video. It was great to talk to such a phenomenal make up artist, she gave me some incredible tips, which you will all be hearing about in future posts.
Last but not least, some photos that i took at the show. We had front row seats, easily the best seats in the house, i was almost touching JLS... the photo's just don't do it justice. THE SHOW.
I really want to thank Clothes Show for giving me a press pass in the first place, I had the most incredible day, I'd also like to thank Lee Stafford and Jessica Jane Clement for taking their time out to chat to me, Rachel Wood and the incredible Paul Mitchell team for been so open and friendly with me and giving me some invaluable advice. I'd reccommend that you book your tickets and go next year, the atmosphere is incredible. Thankyou!
Lots of love,
Em
xxx
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