Photo taken by the amazing Katie Meehan

No sooner had I recovered from our night at The Rub then it was time to get ready again for an evening of beauty and hijinx at Debenhams with the Benefit girls, Laura from Ellefluence had yet again rocked another event by providing not only a free beauty wax for yours truly (more on that later) but also prosecco, pizza from Manny's and of course star photographer Laura Pearman was once again present to capture all the goings on, for the first time in ages I felt safe to leave my camera at home!!  Don't get me wrong, I love being a photographer but when you are the photographer you miss the immersive experience of events and as I'd volunteered to be one of the waxing models I figured I wouldn't have time to take too many photos anyway!

I've always been a Benefit fan and I'll also be the first to admit that when it comes to beauty I know virtually nothing, I have gel nails refreshed once a month and I've been getting regularly waxed brows for about the last 10 years since I discovered the wonder of a good eyebrow wax.  Ladies if like me you are late to the beauty party and you are, also like me, on the wrong side of 40, go treat yourself for a wax at Benefit, you will feel and look 10 years younger, a good eyebrow wax is like a mini facelift, honest ladies, I'm not kidding about such a serious subject, do yourself a bigger favour though and go to Benefit because those ladies are waxing experts.

Now I must admit that when I volunteered for the evening I hadn't realised it was the full waxing treatment, that's brows, top lip and chin, ouch and baby cheesus, it hurt, I can't even pretend it didn't, what we ladies have to go through just to look halfway to decent, well lets just say I'll be getting it again but I might be ready for the pain of having above your lip waxed next time, there was a hilarious video but thankfully I think it's been deleted by time, oh and if it hasn't, well let's just say I won't be sharing it and I certainly won't be including that on my dating profile!!

Another thing I hadn't tried before was a brow tint and it makes such a difference, I can truly say that I love my eyebrows now, I may have even shouted afterwards "My eyebrows are on fleek" don't worry, I shan't be saying such things out loud too often and I did rush home to watch some superheroes on TV to deflect my girly outburst.

What I did do whilst there was some shopping for Christmas, obviously since certain teens are regular readers (I'm talking to you, Amazing Abigail) I can't tell you what I bought but let's just say certain teenagers in the Charlton family might be happy bunnies when Santa pays a visit.

The thing I love the most about any Ellefluence event is the chance to meet other bloggers and at beauty events you can always guarantee that I am the oldest blogger there, you know what, though, I don't mind a bit, I'm quite happy to be the blogger mamma because all the young glamorous beauty bloggers like Katie, Alice, and Chloe, well they're all fabulous and they don't ever look at me like "what in the heck is that old lady doing here?" haha!

I may be 42.10 but I'm really just at the very start of my foray into the world of beauty and with people like Laura in my life organising the most splendid events with companies like Benefit and Urban Decay, well this girl can't go wrong now, can she?  It's never too late to start making the best of what you have got so you might as well get out there and do it now lovely ladies.

Urban Decay Newcastle Event with Ellefluence and The Rub

I'm the first to admit that I've come into the heady world of beauty and makeup later in life so when I was invited to an Urban Decay event at Debenhams, Newcastle, I had to say yes, the fact that it was being organised by lovely Laura from Ellefluence and Elle Blonde meant I knew it would be a fabulous event!

The event took place early evening in the comfortable surroundings of the Debenhams cafe with a smorgasbord of the most delicious smokehouse foodie treats provided by Newcastle's most divine meaty restaurant, The Rub, if you are a fan of meat like I am then you must pay them a visit, my only problem is never having a big enough appetite to squeeze all of it in my tummy!

Urban Decay is a brand for everyone, up until the event I had foolishly believed it was just for the younger ladies amongst us but I couldn't have been more wrong, they even have their own anti-ageing makeup line which I've since tried and now adore, they do an anti-ageing eyeshadow primer which we were gloriously treated to in the most amazing goody bags and I can tell you that it really does make your eyes look younger, more sparkly and in the last week when so many people have commented that I'm looking younger and more glowy, well I can tell you that it's mostly down to just picking up makeup tricks.

Now I might have been the oldest blogger to attend the event but I certainly didn't feel like I wasn't just as welcome as the millennial beauty queen bloggers who were also in attendance, gorgeous Katie Meehan finally let me take her photo and you know what I love, Katie is 21 and I'm 42 and yet I adore her, we have a lovely friendship and we're planning to collaborate on some exciting stuff very soon.

I'm really lucky in the people that I have met through blogging, other favourite ladies include Laura of course who's smile and positive attitude just makes her adorable, Pixie who is just the smartest, gorgeous mamma with a style I would love to embrace and Ashleigh who is pretty much an all round smart, successful amazing lady and all of them were there at the event which made it an even better experience in my opinion.

After some makeup demonstrations we hurriedly slid down the escalators and onto the shop floor, it was shopping time and like kids in candy stores we all snaffled our favourite products safe in the knowledge that we actually know what to do with them now when we got them home, (that may have been just me, everyone else is way better at beauty).  As we scrambled for our homes in cars and taxi's laden with bags full of pretty lipsticks and pallets of the most beautiful eyeshadows I knew exactly what I would be requesting from Father Christmas this year, Urban Decay makeup, and lots of it!