Before I write anything else – let me start with a MASSIVE apology for being missing in action on the blog for the past few weeks. Due to many different technical difficulties, including a broken laptop (RIP), I haven’t been able to write, edit, upload, comment or anything fun – and I’v missed y’all.
But I have got a HUGE backlog of posts to share, so lots to look forward to! And a big thanks to anyone still reading after what has felt like a decade.
Now back to business – a post on a very fabulous blogger event from a few weeks ago.
I received an email from Nexus PR kindly inviting me to a blogger lunch event (they had me at lunch) at the Charlotte Street Hotel (they then had me at Charlotte Street Hotel). I didn’t know much about the event, but I did know it was about foot health & beauty with the opportunity to ‘add to your collection’ of shoes (they definitely had me at shoes). So I accepted instantly.
The meeting place was at Office Shoes on Neal Street in Covent Garden – is there a better start to an event? Arriving early, I wandered up and down the street, which is literally littered with shoe shops and did some serious window shopping. I went into Office and met the lovely Nexus PR girls and all the other bloggers, where we were told we all had a voucher to spend towards a new pair of shoes – now this is the greatest start to an event!
However, I am the world’s most indecisive person – and going shoe shopping without really knowing what you want, leaves too many options and internal questions for me – ‘Do you want a new pair of heels?’ ‘Summer is here – should buy more sandals?’ ‘My converse are pretty old now – perhaps I need another pair?’ ‘Oh my god – autumn boots – should I get ahead of the seasons and buy my A/W wardrobe now?’ – and so on and so forth.
I mean look at all these gorgeous shoes. How do you choose?
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| Obsessed with the nude suede cut out heels at the top. Just wish I would walk in them. |
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| 100% need these for Autumn. In every colour. |
So eventually, I found a pair of shoes that I thought would be ideal for summer – these leopard print espadrilles. I really love the ‘blue jeans, loose plain top and leopard pattern shoes’ look. However – I am a 4.5 shoe size – and as always, the size 5’s were too big, and the 4’s were too small. So I did what I always do – justified to myself that they would stretch, or maybe my feet were just fat today and it would all be fine – and brought the size 4s.
After everyone was finished trying on all the shoes in Office, we were whisked away to the very, very gorgeous Charlotte Street Hotel. I have always wanted to go inside this hotel – it is like a Pinterest heaven outside and so I assumed inside would be unreal. I was feeling pretty lucky at this point – new shoes and a dreamy lunch venue.
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| Elle, myself, Jess & Rachel |
Above are some of the very beautiful and amazing bloggers that attended the event – Elle, Jess & Rachel. If you want some serious photography & fashion porn – go to The Elle Next Door – she is AMAZING and just started vlogging as well. And if you want some serious breakfast/ food porn (amount other things) then go to Handbags & Cupcakes – Rachel’s Instagram photos of bowls of breakfast food – one of my favourite things. Jess has a blog for everything, including Feeling Stylish! Its so ridicously impressive – I can barely keep one up to date.
Once downstairs in this fabulous room, we were supplied with some drinks and a notebook and some pencils (how sweet are they?!) but no one really knew what the lunch was about.
We were then introduced to the very beautiful Gina Akers who explained to us the reason we were all here was to learn more about our feet & foot health and to be introduced to Odor Eater’s new shoe insole Slim Soles for women – sorry boys.
Now you may think that the rather non-appetising topic of feet & odour eaters may be off-putting whilst you are about to feast on beautiful food. But it was a really interesting talk about how to look after your feet, just as we all already do with our faces, hands and body. And Gina is FAB. With such great hair.
Now, before I explain a bit more about the product we were introduced to, I want to relay some of the facts and figures I learnt about feet.
I completely take my feet for granted. They are just there, doing their job, allowing me to walk everywhere (/walk to get into an Uber when my shoes hurt). I invest a lot of money on face creams, hand moisturisers, manicures, body lotions, hair products. But I never give my feet the same attention. I just make sure they are clean – not really pampered. And pedicures are just so expensive so I just do a quick DIY job.
However, this neglect has now stopped – and I will now tell you why you should also give your feet more TLC and some R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Fasinating Feet Facts – these aren’t cheesy at all.
-The average person will walk 11500 miles in a lifetime – that is the equivalent of 4 times around the earth. (Cheaper than flying).
– On average, women walk 3 miles more a day than men.
-When you walk, your heel lifts and your toes go down, meaning that your toes end up taking 1/2 your body weight with every step.
-This adds up over the average day of walking to 100s of tonnes on your feet – the same as a full cement truck – I am sorry toes, I love you.
-When you run, your feet experiences the weight of 4 times your bodyweight due to the pressure, hence why supportive running shoes are a no brainer.
-1/4 of all your bones are in your feet (26 bones, 33 joints, 100s of muscles, tendons, nerve endings & ligaments)
How we are bullying out feet :
-Brirish women are fashion victims – 2/3 of women buy footwear that doesn’t fit/ is uncomfortable but suffer for the style. That is 62% of us wear shoes that hurt us just so we look amazeballs. Guilty.
-77% of us hang on to uncomfy shoes in our wardrobes even when we know we will never wear them again. Ever. Because they are made by the devil. But they look beautiful.
-Women have four times as many foot problems as men – not surprising as we stuff our feet into uncomfortable shoes, and high heels and pointed toed shoes.
-20000 women in the UK are hospitalised for their footwear every year.
-75-80% of the adult population have same sort of foot problem
Now for the juicy facts, literally – Sweat. Gross.
-In a pair of feet there are 25000 sweat glands – more than anywhere else on your body.
-Your feet produce 1/2 pint of perspiration a day…
And so where does all this sweat go? It goes straight into whatever shoes you are wearing. And sweat is a breeding ground for bacteria which leads to food odour. Therefore it is really important that you let your shoes breathe.
I never do this – I am a culprit for wearing my new or favourite shoes 5 days in a row – especially my beloved Converse. and I am not alone in this because 90% of people wear the same shoes for 2 days in a row. But Gina made me promise never to wear the same pair of shoes more than 2 days in a row and to let the ‘dry’ properly before I wear them again. And after hearing these facts, I had no problem agreeing to that.
So what else can we do to help out our feet and keep them in tip top condition?
Some of it is incredibly obvious such as wash between your toes, but also make sure you always dry between your toes with a clean towel or a hair dryer for extra luxury!
-You can still wear heels – Hallelujah – but try not to wear them everyday and make sure you vary the height of the heel to work different muscles. Mid heels one day, ridiculously high the next (but try not to be one of the 20000 women that are hospitalised from their shoes), low heels the next.
-Use a specialised foot cream as other moisturisers may be the wrong balance for your feet.
-Exfoliate your feet with scrubs or pumas stones etc – but make sure no grains are left between your toes.
-Change socks daily – otherwise you are pretty disgusting.
Other super important tips
-You should always shop for shoes in the afternoon as your feet swell (sexy) throughout the day. Therefore a pair of shoes you try on in the morning and get a Cinderella perfect fit in, will probably be very tight/ not fit you at the end of the day.
-You should always walk around in both shoes before you buy them! I am a confirmed offender of this, but mainly because THERE ARE NO SEATS IN ZARA so I just shove a foot in a shoe that I want – and even if it doesn’t really fit – I absolutely buy it because ‘it will go with everything and I can wear them all the time’. Don’t do that. nope.
As I said earlier – I brought a pair of shoes that were too small because I thought I would squash my toes into them and suffer for the style. Since hearing from Gina – these shoes have been returned and I brought a pair of comfortable shoes that actually fitted my feet. Don’t worry – I haven’t gone all ‘Crocs are the way forward, get me the orthopaedic shoes’ but I am now only buying shoes that fit. She told us that squashing your feet, wearing pointed toes etc will only damage your feet and cause foot problems such as corns, calluses, bunions, ingrown nails etc. and ain’t nobody got time for that. So I said goodbye to my beautiful espadrilles and and now on a mission for better shoe choices.
Now to Slim Soles and how they have come to save the day.
Slim Soles contain activated charcoal that neutralises the odours and also contain a powerful antibacterial agent. The also absorb all that lovely foot wetness to keep your feet fresh and dry.
The insoles are very slim and discreet and so are the perfect fit for all of your shoes. Plus they are really soft!
They are fragrance free and give you instant fresh foot confidence for #freshsummerfeet
Although Slim Soles absorb your foot moisture, you also need to let them rest, just as you do your shoes, so get a couple of pairs to rotate (only £4 a pain with a 2 month guarantee from Boots, Tescos, Asda and Superdrug).
They come in one size, so you can just cut them to fit whatever size you need! I have been using my pairs for weeks and I LOVE them. Your feet just feel fresher and more fabulous.
Now for the food.. it was divine. To start I had smoked salmon, but it came in more of a smoked salmon fillet shape – I could of eaten this for hours / days.
For main I ordered the risotto which was delicious, but when Elle’s tuna salad turned up next to me, I had major food envy.
Eating chips with a spoon – my kind of place.
One of the best Eton Messes I have ever had. One of the girls had to leave early and so Rachel and I had to eat her’s off for her, out of the goodness of our hearts.
So to wrap up that mega-long blog post, I will give you a quote from my homeboy, Socrates, from 2330 BC, ‘When one’s feet hurt, one hurts all over.’
I could not agree more, especially at 2am in heels on a Saturday night, or after a day shopping on Oxford Street. Socrates really knew what he was talking about all those years ago. So from now on, and now that I am properly informed, I am going to cherish and look after my feet.
I want to say a huge thank you to Nexus PR, Odor Eaters, Gina Aker and The Charlotte Street Hotel for such a fabulous and interesting event and for inviting me. I met some amazing girls, learnt a lot and had a wonderful time!
Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks again for sticking around whilst I disappeared!
Lots of Love
Cocoa Chelsea x