Clarins Central Pharmacy - 25th Anniversary

Last week I was invited along to the 25th Anniversary celebrations of Central Pharmacy in Cardiff. The store, which is at the heart of one of Cardiff's most popular shopping areas, is a beauty blogger's paradise, stocking a wide range of brands, from Clarins to Daniel Sandler; Dior to Nuxe. In addition to all the beauty loveliness stocked instore, Central Pharmacy is also home to a Clarins salon, which is one of only 76 salons in the U.K to have been awarded Clarins Gold Salon Status, so you can be assured that you are receiving the highest standard of Clarins service.

At the event we were given the opportunity to be given makeovers, using the latest Clarins makeup collections and were also given a demonstration of the Clarins Professional TriActive Facial and Body Treatments, which have been developed over five years.

There are six different types of Tri-Active facial, which are designed to address specific skin concerns:

• The Youth Activator
• The Lifting Line Smoother
• The Radiance Reviver
• The Moisture Replenisher
• The Skin Healer
• The Detox and Shine Stopper

The treatments have had some great reviews, e.g. 'Elle' UK's Georgia Collins has described the treatment as "one hour and twenty minutes of utter bliss", so it was good to be able to see the results up close. The treatments looked very relaxing, and the ladies who were having the treatments looked great after they'd finished, and were really pleased with the results. After the demonstrations, a large number of ladies rushed to book themselves in for the treatments after being impressed with the results.

The beauty therapist was really helpful, and was more than happy to give guests advice on which products would work best for their skin concerns, and also the best way to apply the products in order to maximise their effectiveness.

At the event it was great to be able to meet my fellow beauty blogger, Ms Red, of Ms Red's Beauty Blog, who I'd previously only known from Twitter. I also got to meet the lovely Sam from Clarins HQ who was wearing some fabulous Alexander Wang-esque boots from TopShop, which I was disappointed to find out were from a previous season, so will never be mine!

Ms Red

Central Pharmacy is owned by the same family who run Escentual, and it was lovely to be able to chat to @EscentualRakesh about the store and its plans in the forthcoming months.

Just before I left, I took advantage of the 25% discount being offered for the Anniversary celebrations, and purchased Daniel Sandler's limited edition 'In Love' candle, which is burning as I type. That was my consolation for not being able to attend Daniel's instore appearance later that week.

I might not have won one of the prizes (£75, £100, and £150 Clarins prize hampers) in the fantastic raffle that everyone had been entered into, but I was more than happy with my goodie bag which contained a powder compact, a mini Beauty Flash Balm (one of my Holy Grail products), and a mini HydraQuench Intensive Serum Bi-Phase.