You may remember my post from last year about the Glamour Beauty Festival, well I attended again this year. If I’m honest the main reason I decided to go again was for the amazing goodie bag, I now work in London so it was convenient just to pop along on Friday evening after work. The event was held at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea, the same venue as last year.

As I attended after work I felt a little less put together than last year so I don’t have as many photos as last year unfortunately. I still thought it’d be nice to share the evening with you though. I attended with my sister again and we chose the Friday evening slot this time, this was the opening night and also International Women’s Day. Last year we paid for both the morning and afternoon Sunday sessions, we both agreed half a day was enough and obviously it was cheaper too.

We first got there and went into a room focussed on Skincare, we went to the Caudalie stand where they tested our skin with a little machine to see what our problem areas were. My main problem seemed to be damage from sunlight/ pollution, this is really interesting although worrying as I don’t tend to like to be out in the sun and have never used sun beds. I think it may be because my skin is so fair and also I haven’t been using an SPF under my foundation. The lady recommended I start using factor 50 on my face, I’ve heard the Bodyshop SPF is good so think I will pick this up when I’m next shopping. She did mention Caudalie are also bringing out an SPF before the summer so I may have to try that too. I’ve had these small bumps on my cheeks for so long, they’re not spots but just bumps under my skin. I asked the lady if she could recommend anything that may help and she suggested the Caudalie Vinopure Clear Skin Purifying Toner as she thought these little bumps were blocked pores. I’ve now been using it for a week and do feel my skin seems slightly softer and smoother.

The ticket price also included a pre-bookable slot for a talk from a makeup artist, influencers etc…With it being International Women’s Day we chose the “Beauty, Feminism and Empowerment” talk with Scarlett Curtis and Raye. It was an interesting talk that really made you pink and both of the women were so inspirational.

Last year the festival was so busy we weren’t able to try any of the products, speak to the experts or have any of the complimentary treatments but this year the queues weren’t that bad. We visited the nails inc counter where we had our nails done with colours from their new spring range, they really looked and felt like gel nails. The used normal nail varnish alongside the “Superfood” oil, my nails are always so weak after I have gel on them so I may invest in this to see if I can recreate the look myself. We then headed to the Huda Beauty counter where we were able to try out the new glitter shadows, the formula meant there was little to no fall out and they were really pigmented.

There were two disappointing parts of the evening, the first being that considering Boots were the sponsor of the festival this year the room they were in was so disorganised and there was nobody offering any advice or help. From other Instagram stories over the weekend they were offering free samples but when we visited the room we didn’t see this and nobody approached us. The second was definitely the worst of the two and was the last thing we had left to do at the festival that evening so I left feeling upset. We headed to the room where Maui, Batiste and Schwarzkopf were offering complimentary hair styling. My sister opted to go to the Maui braid bar, her hair looked beautiful after but with how flustered I was I forgot to take a photo. I opted to go to Batiste’s styling area, they had a card with three options on… Straight, wavy or half up half down. I chose the latter. The stylists – the one doing my hair and the other next to me kept telling me how nice my hair was but you know in a way where you can kind of tell it’s not genuine, think the Mean Girls skirt comment. He then put my hair up so far on top of my head it, it was so close to my forehead and then he put FOUR thick hairbands told hold it in place. Both of the stylists then proceeded to tell me I looked like J-Lo which is really when I knew they were taking the absolute piss because I very obviously don’t. I left feeling really vulnerable, upset and my confidence had really been knocked.

Apart from the disappointing incident at the end of the evening, the event was really good fun and well worth the money as the goodie bag was worth over £100. We also picked up a free Chilly’s water bottle and a mini conditioner from Maui Moisture.