The Cosmo Blog Awards Ceremony 2014

It was always going to be a glamorous night.

And by jove, was there a lot of glamour.

The Cosmo Blog Awards had seemed a long time coming, but Tuesday 7th October 2014 finally rolled round (somewhat springing up on me, actually) and I was so excited to be going, especially since I hadn’t been able to make it the previous year.

So, after a morning of lectures and seminars, I got curiously glammed up for the middle of the day and made my way down to the train station to meet my Bristol blogging buddy, Ambi (of the wonderful Bombay Rose, shortlisted for Best Beauty Blog.)

Despite having been online friends for yonks, Ambi and I had never actually met before Tuesday. It’s strange how you can really feel like you know someone despite having only spoken online. But unsurprisingly Ambi and I hit it off like a house on fire in person too, and we chatted, gossiped and laughed all the way to London. (I’m sure the rest of the carriage enjoyed our Tinder stories too.)

I’m really glad the awards finally gave us a reason to meet and it was much more fun having Ambi to travel with than it would’ve been alone. We made our predictions as to what the evening would involve (cupcakes and cocktails were my bets) and shared each other’s excitement. 

As a real London lover, I was pretty psyched to be off to the capital, even just for the evening. And yes, I turn into a massive tourist upon seeing all the sights I’ve seen a million times before.

The awards ceremony was being held at the OXO2 Tower overlooking the Thames in Central London. Quite the location!

Yes, I intentionally chose a bag with cupcakes on.

Ambi and I casually slipped on our heels, checked in our coats and excitedly headed into the party.

I think I’d like to have men offering me cocktails and Champagne every time I enter a room. Can we make that a thing please? OK, good. 

There was much to explore, but we figured a flute of sparkle was a good place to start.

Next sponsored the whole blog awards, but do you wanna know something else about Next? They make a mean cookie-pop. (Is that a thing? Did I make it up?) 

I definitely had at least four of these over the course of the evening. 

Now I must say, the bar was simply wonderful and the alcohol was pretty free-flowing. There were so many gorgeous cocktails to try and so we obviously made sure to sample them all. 

It turned out some were rather strong so we may not have finished them all, but hey, we’re just responsible young ladies like that.

Cosmo had organised a whole host of beautifying treatments for the night. Convenient, then, that yours truly had not done much herself beforehand. A lot of the bloggers were like, “yeah, this is great, but I’ve already done my own make-up/hair/eye-lashes/nail wraps.” NOT THIS GAL! So I pounced. On everything.

Got my smokey eye on thanks to MUA…

Got my hair curled thanks to Remington…

Got false lashes thanks to The London Dolls…

And got nail wraps thanks to IZ Beauty.

Not too shabby eh?

So I gradually got more glamorous over the night, which was fun. 

Speaking of glamorousness, I haven’t told you about my dress yet, have I? *gasp* Shame on me.

Well, it shall now be known as the Elsa-from-Frozen dress. I hadn’t seen the resemblance before, but so many people said I looked like Elsa on the night, and hey, I wasn’t going to complain. She’s a babe. What do you think?

Elsa

Me

We could basically be twins, right?

I'm not going to lie, I totally love my dress. It's different, which I like a lot. And so spaaaarrrkly!

A couple of weeks before the awards I tried on the dress I'd planned on wearing. It was a smidge tight. Awks. Never mind, thought I, this is the perfect opportunity to treat myself to a new one. So off into town I went.

It transpired there were, like, ZERO suitable dresses on the British high street. Where was all the glitz and glamour? I guess it's just not quite Christmas party season yet.

Just when I was giving up hope, I strolled into my saviour, Miss Selfridge. My dress was in the sale for an absolutely nuts £17. And if that wasn't good enough, there was a 20% student discount on for a limited time. AND THEN it was buy-one-get-one-free on all sale items so I only went and grabbed another back-up dress too.

Biggest shopping win ever? I think so.

But let me tell you, there were a lot of fabulously dressed ladies at the awards, as one would expect.

It was so much fun to meet and chat with so many like-minded ladies. The blogosphere is generally such a supportive community, which I love. It was also wonderful to put faces to names and meet so many of the ladies I stalk follow online.

L-R: Ambi (Bombay Rose), Natasha (Graphique Fantastique), Katie (Scarphelia), Samantha (Nashbag), me (I think you know my blog.)

Total babes. Do check out their blogs.

If I hadn't been feeling sufficiently in my element already, the cupcakes just about sent me overboard. Not just cupcake-eating, my friends, but cupcake-decorating, courtesy of Two Little Cats Bakery.

It was awesome: they had a choice of chocolate or vanilla cupcakes, loads of different flavoured icings, all ready in piping bags, and then ALL THE SPRINKLES! Too much fun. I may have gone back multiple times. (And in all seriousness, I'm still dreaming of the peanut butter icing... *eyes glaze over*)

Just about managed to save one for the train journey home. NOMS.

I had to quickly stuff one in my face at the awards because...

...it was time for the real reason we'd all travelled to London (although I'd have totally gone just for all the beauty, cake and cocktails): the awards! So we all filtered into another room and excitedly took our seats.

I literally was not expecting to win so simply enjoyed watching everyone else get their awards and cheering them on. Check out the winners here and watch the video to see my few seconds of fame!

To be perfectly honest though, it did make me even sadder that I couldn't make it last year as it would've been super awesome to have gone up to collect an award. Oh well.

And post-awards it was back into the main room where the party continued!

By this point we were feeling the effect of the cocktails and thinking some actual food would go down well.

So it was perfect timing when the most adorable little bowlfuls of food started appearing.

There was steak and chips, and then a bowl of halloumi, lentils, sweet potato and spinach which was utterly divine.

The fun continued with Thomson's random beach spot. They'd sponsored the Best Travel Blog competition, and who doesn't love dressing up in beach stuff over a snazzy dress in the middle of London? Exactly.

The evening was drawing to a close and it was soon time for Ambi and I to head off and catch our train back to Bristol.

But of course, we made sure to pick up our goodie bags before leaving!

What a sweet selection, eh? Lucky us.

When we left the building, we were treated to the most AMAAAAZING view!

It was simply stunning, and as we wandered along the Thames back to the tube station (half expecting to bump into the cast of Made In Chelsea having an awkward but dramatic conversation), it made me even more sure of my desire to live in London after graduating.

It was a truly wonderful evening and I had an absolute ball. Thank you so much to every reader of Handbags and Cupcakes and everyone who voted for me. Considering there were over 47,000 entries this year, I'm still proud of my achievement in being shortlisted.

I think it's wonderful that Cosmo put on the awards and champion us all as well. It's a great way to find new blogs, discover new talent and make new friends.

Thanks to Ambi for letting me use some of her fab pics!