Wellington Women's Expo and thoughts

This weekend (August 9th and 10th) was the Wellington Women's Expo an event run by Peacock Promotions Ltd. It was open between 10am to 5pm each day. At the TSB Arena. Entry cost $10 p/person ($5 on Sunday with a voucher). There was also an optional $20 Goodies Bag. 

I went along both days. Saturday felt busier, but then I did go (with a friend) in the afternoon. Sunday was a little slower, but still had good crowds. On Saturday I went along with Neil and then on Sunday with Dan and a skeptic friend. 

Some key things I took home from the expo; 

(other than the Goody bag which I'll go into in detail below)

Was that the Expo was aimed at the core audience of Stay At Home Mothers with kids; I say that because there were a number of Photography based groups/stalls which offered a Free Photo shoot for a family portrait to be done, or shoots to that effect. For a child free couple this doesn't really work for us. Some of them had minimum of 4 people in the shoots - so we would have needed to borrow other family members to do it! Also not so good if you have one child or are a solo parent with one or two kids. 

Both days I spent the extra $20 and got the gift bags - pretty much the same things in each one; although a few extras on the Sunday (no idea why, I guess it's the luck of the draw). 

Anyway my purple bag of goodies on Sunday had the following items in it: 

Maybelline Great Lash Mascara (the pink/green one which is Brown Black in tone).
Hairspray
Shampoo
New Idea Magazine (August 2014 edition)
Lollies (chewing gum samples).
Sample of Green Tea (5x bags in each and there were two)

Coffee sample
Peckish Rice Crackers  (various flavours) --- These are well worth buying!

Eye Mask
Eye Shadow (white)

Saturdays bag contained: 

Hair Spray
Shampoo
New Idea Magazine (the same edition both days)

Lollies (chewing gum)
Tea samples (but another brand and other flavours)

Coffee sample
Crackers and Rice Thins.
2x samples of Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula (a type of body lotion)

A By Nature hydrating day crème sample (NZ brand).

Constance Carroll Nail Polish (colour:283 Pink cherry)
Mascara (the Green Maybelline one - it's black in tone)

Not everything is in the photographs below, but they give an idea of what the bags contained. The crackers and rice thins and popcorn have been devoured (naturally).

There were also freebies to collect on the way in/out like more of the Peckish Crackers, bagged popcorn, and rice thins; also copies of March 2013 or July 2013 Healthy Food Guide Magazines.

All up I think that the $20 gift bag was well worth the $20 value - 

the mascaras retail for close to $20 by themselves. 

Below are images of the Bags, and the contents of Sundays Goody Bag....

Great to see lots of reusable bags available, sadly a lot of the sellers within the expo had plastic bags. There were even more bags like these (but blue and pink in colour for $2 to buy)

And a lot of the products for sale did have a lot of packaging.
However having lots of rubbish bins around was great.










The hairspray, shampoo, mascara, eye mask, and eye shadow
  








Below: The New Idea and Healthy Food Guide magazines:

(Apologies that the magazines images are sideways).

 After all that wandering around and seeing I finally have mascara... (OMG!!! SQUEEE) ...
 I decided to test out each one, one on each eye/side. (I barely wear make up, so Mascara and lippy are my go-to items when I need a bit of POP going on.)

                                          

                                       Above: Maybelline Volume express mascara in Black.
                                                   (with nothing on my left eye lashes.)

Above: Maybelline's Great Lash mascara in Brown-Black tone.

Above: Comparing both of them;
 Great Lash on my left eye lashes, and Volume express on my right eye lashes.


Below a couple of Hood pictures (thank you Neil for taking them of me/for me) on Saturday...
Take Back The Hood is a play that is coming to Bats Theatre soon...
Take Back the Hood @ Bats Theatre

Only runs August 19-23 so get in quickly. 

There are limited tickets & they are selling relatively quickly. 

I am going to try to do more trial and demonstrations of the free stuff that was in the

Goody bags as I use them (and as I remember to write about them!)

The shampoo I will be using when I travel - otherwise I think Dan will probably use it. It doesn't look like it fits into the No Poo Shampoo technique...then again I haven't read the label yet.

I'll use the hair spray every so often though - as it can be brushed out, and because I don't tend to use it often anyway. Might be good when I try to tie my hair up. It is still just that little bit too short in a few key places - nothing some clips & hairspray won't fix!

Was cool to see environmentally friendly products available like Mooncups and organic cotton sanitary pads. Was not so cool or good to see products being touted as "Natural" "Chemical free" "organic" ... there were far too many claims of this nature. As well as a number who claimed to cure, heal and treat conditions - such as Light Therapy for treatment of Mental Health, Asthma, Eczema and a number of other conditions. I also had some acupuncture done - an interesting experience, not sure I'd repeat it. 

I noticed that a number of the sales-people were there to make a quick buck. There were those who knew either a LOT about their product/s, while others knew nothing at all about how their product worked or any of the science behind it. Thankfully we collected business cards, and other print medium to report back and discuss with the other skeptics.

****NOTE: I have written this based on my own opinion based on my experience of the expo and I have not been sponsored in any way, shape or form for the views within.****