Oriflame The One - Blogger Event

When I spotted on Twitter that Oriflame were having an event in Leeds the Saturday before last I signed myself up straight away, even though I had never heard of Oriflame before. (Yes it did happen over a week ago, life has been a bit mental, so sorry for such a slow appearance of this post!) After a bit of asking around, I heard they were a good makeup brand which was a bit like Avon, so I thought it would be a good way to learn a bit more about makeup and how to apply it, as I have confessed before I am useless at makeup so any help is gratefully received!

I very nervously arranged to meet up with some bloggers at the train station, as I had never been to an event and as a result had the biggest butterflies ever before going to meet them. Luckily everyone I met was lovely, even if I didn't manage to get chance to talk to everyone properly.

The event was held at the Living Room in Leeds, which was a place I wasn't aware of before. It was really nice inside, very classy and the staff were amazing. We were greeted with a drink as we walked in the door, and throughout the whole afternoon they kept us well fed and watered. The food was amazing, but I didn't take any photos - bad blogger! It definitely encouraged me to go back another time to sample their full menu.

Gary Cockerill is the face of the new range from Oriflame, I thought I recognised him, and it turns out that he has done a lot of daytime TV and worked with Katy Price in the past. He started off by telling us his story, which began with him working in the pits before heading onto painting mannequins faces. It wasn't such a huge leap to painting real ladies faces from there and his career has grown and grown. Entirely self taught, we got to discover a few of his top tips for applying lipstick, cream eyeshadow and false eyelashes, all of which were needed by me!

So, apparently when curling eyelashes it is best to start near the root, do 10 small squeezes, go into the middle, do another 10 small squeezes, then go to the end of the lash and do a final 10 small squeezes. And never ever curl your eyelashes with mascara already on as this causes a lot of breakage. Much better than my old technique of putting the curlers in the middle and squeezing like mad!

I have always avoided cream eyeshadows in the past, because they crease up and look rubbish within minutes of applying. The solution to this is to put a normal powder eyeshadow underneath, then the cream on top, which will help to stop it creasing. Simple!

I tried to follow the tips for applying lipstick, but as a complete lip product novice they went totally over my head so I gave up and just appreciated the lovely lips which were created on Yuna. 

At the end of the event we all got given a goody bag, which I wasn't expecting at all, so was very surprised and happy to discover that it included full size products! So far I have only used the mascara, but it is the best mascara I have ever used. It has a plastic brush which glides through the lashes easily and gives brilliant definition with no clumping. I will definitely be repurchasing once this one runs out! The nail varnish is meant to last for 14 days with no chipping, so as soon as I have 2 weeks at work with no clinical work I will be testing out this claim and reporting on the results.

It was amazing to meet so many bloggers and to learn more about Oriflame and makeup in general. I really enjoyed myself and I can't wait until my next blogger event!

Rachel x