Heston Summer Cup, cricket and Lord's - the summer season's officially here

While the chinking of ice with Pimms, the aroma of British fresh strawberries and the welcome turning back of the clocks are all undeniable signs that summer is in sight, here at ZPR the only way to know the summer season is officially  underway is the arrival of the Waitrose Summer Party.

This year it was held at the quintessentially British venue of Lord's Cricket Ground, to celebrate Waitrose's three-year term as official Team Sponsor of England Cricket and to say thank you to partners, suppliers and friends of the supermarket alike. While we confess to not being the most clued up on cricket (how can one game last so many days?!), we couldn't fail to be impressed by unrivalled access to the Long Room, player dressing rooms and of course views onto the pitch itself.

Upon arrival, guests were treated to a selection of gorgeous canapés, devised by Waitrose executive chef Jonathan Moore and his team, including coronation chicken scotch eggs, treacle cured salmon, white chocolate cricket bats with strawberries and cream cricket ball truffles all expertly matched with the delicious Foxhole Vineyard English Rosé.

We were privileged to be joined by the likes of Steve Jones, Alan Titchmarsh, Mary Berry and Ben Fogle. And who could forget Pippa Middleton who, along with Lisa Snowdon, wore a dress in a gorgeous shade of green, in addition to revealing a new shorter haircut.

A fab night to celebrate the best of summer - here's to a great cricket season and next stop, Christmas in July! 

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Happy 50th Birthday Superdrug!

Phew! What a busy month April was for our Superdrug team. Why? Well, it’s not every day you turn 50. Not the spring chickens on the team of course – Superdrug (which may be 50, but is still looking fabulous).

Obviously, Superdrug wanted to make lots of noise about its golden anniversary. Iconic brands created limited edition products to celebrate, including St Tropez, Revlon, Max Factor, Rimmel, Carmex and Astral, so it was all hands on deck making sure media were briefed and samples were shared. As we expected the products went down a storm and we’ve seen some brilliant coverage.

We built a series of news stories focusing on the heritage of the brand. Seeing the development of the beauty industry over the last half century proved fascinating to media, with survey and news coverage appearing in much of the national press. We also created a Beauty Through The Ages stop motion video, recreating iconic looks from the 60s to today, which was seeded out to online media and bloggers as well being hosted on Superdrug’s own social channels – have a look and choose your favourite!

Superdrug Beauty Through The Ages video

We invited 60s icon Lulu – also celebrating 50 years in the spotlight this year, can you believe it?! – to Superdrug’s Putney store, just a few doors down from where the first ever store was opened. Looking chic as ever, Lulu posed up a storm outside the store, which was redesigned for the day to echo the original shop front. Giving interviews to the Daily Mail and DARE, Superdrug’s instore magazine, the Shout singer spoke about her own love of hair and beauty. A Superdrug girl through and through!

We saw Superdrug MD Joey Wat joined at the Putney store by Howard and Ronald Goldstein, two of Superdrug’s founding brothers. Together they unveiled a plaque heralding the brand’s 50^th year, before presenting the store team with a 50^th birthday cake. Last week also saw Superdrug hosting a celebration event to thank suppliers, media, and colleagues for their support. A few famous friends of the brands were also in attendance, helping secure coverage across key showbiz websites and with consumer party pages covering the event in the coming weeks.

So as you can see, there’s been plenty to keep the team busy this spring. It’s been such an exciting couple of months, and we’re sure you’ll join us in wishing Superdrug a very happy birthday – here’s to the next 50 years! 

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Oh what a beautiful morning

The St Martins Lane Hotel was the super stylish setting for our B. press masterclass. It was a bustling morning packed full of beauty journalists and bloggers, who were all there to find out what’s new from the brand as well as meet and learn from new B. makeup ambassador, celebrity makeup artist Cassie Lomas.

Early bird guests arrived promptly at 8am en route to the office and enjoyed breakfast canapés while having a morning mani in a new seasonal shade – not a bad way to start the day. The room was soon packed by 9am for Cassie’s first masterclass, where she demonstrated to our eager guests how they could re-create some of the key runway looks at home. They had all the makeup and tools they needed to try out the look themselves as Cassie showed them on her gorgeous model Chloe.

It was fantastic to see so many guests joining in and mastering tricky trends from futuristic eyeliner to a big bold Cara brow.

@joinbsocial #summerb and check out what British Beauty Blogger thinks of the new Limited Edition Summer makeup http://www.britishbeautyblogger.com/?s=b.+complete

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Heston's made our Easter!

Take a look at what's arrived in Waitrose stores today - the Easter Egg of all Easter Eggs. Here's what the Mailonline said about it http://dailym.ai/NqpOCO

Sticking with chocolate (sorry for those of you who have given it up for Lent), Lakeland and Paul Young's How To Make Chocolates book has landed so if Heston's egg is a bit extravagant for you and you fancy the personal touch, making your own handmade truffles and filled chocolates at home you can now do that with their help, advice and chocolate making kit.

Yesterday's Beauty Bible reader event at Fenwick of Bond Street with YOU Magazine's Sarah Stacey and Josephine Fairley was a great success and the two Lucy's in our team will be off on tour from next week as the events hit York, Newcastle, Brent Cross, Bentalls in Kingston and Tunbridge Wells stores.

It's that time of year for beautiful events as last week's GOSH blogger event at the Hospital members club attracted a fantastic beauty buzz and we're hoping for the same at our event next week with Cassie Lomas, the make up artist for B. @ Superdrug. Cassie will be showcasing new season B. products and giving great master classes in bold brows and blue eyes to get the latest catwalk beauty looks at the St Martin's Lane Hotel.  A beautiful way to start the day!

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No smoking jacket required

This week we've taken up smoking.  Smoked cocktails, smoked salmon, smoked cheese - that's the kind of smoking we're looking at with the launch of Lakeland's latest kitchen must-have the smoking gun bringing this on trend food technique in to your very own kitchen. Smokin!

We told you the bumbag was the latest must have bag and today the Times agrees with us although we didn't spot any bumbags at the Oscars.  How amazing and glamorous did they all look?  Our favourites were Jennifer Lawrence, Lapita, Amy Adams and Angelina.  The white tux featured on the red carpet this year inspired by YSL and Planet has it covered @planet_fashion#smokinhot pic.twitter.com/W1no2BQ0x



Meanwhile the Waitrose team at ZPR have been busying visiting suppliers and enjoying a spot of curry - check out the alternative white jacket look!

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No post fashion week blues here only greens

London feels a little calmer this week after a fab week last week.  London Fashion Week, the BAFTAs, The Brits - all on our doorstep and an impromptu gig by Prince on Frith Street too!  So many glam things in one week - we're so lucky to have these things on our doorstep and to get the chance to attend some of them too.

Cara Delevingne, model of the moment was spotted knitting backstage last week so the Hobbycraft team's knitting needles are twitching at the thought of this confirming what we knew already that knitting and crafting is super cool.  Not only is knitting popular with the twitterati we're loving the new series of the British Sewing Bee - Patrick Grant is so cool but he's pretty tough on those sewing bees so we're looking forward to another edition tonight.  If you think that sewing skills should be back on the National Curriculum why not sign up to Hobbycraft's petition?  http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/british-government-put-sewing-back-on-the-national-curriculum

On trend this week is the revival of the bum bag spotted backstage at LFW and on celebs galore, see here this super cool bag from Fenwick of Bond Street.  #eightiesrevival

Also hitting down this week on Bond Street are the new vegetable juices #juice scientist.  Juicing is so of the moment with Lakeland's Juicing machine being picked up massively by the media and Waitrose set to launch a new range of raw fruit and veg juices to its shelves too.   After the excesses of last week some healthy green juice is just the ticket.

Tonight sees the Superdrug team pitching the best of its own brand products at the CEW (Cosmetic Executive Woman) Beauty Awards demo evening where the great and the good of the beauty industry get to try out the product award nominations.  With so many great value and innovative cosmetic and skincare products launched recently the team are hoping to scoop some accolades when the awards are announced later this year.

Talking of awards we're looking forward to seeing who wears what at the Oscars this weekend as well as who scoops the awards - so many great films out this year.  Who's your money on?

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Crafting Out A Fashionable Week

We were celebrating at the weekend with Team GB picking up their first ever medal on snow - we had a few White Russians ironically.  Go Team GB!

We're loving the coverage on NY Fashion Week from IT girl of the moment Rita Ora to David Beckham's selfies of him and the kids on the FROW of VB's fabulous show.  It's getting us well in the mood for London Fashion Week as are Fenwick of Bond Street's windows.  EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW! #DavidDownton sketches key #designers making BIG statements at #LFW @FenwickBondSt @TeleFashion pic.twitter.com/ZLMrRS32yN

We're super relieved that it looks like the Tube strike is cancelled so that all our crafty guests can still join us at the Hobbycraft press show at Homemade London on Thursday.  We'll be joined by Kirstie Allsopp who is launching a new range of craft kits at Hobbycraft.  We'll be hanging out with Kirstie on Google + as she hosts a hangout with those bloggers and press outside of London who aren't able to make it to the event. We've also planned to make our Valentine's Day cards and gifts at the event too so that we can earn lots of homemade brownie points on Friday.  Talking of brownies have any of you entered the Taste off Competition on ITV's Lorraine Show for a chance of your 'sweet treat' of choice ending up on the patisserie counter at Waitrose?

If your love needs some hints and tips for Valentines other than a personalised hand made card you could always persuade him to pop in to Fenwick of Bond Street before Friday to pick up an item or two from the divine Helena Christensen's new lingerie range for Triumph.

Looking ahead to the weekend and early next week we'll have a watchful eye on the red carpets at the BAFTA's and the BRITS - oh the glamour!  The Superdrug team will be pulling together the beauty 'get the looks' at a fraction of the cost so that we can all look red carpet glamour ready.  Let us know whose look gets your vote next week.

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A real British Cuppa

Now you can enjoy a cup of the nation's favourite blend which has been home grown as Waitrose becomes the first supermarket to stock British grown tea from a plantation in sunny Cornwall.  We're celebrating with tea and cake today as Superdrug's B. brand celebrates its first beautiful birthday.  Happy Birthday B. Check out the new fabulous get the look videos by make up artist Cassie Lomas, http://happybirthdayb.co.uk/ and tweet your feedback @bsocial #happybirthdayb.

Sticking with beauty, the fabulous Sarah Stacey and Jo Fairley are launching their latest Beauty Bible book, the Ultimate Natural Beauty Bible and we're delighted they've chosen Fenwick of Bond Street for the launch of their latest book.  Reader evenings with You Mag are taking place at Fenwick stores across the country in March so be quick if you want to book a place as tickets are selling fast.

Now that we're in February we're turning to think about how to treat our Valentines this year and we're thinking handmade cards and gifts this year for the real personal touch.  We're delighted to hear that the Great British Sewing Bee will be back on our screens this month so not only will we be baking our way through Feb, we'll be sewing too.  Some of us were lucky enough (or old enough) to have learned how to sew at school and if you think sewing should be back on the national curriculum why not sign Hobbycraft's petition at http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/british-government-put-sewing-back-on-the-national-curriculum

It's a busy start  for Feb with events in the next couple of weeks including Hobbycraft's press show taking place on 13 February at Homemade London with special guest visitor Kirstie Allsopp and on the evening of 12th February our friends from GOSH cosmetics will be showcasing their new make up launches at the Hospital Club.  We're feeling fabulous about February!

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