Yesterday evening I attended the Press launch of the newly revamped beauty hall in Debenhams in Derry/Londonderry. I take my hat off to the team behind the refurbishment as they have turned a regular shopping area into a real beauty experience.

The organisers put on a wonderful spread for us in the line of cupcakes and champagne before directing us to the beauty hall itself for some in-depth tutorials with some of the leading brands in the beauty industries. At Benefit we were shown their state of the art new beauty room where their highly qualified technicians are performing miracles with body hair (yes thats really how it sounded) swiftly followed by a demonstration of the Brow-Zing eyebrow palette (to which I am ADDICTED) and the new BB concealer called Patrol which I cannot wait to try out for myself.

At Urban Decay we were greeted in a bizarre fashion by one of the consultants smearing the entire “Naked Flushed” palette on our arms (as seen in the pic below). I wondered was this some kind of tribal “Press” stamp that we were receiving, when the lady kindly sprayed the Make Up Setting Spray on top. For the rest of the Urban Decay demonstration, which consisted of a tutorial with the new Naked “Smokey” palette, the “stamp” remained intact… in fact when the consultant finally told us at the end to try rubbing it off we soon got the gist. It wouldn’t budge! In other words, their make up setting spray is damned good and well worth the investment.

The final stage of our journey was Clinique where we got a demonstration of the “Clarisonic” vibrating cleansing brush which exfoliates and deeply cleanses the skin. We also got a sneak peek (Shhhhh!) of the new product coming out soon – Sculpt Wear which is a product and a separate head for the Clarisonic to help with contouring and defining your face! Keep an eye out for it!

 We were absolutely spoiled by each brand with goody bag after goody bag containing the latest products, vouchers and samples. It felt like Christmas morning when I opened each bag and saw the wonderful pieces inside.

The event was a lovely opportunity to finally meet some of the faces of the blogging world with whom I have been in touch with online for years but have never actually met face to face. I also got the chance to catch up with current friends and make some lovely new ones! A great social event and an even better beauty one!

I would like to say a huge thank you to all of the team at Debenhams, Foyleside and ASG PR for asking me to be a part of such an amazing event and I cannot wait to go back for some treatments and products!

Some of my snapchat feed from the event – add me if you haven’t already! Username: sequincinders