Daydreamer Brunch With Debenhams & Urban Decay || Blogmas Day 16

I was recently invited by Christina from the daydreamer along to her daydreamer brunch which was being held in the Bonham hotel in the West End of Edinburgh. I was so excited about this because I love brunch type foods and I always go to events at night but I've never been to one during the day before.

I met up with my blogging buddies Jodi, Emily, Katie and Louise before hand and we all walked along together and were greeted by the lovely Christina and Debenhams staff. There was this amazing table filled with all the delicious breakfast foods you could think of and it also had pretty little goody bags laid out for us.

The most exciting part of the morning for me was that Urban Decay were there which are one of my top makeup brands ever so I really enjoyed swooning over their products and adding a few alot of things to my Christmas list. There were two lovely makeup artists there with them who were doing our makeup for us and telling us about their products, I didn't catch their names but they were really lovely and amazing at what they do!

I absolutely loved my breakfast, I was stuffed by the end of it. I'd love to know where they got their croissants from because they were the best I've ever tasted, so yummy.

Debenhams also had a few rails of their clothes there and also some shoes and necklaces. This event really was a girls dream, food, clothes, good company shoes and make-up... what more could you want?!

Lovely Louise getting her make-up done!

In our goody bags (because I'm sure you're all wondering!!) we were very spoilt and got lots of lovely new things to try! The first thing was from Ishga which is seaweed skincare and seaweed has really good properties for your skin so I'm looking forward to trying this out,

 We also got a Korres shower gel, a balance me facial expression filler, a 4 day sample detox of tea which sounds absolutely delicious even though I don't like tea! It has ice cream flavoured, Jasmine Blossom, Peaches and Cream and Strawberry Jam so I think these may be the teas that make me like tea!

We also got this gorgeous Timeless candle in the scent Christmas which of course what better time of the year to burn that than now!

The gifts that I was most excited about was this Naked gloss in the shade Liar and a double sided Urban Decay eyeliner in 'Blackheart' and 'Darkhorse'. I have been wanting to try the Naked glosses forever because the packaging is so beautiful and I've heard amazing things so super excited about that. I've also heard great things about the eyeliner so two very exciting products!

I had a fabulous time at the Daydreamer brunch and the Bonham hotel where it was held was absolutely beautiful!! Thank you so much to the Bonham, Debenhams and Urban Decay for a fabby event and I hope you really enjoyed seeing my pictures from it!

Lots of Love,

♥

Cocktail Masterclass || Bloggers Exclusive

Hellooo lovelies,

 On Wednesday night I was very lucky to attend a bloggers exclusive cocktail masterclass. Of course as soon as cocktails were mentioned I was up for it and it also gave me a chance to meet up with some of my beautiful blogging buddies that live near me! We were lucky enough to learn how to make cocktails and get to try as many as we wanted for free....sound ideal to anyone else!?

 The event was hosted by the lovely Andy Pearson who is the cocktail king and funny heart radio presenter Paul Harper who sadly had brought his car so could not enjoy the cocktails that were on hand. The PR and marketing girls were equally lovely and looked absolutely stunning despite the fact that they were rushed off their feet... very jealous girls! Andy told us a bit about the most expensive cocktails in the world and there's one in Dubai that costs £100,000 but.... it comes with the keys to a Ferrai but the most expensive one Andy has watched being being is in Dublin for £750, that's one pricey drink.

Me and Sultana

Me and Emily

 For my first drink I opted for the 'Zoom' which is layered to look like a rocket ice lolly which not going to lie was the main reason I ordered it first. It was really nice and tasted like melons but not overly fruity as you could definitely still taste the alcohol in it. This cocktail actually takes the longest time to make, so long that the staff have rejigged the way they make it 4 times in the manual in order to try and get it made faster. This has something to do with the ingredients being added in a certain order to ensure that the layers are formed correctly and don't just merge together to form a yellow colour.

 The filling station also brought out some of their menu for us to try which has been partially revamped and also a few new foods thrown in. As a very fussy eater most of it would not be good for me but everyone else seemed to love it, Emily especially loved their Pepperoni slices from their BBQ board. I tried the salted pretzels which are new if I remember correctly and they were very tasty, I'd never even tried a pretzel before much to many peoples surprise and I love the way they come out in a silver bucket with newspaper in it.

  I found it amazing watching cocktail expert Andy and Ivan who works at the filling station make the cocktails and the energy that goes into shaking the cocktails up looks exhausting!! It really was fascinating learning how some of my favourite drinks are made and picking up some handy tips so I can try (massive emphasis on the word try!!) and recreate them at home. The biggest tip I picked up was to not add ice until last with most of the cocktails in order not to dilute them and that the main thing to aim for in making a cocktail is to not let one flavour over power the others and create a balance of flavour.

 The second cocktail I had was a Red Berry cheesecake cocktail which is one of their after dinner cocktails because it's so heavy but oh my it is amazing!!! Guys, you have got to give this a try. I am not a massive alcohol lover...I love to drink it but I don't particularly love that 'alcohol taste' so I much prefer my sweeter more sugary cocktails. This is one of those and it actually tastes exactly like cheesecake, don't be fooled though cause this one packs some punch because it has a lot of alcohol in it. This is the one I really would love to be able to make at home and anyone at the event would back me up in saying how much I loved this because everyone was joking about how much I evidently loved it due to my glass being emptied very quickly!

Red Berry Cheesecake in the making!

 Andy also informed us of how they use fresh ingredients in their cocktails so instead of buying ready made lime juice they will actually squeeze the juice out their limes themselves etc. They also don't skimp when it comes to buying ingredients, the Coconut cream they buy is one of the most expensive out their but the taste is totally worth it for making the perfect pina colada..everybody's guilty pleasure drink!

 I also discovered that I actually really like Mohjito's which I had always believed I didn't like because of trying ready made bottled one's from Tescos. Nothing compares to the real thing! According to expert Andy the key to making a mohjito is not to crush your mint leaves so you aren't left with pieces of mint in your teeth which definitely is not the one.

 Near the end of the night some of the girls actually got up and got to create their own cocktail which we named The Edinburgh Handbag after Emily's bag. In this drink as far as I can remember was peach vodka, cointreau and something raspberry..maybe raspberry puree. It actually turned out amazingly and tasted exactly like Dollymix sweeties.. filling station I definitely think the Edinburgh handbag should be added to your official menu!

Red Berry Cheesecake and The Edinburgh Handbag

Don't worry if you like the sound of the Edinburgh Handbag and want to try it because the Filling Station actually want people to go in and tell them the kind of flavours they like and it gives the bar staff the flexibility to use their skills. So if you fancy some new exotic cocktails or traditional classics that actually taste as good as they should then definitely head over to the filling station and relax with some cocktails.

More Selfie fun!

More selfie fun

Have you been to the filling station before? What's your favourite cocktails?

Lots of Love,

A x x x

Previous Posts

Dollymix || MAC Mondays

Fitness, Frozen, Food & Fashion || May Non-beauty Faves

May Beauty Favourites

Crabtree & Evelyn || Event

Hellooo lovelies,

Recently something very exciting happened and I was invited along by the lovely people at Crabtree & Evelyn to a handy tips bloggers event at their Hanover store in Edinburgh. At the moment Crabtree & Evelyn have a handy tips campaign where you can share your beauty tips handed down by your family e.g. mother, sister, granny and stick them onto a big tree in their store where everyone can see them and learn about your tip! I think this is a fab idea and I was so excited to be invited to take part in this especially as it was my first blogging event.

 I was actually quite nervous about going because I was going alone and literally knew nobody but everyone was so super friendly, I actually arrived first so was greeted by the beautiful, friendly Jamie who is actually the PR manager for Crabtree & Evelyn and the store manager Lisa who was also very friendly. This instantly relaxed me and put me at ease and when the other bloggers arrived we all soon got chatting whilst having a pretty cupcake and some mango bellini mmmm! If any of you do get invited to events but are nervous about going alone - don't be! It is so nerve wracking to step out of your comfort zone and turn up to somewhere with a bunch of people you've never met but so many people are in the same boat and everyone is into the same things as you and are friendly and nice. So don't let yourself miss out on things because of nerves.

Crabtree & Evelyn's rebranded mens range! It looks very manly doesn't it!

One thing I absolutely adore about Crabtree & Evelyn is their gorgeous packaging, everything looks so pretty and British!

They even sell the cutest mint packets I think I have eveeer seen!

 Something I learnt from the event about Crabtree & Evelyn that I did not know before was that they actually sell food products (obviously in equally beautiful packaging). Some of these foods included jam, marmalade, biscuits, tea and hot chocolate.. yummy!

I think Crabtree definitely win when it comes to most beautiful perfume bottle! I can't think of many girls who wouldn't want a bottle that looks like this sat on their dressing table!

Ignore my shaky handwriting but this is my beauty tip inspired by my beautiful granny for soft lips, soft hands and soft feet!

Handy Tips tree

Me and the lovely Ashleigh, Maisy and Kayleigh

 One of my favourite parts of the event was getting polaroid pictures taken by Jamie and it has definitely made me want a polaroid camera so much more! They would be so fabulous for parties!

  I got a lovely hand massage off Fatimah an employee at Crabtree who actually happens to study law at my university too, what a coincidence! She used the pomegranate range on me and I now have baby soft hands so thank you very much for that, I can't get over how soft they are still!!

Me and Emily, Alexandra and Sultana

 Then we were very lucky ladies and treated to a goody bag, yayy! It included their pomegranate hand cream which made me so happy because now I can maintain my lovely soft skin and as you saw from my tip..I love my hand creams! Then we also received two gorgeous nail varnishes from their range and mines are in 'Apple' and 'Wisteria'.

 I hope you enjoyed coming on my little trip with me! Thank you so much to Crabtree & Evelyn for an amazing event and also to all the amazing bloggers who I met and made my experience so enjoyable.

Previous Posts:-
Victoria Secret Body Sprays Anywhere In The UK?! || Discovery & Review
Spring Tag
Morange || MAC Monday's
Camera Obscura || Lifestyle

Lots of Love,

A x x x