Fashion Voyeur

People will stare, make it worth their while.

Categories: Fashion, North East, Pixie, Uncategorized

Blog At The Beach with icelolly.com

Each year, the lovely humans behind holiday comparison website icelolly.com host a big bash for Bloggers and Influencers called Blog at the Beach.  It’s one of those events that I’ve heard about, but never attended, that is until now.  Yes that’s right Voyeurs, the UK’s best Bloggers, Influencers and Content Creators are hand selected by icelolly.com to attend the event which aims to educate Influencers and improve blogger networking and 2018 is my year, the year I found myself on that very list…

Obligatory lanyard shot

So, what’s it all about?

Well, Blog at the beach, despite setting out a pretty crammed agenda is actually a chilled out, fun event for people like me to learn more about the things that really make us tick.  Whether you want to up your photography game, learn how to pitch to brands (I say that through clenched teeth after White Moose-gate), or just pick up some real world tips from super successful Bloggers, Blog at the Beach and icelolly.com hold consultation in advance about which topics are the most important, and the most current it the whole wide blogosphere, then seeks out industry experts to speak about them and pass on their best tips for success.

Where the hell is it?

The event has taken place in various different locations across the super cool city of Leeds meaning that if you’re travelling from afar, there’s plenty you can do to make a day, or even a weekend of it to maximise your Insta goals.  This year’s event took place at Duke Street Studios which was super easy to travel to, and a pretty well equipped venue for 80 or so Influencers.

Blog at the Beach??  It’s bloody January!

This year’s event had a Ski Lodge theme, but seeing as the name is pretty cool and has a nifty little following, it just had to stay, for continuity.  The venue was dressed to match the theme with fairy lights, ski accessories and even mulled wine to stretch out that post Christmas hangover.  There was even a cute little moving cable car theme projected on to the wall behind the stage.  I wrapped up in my favourite faux fur coat and met up with some of my best non-North East Blogger pals and you’d be forgiven for thinking we were cosying up in a chalet somewhere up in Val d’isere for the weekend – the attention to detail was pretty damn sweet.

Blog at the Beach with icelolly.com Fashion Voyeur Blog props including ski goggles and a Charles Conrad watch

What went down?

Three awesome speakers that’s what!  First up was Kirsty Leanne who gave an impassioned talk on how to write the perfect pitch to brands with sound advice on how to lay out that all important first contact.  Her talk included tips such as letting the brand you’re pitching to know just why it is that you love them and including what made you want to work with them, but also making sure that you never over promise on what you can deliver when you make your pitch.  Looking around the room there was a 50/50 split on those frantically jotting down notes in notepads covered with inspiring quotes, and those taking screenshots of the words of wisdom displayed on screen.

KIRSTY LEANNE

Next up was Queen Beady, a Blogger you’ll no doubt recognise from my own social media as she’s my Ice Queen hair icon, sporting silvery white tresses I fawned over her hair and her awesome teadress whilst on stage.  Her talk was inspiring, the biggest thing I took away from it was learning how to translate your top five achievements into your outgoing USP and making them work as hard for you as you did for them.  Simple, but super relevant.  Bee talked about putting money back into the thing that makes you money, whether it’s your blog or your chosen social media platform, put effort into making it look as awesome as it can, after all it’s an extension of you and well, we’re all pretty damn amazing right?!

QUEEN BEADY
JUST LOOK AT THAT HAIR…

After a lunch break and a chance to network with the people we think we know but we actually only “online know”, gasp at each others outfits and just generally seek out the people we adore and admire, it was back to our seats for the final talk of the day from photographer extraordinaire, Kaye Ford.  Kaye is a great public speaker, she’s super laid back and had everyone engaged as she spoon fed us tips on both cellphone photography and DSLR photography and how to make it work for our own websites.  With tips on how to shoot snow (for reals, it’s hard), to using tourists as part of the field in our photographs, Kaye told us to travel lots and to look away from the regular tourist hotspots for show stopping images.

KAYE FORD

But what about icelolly.com?

Well, they’ve just overhauled their website to make it way more user friendly.  If you’re not familiar, it’s a comparison site for holidays; in the same way that you might use a comparison site for your car insurance, icelolly.com scrapes the web to return the best vacation deals based on the criteria you set and then refers you out to purchase from the seller direct.  You don’t pay them any money and they don’t sell you anything.

Any thing else to report?

Well yes actually!  Throughout the day we were informed that #BlogAtTheBeach was the trending at the top spot and that the icelolly.com bods had been scanning our posts to find their favourites.  At the end of the event two winners were announced and given a Charles Conrad watch from Watches 2 U and I just happened to be one of them!  I was given a pretty smart looking watch with a rose gold bezel and black leather strap which I promptly slapped on my wrist for the journey home.  Yay me!

THE CHARLES CONRAD WATCH I WON!

Was it worth it?

Hell yeah!  The great thing about the Blog at the Beach event is that despite being hosted by icelolly.com it’s impartial and non-biased.  The speakers were given free reign on their topics and on the rare occasion that a competitor came up they were never stopped from speaking about it.  The Bloggers and Influencers selected to attend the event were friendly and accommodating – something you sadly don’t always find at networking events, and the speakers made lots of time for questions afterwards to make sure that everyone in attendance took something away that they could use and apply to their work.  Icelolly.com were open in asking for feedback, or suggestions on where the next event might take place and they worked their way round the room in the recess periods chatting to everyone.  It was definitely an unexpected vibe, and in a positive way.  Given the chance I’ll be all over the next one.

So what’s next?

Well, as you know Voyeurs, I have both Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks right around the corner straight after London and I’ve got a pretty awesome idea for a Fashion Month Diary pitch formulating in my mind.  I’ll keep you posted…

As you were.

Pixie xo

 

Categories: Lifestyle, North East

The Alchemist Launches Late Lab

The Alchemist launched in Newcastle earlier this year after what felt like the biggest hype of any new bar offering the city has ever seen.  Dark, gothic skull murals hid the space that was to be occupied by this curious new nightspot, only fuelling the anticipation.

When The Alchemist Newcastle finally opened its doors, I was lucky enough to bag a ticket to the VIP launch party and what struck me that night, was that despite the gorgeous copper and black decor and the bar theatrics, it not only takes a long time to get served but once you’ve ordered a drink it can take a good 20 minutes before it crosses your lips.  Bo and I found ourselves ordering four drinks at a time to beat the bar line and subsequent wait for drinks.

Initial social media feedback about the brand new venue and it’s darkly gothic interior was awesome with people travelling from all over the North East to grab a piece of that signature alchemy for themselves, but the length of time it took to get a drink in your hand was a sticking point.  Rather than sit back and do nothing, the team behind The Alchemist put their uber coiffed heads together and came up with a solution: Late Lab.  A suite of drinks packages that you order in advance of your arrival.  Sounds simple?  It really is.  The principle behind the idea is cutting out that wait time at the bar and those repeat visits that eat into your night out.

I was invited to the VIP Preview of Late Lab to get the skinny on what it’s all about and whether it really is worth checking out.  Our small group of four was greeted on arrival by our host for the evening and we were shown a specific Late Lab menu which ranges in price from £90 to £270.  Now don’t disappear just yet, yes it sounds pricey but consider what that gets you, each package varies dramatically, from party size to the selection of drinks included, we’re here to check out the Hip Flasks package, priced at £90.  For that we get a large booth reserved for our exclusive use all night (The Alchemist have, up to now, never allowed reservations on tables for drinks only), a host for the evening who will make sure we’re never without a drink until we’ve drunk our package dry, a ginormous Zombie Apocalypse sharing cocktail, and 4 smaller cocktails.  It might not sound like much but if you’re a cocktail drinker then you’ll know you can rack up a serious bill pretty quickly, especially when they average £10 each.

It’s a pretty neat package for four peeps, bundled up with a chrome hip flask bearing that Deathly Hallows-esque logo for each of your party.  A quick calculation tells us that if you were to rock up without Late Lab, £88 would buy you all of the drinks in the package, minus the table, add on the time taken for trips to the bar and the wait for drinks to be prepared, carry the one, you get my drift….  If you’ve visited The Alchemist before, then you’ll know that this is a nice and very necessary idea and if you do the math you’ll know that it’s super easy to spend way more than that on a night out in Newcastle.  There’s also a sneaky little secret you’ll definitely thank me for sharing; if you book online, you get a pretty sweet 25% off and if there are cocktails in the package that you and your squad aren’t keen on (step forward Little Miss Awkward Elle Blonde) then you can switch them out for something you prefer.  Princess equilibrium restored.

The Alchemist is famed for it’s exotic cocktails and attention to detail, you probably already know that the menu is pretty extensive.  The spectacle is a big part of a visit any branch of The Alchemist throughout the UK, with copper pans and bunsen burners in their arsenal these mighty mixologists know how to put on a show.  If you have your designated driver in tow then there’s a selection of non-alcoholic cocktails that are given just as much thought and flair as the alcoholic version, ‘Kaleing Me Softly’ and ‘Mango Shake’ are my personal favourites and they look pretty dramatic so you don’t feel left out.

Considering it?  In terms of monetary value, the cost of the cocktails with or without the package is very similar.  What you gain is time, and a table which comes with table service – something that’s hard to come by on an evening at The Alchemist.  If you’re intending on consuming multiple cocktails at The Alchemist then the benefit of cutting out the wait is worth it, add to that the discount you get for booking online and you’ve got yourself a tidy little saving whilst still looking like a total baller.

Pixie xo