An evening at The Body Shop with Southampton Bloggers

Last week I was lucky enough to attend an event at my local Body Shop store in Southampton with other local bloggers, organised by the very lovely Alice from Alice Anne.

The evening started with drinks and nibbles and cheerful staff who immediately made us feel welcome.

After a little mooch around, we had a small talk about the new products and the history and values of The Body Shop

Although I knew the products they sold were vegetarian, I hadn't realised how many were now vegan, for example all of their make-up brushes, their Vitamin E gel moisture cream (a favourite of mine) and some of their newer products like the Oils of Life cleansing oil-in-gel.

The Body Shop are particularly known for their work against animal testing. At the moment they have a petition to get animal testing in cosmetics banned worldwide - they're aiming for 8 million signatures by end of 2018.

During April and May proceeds from the sale of some of the new ranges go towards helping the Red Panda Network save endangered red pandas in the Himalayas. If you've ever seen one of these guys, you'll know just how cute they are and how worthwhile this is.

We then had the chance to get stuck in and have a good look around at everything. I had a few questions about products old and new and everyone I spoke to was helpful and able to advise me. There was also hand massages available and lots of sampling. With so much hand cream I was beginning to be worried about being able to keep a grip on my camera!

  

It was funny to see products that I remembered from when I was a teenager - in particular the banana shampoo and conditioner (might just have bought a small bottle for old times sake).

Although I felt a bit sad when I learnt that one of my all time favourite products was discontinued, they helped me find an alternative. I even learnt about house spiders in the process...it's pretty impressive what the staff at The Body Shop know about!

We were kindly gifted an amazing goodie bag and with a 30% discount, it seemed rude not to add a few more bits to it. I've especially been wanting to try the Vitamin E eye cube for a while. Being in a stick form, it looks perfect for travel. The Peppermint foot spray is hopefully a replacement for the much loved gel which is now discontinued. Plus that Banana Conditioner which smells good enough to eat.

An overview of the contents of our goodies bags.

A big thank you to The Body Shop for looking after us and to Alice for organising the evening. I can't wait to try everything out. The face masks in particular have been squirreled away ready for a relaxing week in Devon next month.

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx