Prosecco Event at The Painted Lady
I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to host my first bloggers' event last weekend. On the 25th January, ten beyond gorgeous ladies came to Shoreditch hair salon, The Painted Lady, for a prosecco tasting and an evening of pampering, networking, and general merriment.
The Painted Lady is run by Belinda Hay, an expert in vintage and retro hair styles. The salon is absolutely stunning, upstairs it's all brickwork and dark wooden floors, downstairs is a kitsch white girly paradise complete with fairy lights and authentic Art-Deco furniture. There is SO much design goodness in the picture above - that dressing table! That record player! Those silver shoes!!
The planning of the event was a real labour of love, a huge amount of work, but every second of it was a total buzz. From designing a suitably pink welcome-cocktail (Rhubarb and Custard, above) to getting the girliest of cupcakes (below with Belinda's book!)
Belinda gave everyone a choice of victory rolls retro hair, or bohemian braid up-do. Here she is working her magic on Charley from London Bride. Charley looked amazing!
Lucy from Lucy J Loves also opted for the retro look, and we couldn't get over how much it suited her! Lady Mary from Downton Abbey eat your heart out!
Some ladies plumped for the braids though, and they looked so cute! Halo braids, side braids - ultra pretty! Here's Nicole from A Life Less Beige rocking the bohemian look.
Che from Indie Berries models a fishtail braid.
Helen from The Wedding Bazaar got a mahoosive Amy Winehouse-style beehive!
As well as getting their hair done, bloggers were treated to a manicure by the awesome Tina of Shoreditch Nails. After the tricky task of choosing one of her five thousand OPI colours, that is. I know I've said it before, but can we just take a minute to look at how amazing Holly from Alternate Normality's hair is!! She decided to arrive with one of her own fabulous hair-do's, because (she said) she couldn't face getting the train without her hair done. On the plus side, this left her with more time for drinking and nails. Here's Kristabel from I Want You To Know after Tina had worked her magic with a gorgeous metallic blue.
The lovely sponsors who supplied delicious prosecco for the tasting were Marks and Spencer (Bellant NV and Prosecco Zardetto NV), Tesco (Finest Prosecco NV), The Co-operative (Co-operative Prosecco, winner of the Which? best prosecco 2013), Sainsbury's (Taste the Difference Prosecco), Waitrose (Waitrose Prosecco). We used delicate antique teacups to try each prosecco one at a time, and then rate them. Some people took the score card seriously and used some marvellous adjectives. Others simply deemed the proseccos tasted of 'love' or 'joy'. I loved them all. I love prosecco, if you hadn't noticed. But if I had to pick one of them to drink forever and ever (and ever), it would be the Co-op's award winning fizz. It was not too dry, not remotely sweet, and deliciously bubbly. Come to think of it... it did taste of love and joy.
I loved hanging out with these talented, hilarious women. We had such a good evening, scoffing cheese, trying proseccos, and having lots of blog chat. At some point in the night Nelson the stuffed fox (resident of the salon) made an appearance, and taxidermy enthusiast, Ellie of Pretty Much Penniless, loved having him sit on her lap. Others weren't so keen... Instead, Amy of Wolf Whistle indulged in a hot-pink manicure at the salon's nail bar.
The goody bags were supplied by Vivien of Holloway, purveyors of divine 1950's dresses. They gave each blogger a discount, handy for their lush new valentines range. Inside the goody bags were a host of amazing goodies from beyond generous sponsors. The attendees were psyched to see the treasures within and have been raving about them on Twitter and Instagram. Big thanks to Melt Chocolates for their sweet treats (check out their new valentines chocs, hand painted with metallic red!), The Magic Notebook for the cutest stationary sets ever!, Frame Shoreditch for free class passes so we can work off that prosecco, The Cheek Of It Burlesque for a handy (and saucy) 2014 calendar, What Katie Did for seamed stockings to fit in with the retro theme of the event, Gemma Bishop London for stunning red satin and denim hair-bows and bangles from her new collection, Punky Pins for some vintage tattoo-style earrings and awesome Etch-a-Sketch pocket mirrors!, Inkwear for gorgeous, realistic temporary tattoos, Nokia for some fun free-tune bracelets, Hampstead Tea for the stuff us bloggers love!, Heyday Vintage Style Clothing for delicious discount vouchers, Lipcote for some wee samples, and Davines and Vintage Cosmetic Company who supplied not just goodies, but separate goody bags to put in the goody bags! Amazing!! Vintage Cosmetic Company gave each blogger tweezers, eyelash curlers and fake lashes from their stunning floral range.
I was so sad when it was home-time! I want to thank all the bloggers, all the sponsors, and the lovely ladies (and gent!) at The Painted Lady. What a night!