Bloggers events are still a bit surreal to me. I mean, I just sit about and write about clothes and makeup and I’m usually in my pyjamas.

The lovely girls at House of Fraser Middlesbrough (and FABB Events) treated us to a night of cupcakes and chocolate and, most importantly, some serious pampering.

I got to meet up with some lovely Middlesbrough bloggers (who knew there was more than about 4 of us?!) who are all super pretty and glamorous and lovely.

First of all, I’ll be honest – I don’t normally pop into House of Fraser. I had this idea that it’s a bit like Debenhams (and I had a terrible experience in Debenhams that involved a very inexpert woman in the bra-fitting department. I’ll say no more).

I’ll definitely be visiting more often. My local store stocks Benefit, Mango, and even Paperchase. Happy about that.

We got to take little appointment cards with treatments from each counter – I crept around after some of my favourite bloggers Sarah and Laura. We visisted Yves St Laurent (where we learned about blending contour with circular motions and a big fluffy brush – who knew? I’m still mastering the ‘straight line of bronzer rubbed aggressively with fingertips’ look).

I took some sneaky pictures of pretty things (literally everything, especially the cake) while we waited to visit the Guerlain counter.

We went to see Sharon at the Guerlain counter – and she was a right babe. She showed me just how pale I am by sticking a circular sticker on the back of my hand, then putting a little bit of bronzer over the top. When I took the sticker off, there was a lovely milk-bottle-white patch staring up at me. We had a right laugh about that.

None of us had heard of Gurlain before, so it was really interesting to hear a bit about the brand. It’s very popular in France, and was the first makeup company EVER to invent bronzer. We all fell in love with their gorgeous packaging, especially the perfumes.

Aren’t those bottles gorgeous?! I was feeling so glamorous after getting an amazing goodie bag (which I waited to open until I was tucked up in bed – it felt like Christmas!) that I splurged on my FIRST EVER BENEFIT PRODUCTS. Omg.

So – a big thank you to all the gorgeous girls at House of Fraser and FABB Events; I had a lovely time!