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Whenever I’ve gone to a press event for John Lewis I have never been able to find the correct entrance. The new beauty hall launch was no different. After being told various ways to enter, I was told to search for the black doors next to customer service.  The service entrance. Not where I was supposed to be.

I was too exasperated to go where I was supposed to be, and the two ladies who followed me were also a little annoyed. Probably because they were real journalists unlike me (BAHAHAHA). I got over it soon enough. Jess, the press assistant from John Lewis couldn’t apologise enough and poured oil over troubled waters and took us (and the many other journos who were wrongly directed) up to the beauty hall. My waters were sufficiently oily, is all I can say. I get annoyed easily, but also abated easily. I would say mollified, but I wasn’t throwing a fit. It’s only an event, son.

Coming up through the back, I missed the huge flower wall, and the paparazzi snapping away at people who I assumed were famous in some way or form, but had no idea who they were. Ergo, I ended up photobombing many of the er, celebrities. If you see a chubby chino clad leg in the Metro tomorrow, it is I. Legbombing, I’ve never had it (thankfully)

Perhaps because I avoid Oxford St like the plague, but I failed to notice that there was a huge refurb going on. Jess told me whilst we were walking up the stairs, that it cost in the region of £7 million. That’s a lot of lippies and perfume gift sets, amiright?

But I could see, and appreciate the major effort that had gone into redoing the beauty hall. In all fairness, I never realised John Lewis had a beauty hall before. I merely thought it was a few tables with some haphazard samples of blush and half used mascara. Perhaps that beauty hall refurb was well overdue.

I entertained myself by taking photos of all the shiny new counters, and dazzling product arrays with the new HTC One S (review coming soon) and chit chatted to a few of the brand people at their counters, including David from Tom Ford Fragrances, who was very nice and let me fangirl over Tom Ford, and also gave me a sample of Neroli Portofino. He didn’t even correct my Cockney pronunciation of Neroli.

At the Chanel fragrances counter I was intrigued by the Microsoft Surface table, where you would put a Chanel fragrance on the table, and the information and ingredients would pop up underneath, as well as other content such as videos that you could interact with. Fancy! The Chanel rep however told me it would be only there for a week before it moved on – if pretending to be in Minority Report is your friend, I suggest you snap down there sharpish.

Each beauty concession now has their own unique look and spin on the traditional beauty counter. Gone are the standard stacked counters, and generic lit signs – welcomed are the flat screen TVs, padded walls, beauty lounges, fragrance bars, and candy coloured chairs. And the trees growing inside were a nice touch, along with the fresh flowers everywhere. Although the dearth of white picket fences was a bit annoying. I hope those aren’t permanent.

See, annoying. Fencebombing.

I snuck out behind the paparazzi, who were loafing around, playing with their phones as they waited for someone famous to turn up – when I stepped outside – some teenagers snapped a photo of me on their phones. They will be sorely disappointed when they realise that I am not on a reality TV show on ITV4.

I’m not one to usually kiss and tell about goody bags, but it contained a brand new tube of Elizabeth Arden’s 8 Hour Cream. Mr Lewis, however did you know?

SCHWING

John Lewis Beauty Hall, 300 Oxford Street, London W1A 1EX. Open 9am – 8pm daily. (12pm to 6pm Sundays)

HTC One S courtesy of Vodafone UK. Review coming soon.