I love the Body Shop – they were the first set of products that I ever used in my teens and over the years I have consistently purchased my favourites as part of of my daily skin-care routine.

Last Saturday I attended the grand re-opening of The Body Shop on New Street in Birmingham, along with a lovely bunch of bloggers from The Bloggers Parlour.

The store on New Street has undergone a revamp this year, and it looked stunning, with a nice layout, clean lines and beautiful displays. There has been some new introductions too, with an interactive section that allows customers to select products based on their skin type, and a new range of products that compliment their most popular fragrances. The Body Shop brand is known for their natural, cruelty-free products and I was particularly excited to get advice on their cruelty-free make-up range and brushes.

I immediately made a beeline for the make-up consultant, Jess, who spent some time going through the best type of products I could use for my skin, which is the ultimate combination of oily and dry. She then gave me some advice on making the best of my eyebrows (never my best feature), and showed me the range of make-up brushes that I could use for different parts of my face. If I could recommend anything in particular, it would be these brushes, particularly the fluffy blending brushes, and I was so impressed that I bought one immediately. I noticed that there are sets of brushes available too, at the extremely reasonable price of £20 and £30.

The new revamped Body Shop on New Street

Jess, the make-up consultant

Some of the lovely new products available

On Thursday, I attended the Bloggers Parlour VIP event, organised and hosted by Abbigayle Warner. There were games (let’s just say our team were awesome at celebrity charades), activities, cocktail making, competitions, cake (life is always better with cake) and networking opportunities that were centred around The Body Shop products, and while I am never comfortable with having to speak in front of groups of others, or on camera (which seems ridiculous considering I was a teacher for ten years), I had a nice time getting to know other bloggers and vloggers from the Midlands who are clearly hardcore beauty and fashion enthusiasts. I learned a few blogging hints and tips from them too, particularly when it came to staging products for blog photographs.

Me and Abby, the creator of The Bloggers Parlour

Make-up! Ooh!

Love the displays

Staging products

Making cocktails

Cake!

I also got the the chance to try the new Instaglow CC (colour correcting) Cream, which isn’t available in Body Shop stores for another few weeks. It’s available in three tones to suit all skin types and colours, from a bright to warm glow, and can be worn on it’s own or mixed in with foundation. I immediately tried the lightest shade – the Bright Glow. It was gorgeous and I bought it – for £14.99 it was a steal.

My lovely haul

The new CC creams

I was spoilt rotten in my goody bags too and came away with a very generous set of samples of my favourite Body Shop products to add to the mini sets that I purchased – Tangerine and Shea shower gel, body butters, tea-tree, different creams… And it all came with a lovely tote bag that I can use at the beach!

Get yourself over to the store on New Street when you’re next in Birmingham!

I’m certainly looking forward to testing them all over the next few weeks. And yes, it’s a tough life, but someone has to do it.

You can also find me on Twitter and Tumblr @suzie81blog, and don’t forget to check out my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/suzie81speaks, my Pinterest page http://www.pinterest.com/suzie81speaks and my Instagram page http://www.instagram.com/suzie81speaks.