No matter how much I preach the mantra of balance (between business and personal) or of how you can take pride in how you look and still focus on the career goals, its inevitably not a flawless plan. At the moment I am in one of those phases where I am pitifully comparing myself to photos of before I started my own business. So when the opportunity came to write a blog revolving around pampering I knew I would manage to squeeze it in and it would be as good for me as it would be for my readers.
Next week is Bloggers Fashion Week hosted by Bloggers Hangout. Think London Fashion Week for the blogging community. I am actually not attending this one as I will be sunning myself on a beach, or more likely surfing. Either way I am taking a well deserved break from business to recharge my batteries. However, I have attended before and to prepare like a true blogger is a joy. We get to try out the latest and best products and share with you our favourites so here goes…
Starting with the basics, body wash. Urban Veda: Purifying smells pretty divine and that’s a must for me. When I come out the shower I want to be clean and smell lovely, this lived up to that expectation. There are a number of products in this range and they’ve won plenty of awards too.
Now Batiste Stylist Dry Shampoo is something I am such a big fan of. If you are as busy as me then anything to look good while saving time is an absolute must! I’ve used dry shampoo for a while but this is a twist to cater to the style you are trying to go for.
Now typically day-to-day I will be wearing a pretty casual style, usually driven my necessity to be up and ready for meetings rather than any style choice. Typically this might look like this:
A 30 second spray and ruffle of my hair with my fingertips later and here was the result. I was impressed. A beauty must-have for all!
When you are run down there are many things that might suffer. I am usually pretty meticulous about looking after my skin but when training to run a marathon, my feet are taking a battering of late. This next product provided instant relief to dry skin, it smelt slightly on the medicinal side (think tea tree) which is not a criticism and I suppose the things really designed to heal will contain these ingredients. I’d recommend if you have dry skin and there is currently 10% off everything using code SALE10 Weleda.
Now oddly I know way more about fragrance than is healthy for a lawyer turned entrepreneur. The reasons for that are the subject of a whole other blog but for now I used my finely tuned nose for this next product. A reed diffuser by Kenneth Turner. In the modern world we get used to synthetic fragrances. Even the high-end brand names we all love are largely synthetic if you do a bit of digging. The finest fragrances source natural ingredients and that’s what this reminded me of. It was a beautiful but earthy scent and everything about this brand from the scent to vessel whispers luxury and I am always looking for ways to treat myself!
Now these are genius. Great French or patterned manicures that layer on in an instant. When I got these I promised myself that by the time I went on holiday I would have done them so A) I could show them off to you and B) for once I had amazing nails. Unfortunately I haven’t had time to get to grips with them but I will be taking them on holiday so look out for a tweet @misslaurenriley showing them off. Again looking good but not spending ages getting there is a winner for me! 
And last but not least my attempts at being a ballerina wearing this Jones + Jones black skater dress. I really love this dress there is enough of a lace and leg combo to feel dressed up but not too much, it remains a classy piece. I can be a little old fashioned when it comes to dresses so anything ‘skater’ that flares out makes me feel that bit more of a princess. This is preferable to me than a skin-tight look. I felt this could be night out with girl or date night easily,
There you have it, my tips shared from typical prep for Bloggers fashion week. With thanks to The Bloggers Hangout.
