rljlowe: Zoella Winter Wonderland

Treasure Me Gift Collection | £40

My little sister, Ellen, likes to enter a lot of competitions on Twitter and Instagram. So when she messaged me saying she'd finally won one, you can imagine the surprise when she revealed it was two tickets to the Zoella Winter Wonderland. She asked if I would accompany her to London to visit the Winter Wonderland and of course, I had to say yes. I never thought I'd be excited for Christmas in September but I can tell you now, having a wander through that Winter Wonderland got me very excited about the upcoming festive season.

The great thing about the visit was that there were only about fifteen people in our time slot, meaning that we all had the chance to really have a look around without struggling to get past other people. The room smelt incredible, mainly due to all the candles burning and the amount of people spraying the new body mist. Directly in front of you was a huge snow globe you could take pictures in, with "Zoella" written in huge letters on the window above. Ellen and I first went over to the bathtub which was filled with fake snow, to sit in and get some pictures. Now, I was wearing jeans that have a slightly questionable tear near the crotch and let me tell you now, that fake snow gets absolutely everywhere...

After the bathtub, we went over to the next photo opportunity stop - the Zoella Sleigh. We both had our pictures taken and then one of the lovely ladies helping out asked if we'd like a picture together on the Instax camera. Of course we said yes and afterwards we wrote Zoe a little message and clipped it onto the photo tree, along with the pictures everyone who'd visited the Winter Wonderland had taken. Right next to the sleigh was a GIANT Zoella advent calendar with twelve compartments, each displaying a selection of the new Winter range inside.

Next up we had the hot chocolate bar, I didn't think I was going to have any of it because I'm not particularly fond of hot chocolate (sue me, right?) but as it was there I thought I'd give it a go. It was served in the new Zoella "Cosy Vibes" mug and you had several different topping options to add to your hot chocolate. I went for a little bit of gingerbread and my word, it was the nicest hot chocolate I've ever had. It wasn't watery like your normal hot chocolates, it was literally molten chocolate and it was incredible. It was served by the "Dinner Ladies" who are an actual company, not the dinner ladies you would have at primary school. Unfortunately they don't have their own store but tend to do pop up slots, so it's best to follow them on Instagram to keep updated;

@dinner_ladies

Now who could resist getting a picture in the enormous bauble/snow globe? Ellen and I certainly couldn't, have you even been to the Zoella Winter Wonderland if you haven't had a picture in the globe? There was a little basket of props you could put on for the picture, I went for the new bobble hat which I'm obsessed with because of the dark green, fluffy bobble. So before I went into the globe, I briefed Ellen that I wanted a video clip, a few pictures and a Boomerang - social media problems. There were a couple of fans that kept the globe inflated which were especially handy for blowing up the fake snow, really emulating that snow globe effect. You cannot hear a single thing in that globe so it was especially difficult trying to communicate with Ellen on if she was filming, taking a picture or getting that all important countdown for the Boomerang. Cue a lot of awkward hand gestures trying to figure it out!

After the snow globe, Ellen and I sat down with a lovely lady to have a hand massage with the Zoella "Winter Wonder Hand". I wouldn't say I've had many hand massages in my time but the one at the Winter Wonderland was definitely the best one I've ever had, probably due to the atmosphere, the smell of the cream and the really friendly lady giving the massage. Whilst Ellen had her hand massage I had a look at all of the new products when the ladies helping at the event gave me a goody bag. Our younger sister Harriet couldn't go to the Winter Wonderland because of school and I had promised her my goody bag because I didn't think I'd be that interested in any of the products. But as it turns out, I ended up really liking the collection, mainly because I feel like it is a bit more sophisticated than the previous releases. This raised a problem because I now wanted to keep my own goody bag, so I asked if it was possible to get an extra one for Hairy and they delivered. We walked away smelling amazing and three goody bags to keep us all happy. What a day!