Hey Guys!
So on the 28th of Feb, I was lucky enough to go to the first Bloggers United Adelaide Event! I was super excited and thankful that this opportunity came up and that I got to go. The day was all about meeting fellow Bloggers and getting to talk to amazing Companies about their different products.
Now sit back and get comfy because this is probably going to be a long post!
First off a HUGE thank you to the beautiful people who organised this event. Thank you to the Adelaide Reps Kate from Seduced By Beauty and Nici from Beauty and Food. These girls truly are amazing for putting together such an amazing day. Thank you again and I can’t wait to see what you two get up to in the future for us Adelaide girls!
I want to make a quick note before I really dive into this post. Most of the photos that will be used in this post were taken by the professional photographer of the day Heidi from Heidi Who Photos. Thank you so much for letting us bloggers use the photos that you took as we were all just too busy looking at all the goodies presented to us!
The day started at around 12:30pm and as you can see there were a fair few of us there! This photo shows just how much effort went into the event because featured here are all of the bloggers who attended as well as the brands who came and spoke to us throughout the day. It was super exciting to see so many Adelaide people and I was so happy to be a part of this!
To start off the event we were all gathered together and given a quick photography session from Heidi from Heidi Who Photos. Something that I am super thankful for and I have taken many of the tips she suggested and am implementing them! So hopefully you will start to notice that in my future posts! This was super informative and I am glad we started off the day with this session because it did influence how I took photos throughout the day! Sadly though I didn’t get to listen to the whole speech as I over heated 😦 Thankfully though I lasted through most of it and learnt a lot!
After the first session we were broken up into groups of 2 – 3 and sent on a little treasure hunt with maps that we had found in a tote bag which we had been given! This meant the everyone throughout the day had a slightly different experience as we were all in different groups! I started off my adventure with Vani-T.
Vani-T is an Australian Brand that creates Tanning products as well as Beauty products and is a brand that has sponsored some pretty famous international events! Which is amazing for an Australian brand! I had heard of this band before today but honestly didn’t realise they were Australian so that is super exciting! In the goodie bag above we received some tanning products and also 3 items of makeup! I sadly won’t use the tanning products, so I have given these to my sister with strict instructions to tell me what she thinks so I can still write a review! The beauty products we received were a lipgloss, lipstick (which has BEAUTIFUL packaging) and an eyeshadow pigment. An important thing to remember with the makeup line is they are all mineral makeup! On display there was a beautiful red lipstick, which I honestly think I will have to pick up because I can never go past a beautiful bold red lipstick.
Next up was Natralus Australia, who are an Australian Brand! (sensing a theme? 🙂 hehe) Recently they just became available in Woolworths which is amazing and already makes their products much more easily attainable. This brand focuses on making Paw Paw based products which is amazing! They also have a product that is a hand cream that acts like a glove on your hand! The presenter was telling us some crazy unreal stories about what it can protect your hands from! This brand was SUPER gracious in what they let us try. These even gave us the full range of their brand new lip balms! I have tried one already and they are lovely!
Next up was Yo Get It and oh my goodness guys this could not have been better timed in my version of the treasure hunt. This is a healthy snack alternative and is based off of a Brazilian dish! Guys this was truly amazing and I can’t wait until the next time I’m in Marion Shopping centre to get one of these. The yoghurt (which you can’t see) is a lovely purple colour and the topping (which you can see) just add the perfect texture to the snack. One thing I have to say is though, these aren’t full sizes so I honestly don’t know if I could finish one. As the ones we received on the day were the perfect size leaving me satisfied until lunch!
After the perfect snack we learnt about the brand Dr. Hauschka (which I sadly can’t pronounce) this brand was focused on bringing skin care back a few steps to make it more simple and user friendly. The Lady we spoke to explained that they were more concerned about trying to help their customers than make a sale, and to domonstrate that she explained how they would give out samples and let the customer have a good try before they come back to buy! Which is incredible of a brand to do and it was amazing to hear. These were the deluxe samples that we received, there were also sachet samples which came with their own pamphlets explaining exactly what the product does!
Then we moved on to hear from Loreal Professional and this was a brand I felt like I learnt a lot from! Not just about hair care, but even just tips in general towards my own blog! Nikita is the gentleman you see in the centre of the photo and he explained all about the amazing products and brands that we would be receive in our goodie bag. There is a spray from Pureology that is designed to help prolong coloured hair! And seeing as I have deep purple in my hair I was super excited about this product! Nikita also re-iterated to importance of taking good photos. He explained that in an upcoming campaign they will be hiring bloggers to advertise the product! He explained that there would be a male and female bloggers and that while picking the male blogger they found out that one of them was using an iPhone to take their photos. He wasn’t denying that an iPhone can take good photos, he just explained that the reason they weren’t picked is because the company was concerned about the quality of the photos once blown up to a poster size. This inspired me to get back into using my camera to take my blog/ Instagram photos and I’m so thankful that Nikita took the time to tell us something so important!
Just before lunch my little group got to sit out on the beautiful balcony and talk to the beautiful lady’s from REB Cosmetics. The Lady you see on the left is actually the founder of the brand which is super exciting! REB is a South Australian Brand and is produced in Adelaide which is awesome! REB is a mineral brand and are still expanding their range, they have just brought out magnetic eyeshadow palettes which is super exciting! This brand very kindly gave us an eyeshadow each (colour of our choosing) and I am super excited to try mine! I have been hearing amazing things so fingers crossed I get the same result!
LUNCH TIME~! Half way through the event we were allowed to have a little rest and grab something to eat! Oporto and Sumo Salad were kind enough to provide some food for all us hungry bloggers to eat! My lunch came from Oporto and it was from their new menu! Sadly, while I did ultimately enjoy my lunch, it did get a bit too spicy for me and resulted in me getting lipstick on my chin because I was eating a burrito. That aside lunch was good and gave us all some much needed energy to make it through the rest of the day!
During lunch a group of us decided to sit on the grass and it was so lovely sitting near the ocean and just talking in a big group! It was a little windy as you can see, which did result in a bit of hair in lipstick but it was totally worth it! I really love this photo and am so thankful that Heidi took the time to capture this moment!
After lunch we were straight back at it! And now my little group was downstairs and we got to talk to the second lot of brands! To start off with we talked to the brand Weleda, who are a brand that is almost 100 years old! Weleda are a company that is conscious of their impact on the environment and so plant fields to get the ingredients they need. Through this they are also employing famers and creating new jobs around the world which is fantastic! One of their products, which is called Skin Food is celebrating it’s 90th Birthday which is crazy! We were told the the recipe for that product hasn’t changed AT ALL in that time which just goes to show that you don’t need to mess with a good product! We were lucky enough to receive a full size Skin Food and one of the Body Washes you see pictured above!
Then we moved on to this brand which has some of the most beautiful packaging that I have ever seen! This is Kismet Jardin and they are a skin care and perfume brand who are also Australian! I still can’t get over how beautiful their packaging looks! We got to test some of the products on our skin and it felt sooo lovely! We got a little box with 1 full size product and two samples, I have already worn the perfume once and it lasted super well!
This was a brand I was excited to hear about because my friends had already hyped them up for me! This is an Australian Hair Care company called Davroe, and now that I’ve heard of them, I keep hearing about them! So that is a good sign! The lady’s we talked to were super lovely and were obviously super enthusiastic about their brand which was amazing! I feel like we didn’t truly get enough time to talk to the beautiful people behind this brand but hopefully there might be a next time! This is my own photo of the goodies that we received! I honestly don’t know what to say other than Thank You so much! I hope this gets me more enthusiastic about looking after my hair and supporting an Aussie Company!
From the whole day I think this Company was my favourite. Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez or simply Shanghai Lil for short. This is an Adelaide Company where all of the products are hand made with natural and organic ingredients. This is also a Vegan brand which is super exciting for Vegans! This company sells a full range of products such as soaps, mists, lip balms (photo above) and perfume. In our goodies bags we received a lip balm and the one I received is Raspberry Royale (bottom right) and I LOVE it, so I have (unashamedly) already gone out to buy more from the brand. If you live in Adelaide, Shanghai Lil is available at Have You Met Charlie? In Regent Arcade, Rundle Mall.
Second to last for my little group was the company Runway Room which I had heard a LOT of good things about from my two besties, so I was super excited to be able to meet the lovely lady they had told me about and touch all the makeup! This is a company that started in Melbourne but is making head way in Adelaide too! It was so lovely to be able to see this brand and play around with the cosmetics they have available! We were lucky enough to be able to pick either a lip gloss, lipstick or a lip pencil. I chose a lip pencil in a berry colour because we are coming into the cooler months so I know I will get lots of use out of it! I did feel a little bad for Runway Room at the end of the day though (which is when my group arrived) because the room she was in was like a sauna! The poor makeup was having a bit of a hard time and so was she. She still looked beautiful though and the products weren’t too heat damaged I hope! One more thing I want to say is I LOVE the colour scheme, though it can sometimes play with my eyes haha!
The last company for the day was a beautiful looking brand called Enbacci. This brand focuses on making a skin care range that is suitable for all skin times, but mainly focused on sensitive skin. This is because the founders mother has sensitive skin and she wanted to create a range that her mum could use! Which is so sweet and amazing! The products in the photo above are interesting in that they have Grape Stem cells as an ingredient! It was interesting to listen to all she had to say and I am super excited to try the samples we received. In the samples there is a face scrub which I think will be amazing after a heavy makeup day! This is also one of the brands that I think I will be reviewing first! So get ready!
The day still wasn’t over even after so many amazing chats to companies, we headed over to a lounge room and got comfy as we got the chance to listen to three bloggers bring some reality back into the world of blogging. I found this super helpful as someone who is still very new and growing in the blogging world. We heard from Jenni from Styling Curvy and she explained to us all how we need to respect ourselves in all forms of blogging. If we get the chance to work with companies remember all the work that we have put into our blogs and communities. And also a big point, nothing is free! We all put so much work into our blogs that if we are lucky enough to be sent something, its not free because with that product will come exceptions and maybe even sponsorships.
The last presentation we had was from Hayley and Lauren from Adelady. Their key message was to remember that bad things will happen and that blogging can be a happy place when these things happen. But to also remember that your blog isn’t everything and if you need time to deal with life that’s totally ok! Remember to have fun and everything will work out! There were a few tears shed while these beautiful lady’s talked to us as we understood and sympathised with what was happening in the world around us. Thank you for being so honest with us about the world of blogging and what true hardships it can bring! Remember lady’s you can’t eat makeup!
Even after these lovely lady’s had finished the day was still not over! We still had the last of our goodie bags to collect. These mainly consisted of items from brands that hadn’t been able to make it throughout the day, or brands who had been kind enough to leave their goodie bags until the end so we weren’t walking around with them!
Here is a rough overview of all the goodies we received from the companies that spoke to us throughout the day! As you can imagine I’m a little overwhelmed with the generosity of the brands in giving us so many goodies to try. I almost don’t know where to start and its a bit frightening! But that being said I am super excited for the posts that I can write in the future and the potential holy grails that might pop up through all the experimentation! This isn’t even all the products we received, there were two other bags FULL of products. One brand (who sadly couldn’t attended the event) were kind enough to give us their ENTIRE skin care range. Again, I’m blown away from the generosity of the companies who took the time to talk to us Adelaide Bloggers.
Here is my beautiful friend Sarah from Pastel Sparkles showing off all the goodie bags that we got! (She also wrote a post on the day which you should check out as we had different treasure hunt adventures!)
I would also love to mention Ovi Hydration, who was one of the brands who supplied us all with some drinks for the day! I have had their drinks in the past and the Berry flavour is hands down my favourite and I may have drank two or three bottles on the day and snuck a couple home as well.
Overall the day was a great and I am so thankful that I had the chance to attend this event! I have met so many Adelaide bloggers and I feel so much more like I’m apart of a community and I love it. Thank you again Bloggers United AU for hosting and organising such an AMAZING event and I truly cannot wait to see what you beautiful lady’s produce in the future. Thank you as well to Seawall Appartments for hosting the event! The weather was beautiful and the location just made the event all the more special.
I hope you are looking forward to seeing some exciting Australian brand based posts in the future, because I know I am excited to write them and support them!
Let me know if there is anything you want me to review first and I will get right on it!
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I hope to see you next time~!
Zoe's Beauty Escape 