#TBSXmasBonanza

On Thursday, I attended a blogger event organised by the lovely Rachelle of Inspired by the Retired. #TBSXmasBonanza was held at The Body Shop's Preston store and involved a lovely mix of bloggers, cupcakes, beauty products, samples, cocktails, photos and chatting.
On arriving, Rachelle gave us name badges to help us match up names with faces, and we were offered drinks, mince pies and cupcakes which were so pretty that no-one dared touch them for about twenty minutes - at length, I put mine in a little bag to take home since I'm firmly convinced there's no dignified way to eat a cupcake.
Rachelle had also prepared lovely little sample bags - with a difference; the sample pots were empty! With a mug of spatulas on hand, we were allowed to roam the shop filling our little pots with whatever we fancied, which was such fun, although a little taxing for those of us with only two hands and little in the way of co-ordination (that would be me). The samples I went for were Almond Hand & Nail Cream, Vanilla Bliss Body Butter,Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask, and Seaweed Mattifying Day Cream, all of which I can't wait to try!
We then had chance to fill our baskets to take advantage of the 40% off promotion with our kindly gifted Love Your Body cards, whilst chatting, making use of the photo props and generally confusing the rest of the late-night shoppers. Rachelle also gave each of us a little red goodie bag with a Christmas-themed sponge, some gingerbread biscuits and Love Hearts sweets, which was so lovely - I thought the samples were the goodie bags she'd mentioned, but then there was more!
Afterwards, a few of us headed around the corner to a newly-opened cocktail bar, Treehouse, to continue chatting with the addition of delicious (if a little on the strong side) cocktails; mine was a Mango Daiquiri which was lovely but maybe not the best idea when I had to be at work for 7am the next day.. Unfortunately we all had to leave after an hour or so for various trains, buses and lifts, but it was a fab evening and so nice to meet some fellow North-West bloggers!
If you're interested in what I bought, here are my purchases. I picked up the Tea Tree Pore Minimiser   (£7.50) which I've previously reviewed and absolutely adore, along with the Limited Edition Ginger Sparkle Body Butter (£13) which again, I've had before and love. I also decided to try some new things, in the form of Rainforest Radiance Hair Butter (£3), and a lovely gift-set duo (£16 with a value of £27) containing Vitamin C Microdermabrasion (£13) and Vitamin C Skin Reviver (£14), along with a treat for my boyfriend's stocking at Christmas. Altogether, my shopping was worth £45, but with the 40% off I paid £27, and also qualified for a freebie; a gorgeous Body Butter Christmas Cracker Gift Set (worth £12), containing Body Butters in Shea, Chocomania and Coconut - all of which smelled amazing when I was wandering round sniffing everything in sight!
Below are the lovely bloggers who attended the event, I think I've included everyone on the list, but if I missed you I'm so sorry, let me know and I'll add you in!