Hi lovelies, hope your all okay. I recently was able to visit the QVC studios and see a bit of shooting last week which I was extremely extremely excited about. I’ve visited the studios before, but this time round I was able to drop in to show featuring the beautiful Sarah Chapman and pick at her brain a little bit after the show during a meet and greet. I thought I would show you little back stage action, and make you realise just how different things are behind the camera and talk a little bit about what I discovered regarding QVC.

Home shopping really is a convenience to so many people, and when your sitting down and watching people present the latest beauty finds and amazing deals it’s hard to imagine what really is happening behind the scene. See I’ve worked on beauty counters before and I mistakenly thought that QVC was a little bit similar to that. A lot of claims are made on counters that hold little truth behind it and I thought maybe QVC did the same.. they ‘beautified’ the truth. I couldn’t have been more wrong! The Advertising Standards Authority heavily monitor what is being said and whether there are lies involved, and QVC stick strongly to their rules and regulations. Sometimes brands come out with claims that cannot be proved, and if a brand on QVC attempt to do that then QVC will make them stop if they wish to be featured on the channel. Much more trust worthy than retail shop assistants hey?!

A huge do not disturb sign!

Above we have a couple of snaps from behind the scenes, a On Air sign outside the control room and the control room itself. This is where lots of important actions occur such as camera control and sound control. You know how presenters have little earphone thingys in their ear? This is where the person who talks into it sits. They tell them things such as how long left till break or how long till the camera comes back to them. Also, notice when QVC inform us that there are only 50 items left, or the item is about to sell out? The person telling the presenter that is in the control room. And again I used to be a bit of sceptic thinking is a product really selling out or are they just trying to convince us to buy. Well again they are not allowed to lie, and that is the complete truth. I myself saw how quickly Sarah Chapman’s Neck and Chest Rejuvenating Complex started selling out, the products go really quickly!

I peeked into some of the dressing rooms were presenters and guests get ready and I have to admit I mentally planned how my dressing room in my mansion will look like. Look at those huge mirrors surrounded by lights. Currently at home I’ve also set up a huge mirror going across the wall like the first picture, well not that big ..but it most definitely doesn’t come with lights and the glamour. The studio also has a salon for models to prep and ‘chilling out’ rooms where guests and presenters can sit and relax. It really is rather luxurious and much bigger than I imagined!

As you can see from the pictures above, there is no huge camera crew (like I had imagined) instead there are robotic cameras. AND the thing that really surprised me was the lack of auto cue! Everything everyone says comes from their own mind, their own knowledge. They aren’t being fed seductive words to entice the viewer, only what they know. From the pictures above you can see Alison Young talking to the lovely Sarah Chapman about her latest launch ‘Neck and Chest Rejuvenating Complex’ which happens to currently be a QVC exclusive at the moment which you can get hold of here. Currently it’s on a special price of £45.58 and had great feedback when samples were tested at the QVC beauty bash. I’ve actually been able to get my hands on the product, and I will try to bring a more in depth review on it for you.

QVC have a lot of different studios, and here in another one prepped and ready for a show on bed linen. Apparently there are hidden sets, for example you pull the bed forward and behind a bath room set comes out! With fitting and fixtures like these, I think I can see myself moving in to the QVC studios. Really, you wouldn’t mind being locked in there for the night. In the morning you can head over to the salon and get ready in luxury!

I really had such an amazing time at the studios and it was really great meeting Sarah Chapman and getting to talk about her different products. My stand out favourite was the Overnight Facial which was this gorgeous luxurious feeling oil which you massage in to you skin every night. It smelt absolutely gorgeous and has definitely been added to my never ending to buy list. Honestly it smelt so so good, the jasmine notes really stood out and didn’t smell synthetic at all. You can have a look at it here 

Overall I had a great time at the event, getting to tour the studios and see how live shows work in more depth. I hope you all enjoyed this post and were able to get a little bit more of an idea what goes on behind the scenes! I will definitely be bringing you a few more product reviews from the QVC beauty stash so keep an eye out for that!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me. I know, the blog birthday was on the 1st of December however I have only just had enough time to fully celebrate it and celebrate it I did! I decided no birthday, blog or not, wouldn’t be complete without cake and also a nice range of my favourite things. So after a meal out at my local much visited Gourmet Burger Kitchen, I tucked into the goodies featured in this post. Warning: drooling may occur (will definitely occur in my case)

I popped along to Harrods earlier in the day to pick up these goodies, I adore Harrods food hall, dare I say even more so than Harrods beauty hall? I was going to pop along to Laudree and pick up a range of different macaroons, but this raspberry with pistachio and chocolate macaroon seduced my taste buds first. I had to take it home. I knew I had to get some sort of cake, macaroons weren’t enough so I picked up two slices of my favourite Harrods cake, the Frasier, it really is absolute heaven on your lips. Oh I just realised it seems as though I was having a little eating festival all by myself, I wasn’t! I was sharing the day with my one of my closest friends although I have to admit I wasn’t too happy about sharing the cakes, even though it was her treats!

I decided that I needed a cheese board to make the day complete along side my favourite olives. I always forget to check what the olives are called, but they are the most buttery textured delicious olives ever. They look really fresh and you can pick them up at Harrods also. I also picked up a bottle of my favourite drink, Belvoir Lemonade and completed the day by tucking into the cheeseboard.

I’m definitely a greedy guts at heart, and I don’t mind that at all. You can’t say I neglected my blog birthday at all now can you? I really have enjoyed blogging for a whole year and will hope to have another blog birthday food festival next year! Obviously it will have to be a bigger festival as it is a bigger birthday. Now no birthday is complete without presents so I have a lovely giveaway for you all to enter, just to say thank you for reading and supporting me over the past year. Blogging really has changed my life in many ways and for that I am really grateful. The Elemis giveaway will go up tomorrow, I thought it would be nice for it go live on Christmas day, and will be open for a month. So keep a look out for that, and again thank you so much for reading – Tanzina x