Being a beauty blogger in Winnipeg (smack dab in the centre of Canada) can be a bit rough sometimes.  I get tons of invites for parties, events or workshops, but since I’m not in close proximity to Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver, I have to (sadly) decline the offers.  Instead, I’m left home on Instagram seeing all my Toronto and Montreal beauty blogger friends living it up and having fun (#winnipegbloggerproblems).

With that being said, I love blogging and there are tons of perks of doing it, and heck, I’ve even had companies fly me out to places to attend their events, but they don’t come that often (it’s still really cool to get the invites).

A couple months back, the amazing Cynnamon Schreinert, who does the PR for London Drugs, was in town and sent me a message to meet.  We chatted over all things beauty at Starbucks and she mentioned the annual event that London Drugs puts on every year that is apparently the event of the year. For those of you not familiar with London Drugs, it’s a Western Canada-based company that has locations throughout British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.  Manitoba actually has only one location, located at St. Vital Mall, which is about a 10-15 minute drive from my house.  The store carries everything from food to pharmacy, home goods, electronics, and of course, cosmetics. It’s like a one-stop-shop with everything you would possibly need, and best of all, the prices are always really great.   Since the closest location (and the only one in Manitoba) is quite a trek from my house, I don’t go there that often, but whenever I’m in the mall, I love to stop by and check out what they have in store.  They differ from Shoppers Drug Mart or Wal-Mart because they sell products and lines that other drugstores don’t carry.  They have a wider selection of NYX than Target, as well as prestige cosmetic lines like Cargo, Lise Watier, Marcelle, etc.

Anyways, back to the story at hand, Cynnamon mentioned that they were having the event in Vancouver and said she could fly out a blogger from Winnipeg, as well as Edmonton, so obviously I was so excited to attend.

This takes me to last Wednesday when I arrived in Vancouver (well, technically Richmond), and hit up the event practically as soon as I got off the plane (I had 50 minutes to do my makeup and I was out the door).  I met up with Edmonton-blogger Janis from Dress Me Dearly and we hitched a cab to the London Aviation Centre where the event was being held.  Because we were staying in Richmond we didn’t get to be flown in via helicopter like the other Vancouver media and bloggers, but heck I shouldn’t complain since they flew me all the way from Winnipeg to Vancouver (still though, how freaking cool is it that the Vancouver people got flown in via helicopter?  Like, who does that?).

As soon as we walked in the event we were handed books with all the brands and products featured at the event, as well as name tags and a large tote bag for our goodies.  The goodies given out at this event were actually ridiculous.  Each vendor had a booth and you walk from booth and booth and they explain what’s new, show you a demo, and then give you products. Seriously, it was like beauty blogger Halloween. You always get swag at events but the stuff given away here was on another level.  There were vendors there that everyone knows, like Revlon, Sally Hansen, St. Tropez (we got a bottle of their tanning mousse and the applicator glove), Conair, Essie, Garnier, as well as lesser known brands that will be making their way into London Drugs soon (Chella brows) and Canadian lines like Lise Watier, Annabelle, Cargo, and more.

I would have to say that my favourite booths were the Roc booth, where they had a lady doing caricatures (I was probably the most excited about my photo as opposed to anything else I got), the Revlon booth (which was packed), Lise Watier, and Red Carpet Manicure, where I got a gel mani with the hottest neon pink (their colour selection is so fab!).  I also won a laser hair removal kit from Silk’n, which I’m so excited to try out.

The event last four hours and it basically took all that time to get fully around the room.  I think I hit the Lise Watier booth, which was last, at 9:20 p.m.  They were super fun and gave away a ton of stuff, including their fall 2014 Feline eyeshadow palette, their Lift & Firm 3D Duo Serum, the 24Hrs Glam Eyeshadow, the Feline Eyeliner HD in brown, the Feline Velvet Lip Lacquer, and the Double Definition Automatic Brow Liner, all of which hits London Drugs stores in August 2014.   A lot of booths had products that are late summer launches, including Tweezerman, who was showcasing their new Brush iQ line, where we got to choose one brush to take home with us.  I also mentioned that I’ve never tried their tweezers (which have quite the cult following) and the guy let me take home a pair.  Seriously guys, when Cynnamon said this was the event of year, she meant it.

There was too much stuff given away that could fit in a single photo (thank God I listened to my friends last minute and brought a big suitcase as opposed to a carry-on size), but I’ll be blogging about the products and incorporating them into future posts.  I also want to send a HUGE thank you and shout out to fairy godmother Cynnamon and the Hartley PR team, as well as London Drugs for having me and for throwing such an awesome event.

Enjoy the photos!

With Gerry from The Bunnie Hole (a fellow #BeautyUnited blogger!)

Also, don’t forget to enter my #GottaTurnItUp glam makeup giveaway!

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