On Saturday the 25th of October, HallowBloggers took place in the downstairs of Costa on College Green. I thought of the idea in May and began planning in August. I had a vision for what I wanted and set about creating it fairly early on. I love Halloween and I thought it would be a great time for a blogger meet-up as we could all put our make-up skills to good use. My plan was to pack a goodie bag full of treats, have a great selection of raffle prizes, raise some money for The Simon Community, have some demos and some Halloween fun. The first part of the plan was to book a venue which I have to say was tricky given that I wanted it form the bank holiday weekend. I settled on Costa as I had attended a couple of events there previously and the downstairs part looks a bit creepy so it is perfect for Halloween. I then set about organising demos, getting prizes and goodie bag items.
I was so nervous all of last week. I had taken Friday off work to put all of the items together but suffered a personal setback and as a result was packing bags and making photo frames in the wee hours of Saturday morning. I hadn’t tried my make-up or fitted my costume. The costume was made out of two sheets from Ikea so I wasn’t sure how sturdy it might be.
On Saturday morning I was wreck. I didn’t know if people would turn up, if they’d like their goodie bags, if they’d have fun etc. I was so lucky that they did. I had decorated the room to reflect the Halloween theme and had spooky sounds playing in the background. There were plenty of sweets and cosmetic treats in cauldrons around the room and I had some props for those that didn’t dress up or wanted to have their picture taken with the HallowBloggers frame.
The day started off with a demo by From Matte to Metallic on the lovely Helen. I’m a big special fx fan so I was delighted with their look. The make-up is very simple to recreate and is done with paint, tissue paper and liquid latex. It was very Halloweeny and I think it is fair to say we all enjoyed it.
The next demo was by Leonie of Leonie Make-Up / Urban Decay. Leonie worked on Rachel from Make Up Yer Mind and created a lovely vibrant purple eye. I was so thrilled to have Leonie there as we did our make-up course together and we were the very first people that each other worked on.
We took a break at this stage from demos and conducted the raffle in aid of The Simon Community. I’m delighted to tell you that we raised nearly €200. The raffle prizes were fantastic and I really want to take this opportunity to thank every company that donated. After the raffle the prize for best dressed was presented. Emma was the clear winner. Her make-up was fantastic and her dress was amazing. I think we were all jealous of her crown.
Karora did the final presentation of the afternoon and discussed some of their best-sellers including their CC cream. This was of course in everyone’s goodie bag and I’ve heard great reports about it. They also talked about their whitening pens which again everyone went home with.
The goodie bags covered budget beauty to high-end products. They consisted of:
Wet n Wild trio eyeshadows
Wet n Wild nail varnish
A selection of products from Penneys (mostly nail varnishes)
A Sleek blusher
Blank Canvas Cosmetics brushes x3
Oriflame mascara
Maxfactor mascara
Robert Roberts tea
Lindt chocolate
Selection of Halloween sweets, stickers and treats
Propercorn
Impress Halloween nails
Cleanse Off Mitt
Karora CC cream
Polar White Pro
NeoStrata foaming glycolic cleanser
Dream Dots
Zaija x2
AYU eye brush
Make-up bag
Essence bronzer
Catrice gloss
House of Holland Nails
Stylfile
Eyelure lashes
Special thanks need to be said to Rory of Eat Drink Run Fun for helping on the day, we were in need of his muscles, Emma from Mastering your Make-Up because I would have been completely lost without her both during the planning and on the day and Joey from Joseph Holland Photography for taking the photographs and for putting up with me throughout the whole process.
I really hope that everyone enjoyed the event, the decorations, the prizes and the goodie bags. I can’t say I’ll ever organise another event again because I’m exhausted from that one! I’d just like to say thank you for making the day special.
