Cocosa Launches Beauty Event

I’ll apologise in advance for the length of this blog post as I’ve got a lot to share!  Cocosa is a flash sale site that, until recently, was dedicated purely to fashion.  However, they’ve now branched out into beauty to include some fantastic brands which will also have flash sales in the same theme as their fashion based ones.

On Thursday I attended the Cocosa Launches Beauty event.  The idea of the event was to introduce us to some of the brands who will be available during Cocosa beauty flash sales, so I got to experience a little taster from each of the brands that interested me most.

First up, I had a wash and blow-dry with Neil who is a stylist for Percy & Reed.  The Percy & Reed range will be available through Cocosa and includes a huge array of styling and haircare products.  I instantly knew I’d get along with Neil as he wasn’t keen to give me that neat ‘stuck in place’ style that seems so popular with stylists.  Instead he wanted to give me volume with texture which is exactly what I would go for myself. I really hate hair that looks carefully constructed and forced into position; I just think hair with movement looks much sexier and far more natural.

So I had a good natter with Neil who told me about the range and gave me some great tips including one that I think is really useful; when you’re using a product for styling your hair, work it in to your hands then spray a layer of hairspray over the product on your hands.  This gives the product itself a little more fluidity whilst also adding a bit more hold to both the hair and the product.  

Some before pics of my hair; unfortunately this was taken about 5 hours after the blowdry and I’d had  a facial which had smooshed the volume a bit, but texturally you can still see what was achieved.

Another thing we discussed was my hair type.  Just as my skin refuses to conform to any kind of specific type – making product choices such a joy…- so does my hair.  I have a lot of fine hair, which means I need to find a balance in my hair care range by ensuring I use products for both fine and thick hair.  This made a lot of sense and consequently Neil used a few picks from the range to cover both hair types.

Neil used quite a few styling products in my hair which initially made me a bit nervous as I was worried that my hair would feel like it had product in, but thankfully, once styled, you couldn’t tell there was anything on the hair when you touched it and could only see the difference in the way my hair stayed thick, shiny and textured.  The products Neil used were Bountifully Bouncy Volumising Shampoo, Brilliantly Beautiful Superglossing Mask, Smoothed, Sealed and Sensational No Oil Oil for Thick Hair, Abundantly Bouncy Volumising Mousse, Superstar Supersized Bodifying Cream, Reassuringly Firm Session Hold Hairspray and No Fuss Fabulousness Dry Shampoo.

Next I had a taster facial with Oskia who are a boutique spa based in Covent Garden with their own range of products.  I can honestly say I’ve never experienced a facial massage quite like this; the technique my lady used (I did know her name but I was so zonked out by the end of the treatment that I wasn’t capable of remembering anything!) was absolutely amazing and I am definitely going to book in for a full treatment as soon as I can.  The process of the facial itself was pretty standard; I had 2 deep cleanses, mask, oil massage and various hot towels at times throughout the treatment (it’s all very sketchy….) but the massage technique was out of this world and completely calmed me down and spaced me out.  Not great considering I had lots of questions to ask and pictures to take, but I pushed through!  I did spend the following half an hour wondering if I could get away with a little snooze on the sofa though.  I am a BAD BLOGGER as I didn’t make a note of the products that were used in my treatment, but one thing that did really impress me was how great my skin felt and looked the following day.  I do tend to breakout after facials as nine times out of ten, a facial usually involves too much oil and hydration for my skin to tolerate, but my skin didn’t feel oily or greasy at all following the facial, it just felt balanced, smooth and refreshed.  Definitely a big thumbs up from me and a truly great experience.  I was given a tub of the Renaissance Mask to take away with me and going by the smell, I believe this was used in my treatment so expect a review of this soon.

After my ridiculously good facial, I had a make-up consultation with Jules Cardozo-Marsh who is the make-up artist for Youngblood Cosmetics.  I’ve heard lots of good things about Youngblood but hadn’t had a chance to try out any of their products, so I was looking forward to this introduction.  Jules discussed what sort of look I’d like to go for and I said I wanted something natural but pretty, so we went for a light base and warmed my complexion with a neutral blush and focussed instead on the eyes.  Jules used two shades of brown on my eyes, one was a darker muted brown and the other was a more reddy brown which really made my eyes stand out.

Again, another picture taken ages after application but i thought it’d be handy to get an idea of how my eyes look.

I don’t know the shade names but I will be getting in touch with Jules (unfortunately by this point I was running out of time) to find out what they were as I really loved the reddy brown colour which I think worked perfectly with both my eye colour and complexion.  The look was natural, wearable and easy which is exactly what I like.  I will be doing a follow-up with Jules who kindly agreed to let me interview her for the blog and as she’s very experienced and knows her make-up, that’ll definitely make for a great read.

Lastly, I had a lip makeover with Bite.  Bite is a brand I am obscenely excited about as they’re entire product line is all about the lips.  I love the idea of a brand that has chosen one feature to focus on as the result is a gigantic catalogue of colours, textures and treatments all aimed at the lips.  I could’ve had a field day at the Bite stand as there were so many fantastic things on offer.  I was colour matched to the shade Chablis in the High Pigment Pencil which gives a matte yet very smooth and comfortable finish.  I will be a doing a full feature on Bite soon as I definitely think they’re a brand worth checking out if you’re not familiar with them already.

There wasn’t one experience I was disappointed with from this event and I’m excited to see what else is added to the Cocosa beauty catalogue.  Normally I’d always try and pick a favourite from lists like these, but it’s really very difficult to choose between the Oskia facial and the introduction to Bite, both of which are brands I was previously unfamiliar with, so I’ll instead say that I’m uber-excited about both and can’t wait to hear more about them.

Cocosa Beauty is now live meaning that there are beauty flash sales already up and running.  The Oskia one is currently live (fighting the urge to purchase one of their experience vouchers as we speak) and can be found here and Bite is a Cocosa exclusive which can be found here. To be kept up to date on everything Cocosa you can sign up to their newsletter here.