GIVEAWAY - Win tickets to the National Wedding Show Autumn 2014! (NOW CLOSED)

I can't remember if I posted about this, I don't think I did because the last few months have been pretty hectic, but in February I got engaged to my amazing boyfriend of 5 years.  It was totally unexpected and he did it when we were away in Scotland, just the two of us.

I'm not the kind of girl who's had every aspect of the wedding planned in their head since they were 5 so to be honest I'm a bit overwhelmed by planning a wedding.  I'm using Pinterest to get plenty of inspiration (check out my Wedding board here), practically taking notes at every wedding we go to, constantly watching Don't Tell the Bride/Four Weddings/Say Yes To The Dress/I Found The Gown and later on in the year I plan to attend some wedding shows/events.

One of the events I'm going to be attending in October is The National Wedding Show at Manchester Central, it's the UK's biggest wedding show with over 150 exhibitors there showing everything from dresses to cakes to flowers to venues and honeymoons - they have thousands of dresses even have catwalk shows and changing rooms to try dresses on...eek!  Hopefully this will help me get some more ideas!

There are experts from a variety of high street brands there such as Essie, Moss Bros, John Lewis, Sandals, Thomas Cook, Debenhams, House of Fraser and Virgin Holidays.  There's also a Vintage Team Room and Champagne Bar where you can head to relax after a hard day's planning.

The shows are at the following venues (as I mentioned, I'll be going along to the Manchester one!):

London Earls Court - 26th-28th September

Birmingham NEC - 3rd-5th October

Manchester Central - 11-12th October

Standard tickets are £15 in advance or £18 on the door on the day, VIP tickets are £35 in advance or £40 on the day (with the VIP tickets you get a fast track entrance, reserved seating at the catwalk shows, unlimited access to the VIP lounge, complimentary champagne and a goody bag full of beauty products).

I've got 2 pairs of tickets to The National Wedding Show to offer to readers of Beauty and the Blogger so they can attend this fantastic wedding event absolutely free!

To enter, all you need to do is fill in the form below by 31st July 2014 - if you're chosen you'll win a free pair of tickets to the National Wedding Show at the venue of your choice:

For more information about the show or to buy tickets in advance visit www.nationalweddingshow.co.uk  or call the ticket hotline on 0844 874 0486.  You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Ardell Demi Wispies False Eyelashes Color Impact in Plum (enhances brown, hazel and green eyes) - Review

To cut a long story short, Ardell Demi Wispies are one of my favourite lash styles and purple is one of my favourite colours so when I spotted these Color Impact lashes I had to try them!

The theory is that the colour purple will enhance brown, hazel and green eyes.  They also do other colours to enhance different eye colours but since my eyes are green I went for these ones.  I've heard the premise about using colours other than black to bring out specific eye colours with mascara but I've never really tried it.

The picture above shows the purple in the lashes quite well but it's actually a bit more subtle than that in normal light as I think the pics below show:

You can just see a little flash of purple when the light hits them which I think it better than full on purple lashes - I wore these on a normal night out, not fancy dress! I can't say I felt that the colour really enhanced my own eye colour but they were nice, easy to use lashes in a style that I like and the purple in them is definitely subtle enough that other's probably won't notice the colour - I think I'll be sticking with my black Demi Wispies in future, I wanted to put mascara on to blend my own lashes in a bit more but didn't want to take the colour out of them! 

I bought these from Ebay as I'm not sure if they're being sold in the UK (they might be, I'm not sure!) but you can find more out about the Color Impact range on the Ardell website

P.S. As you can see from these pics my hair is really light at the minute - it's the look I wanted as I've always hankered after white blonde hair but never got that light at the hairdressers.  I think I'll be ready for a colour change to something a bit more natural in the not too distant future though