Fake Bake Hair and Beauty Boutique

I was rather surprised to find an invite land in my inbox to come up to Manchester and check out the new Fake Bake Hair and Beauty Boutique.

Love the logo!

Fake Bake?! Hair and Beauty?!

We all know they’re famous for providing the perfect tan, and widely regarded as one of the BEST false tanning companies out there, but I have to admit I never saw them opening a one-stop Beauty Shop – but I’m SO glad they did. 

Me and one of my best friends (who happened to be travelling up to Manchester anyway) took the road trip up to the north, and he dropped me in the City Centre. The new Salon is located in the Selfridges Department Store in Exchange Square, which is incredibly handy. The idea behind the salon is that it is a “one-stop-shop” for all your Hair and Beauty needs, so if you’re off on a special night out, you can get your tan, hair, nails, facial and even teeth whitening all under the same roof.  They really do offer everything, even Botox.

The interior of the Salon is absolutely gorgeous. Big crystal chandeliers hang from the ceilings, making it a very glam experience indeed! 

Just some of the wide range of treatments offered:

click to enlarge!

After a glass of champagne and a chat with the ever-so-lovely Kerry from MediaHubb, I was treated to a Blow-dry by Hairdresser Gareth (who is n absolute GEM). It really is luxury treatment, I had my hair washed, conditioned and slathered with Moroccan Oil – the holy grail of Hair Products, in my opinion! Using big, barrel brushes, Gareth blow-dried tons of volume into my, often limp, locks and created a gorgeous 60’s style loose wave/curl in the ends. Now, I am absolutely gutted as I write this, because after I pranced around Selfridges, flicking my hair in the face of anyone who I had even the briefest of contact with, I stepped outside to the walk to the train station – right into rain and gale force winds. SO, alas, before I could take any photographs of my glam hair, it was utterly destroyed by the awful British weather. Gutted. But you should imagine something like this, but with my face and not a gorgeous models...:

My hair was so soft, natural looking, bouncy and (pardon the cheese), I felt a million dollars. 

Also there for the press day was World Renowned Tanning Expert James Read:

With his own range of Tanning products named after himself, he has tanned many celebrities and believes that the key to a great tan is making it look as if you aren’t wearing any. Perfect for a fake tan-a-phobe like me! Because of the time of year (and because I had nowhere special to go – boo!), I didn’t indulge in a tan, but listened, fascinated, to James as he talked me through the evolution of his company, different types of tans, and the amazing effects you can create with the right tan contouring. I implore you to check out his website/blog as it is an absolute hive of information for anyone with an interest in self-tan – including how to match the tan to your particular colouring and top tips of the trade. Click HERE to check it out! There's SO MUCH content on the pages, including how-to videos, aptly called Tan-TV.

All in all, I had an absolutely fantastic time and don’t have a single bad word to say about the experience. The salon is such a gorgeous glam environment with a really relaxed, friendly atmosphere, and the range of services offered is astounding. You can get all your Beauty necessities under one roof, and if I was in Manchester with a special occasion coming up, I would definitely book myself in for the works – the whole place just makes you feel special.

 xxx

FOTD Green Eyed Monster

...Well, not "monster" hopefully. I used to rock this look a lot in my final years of school, I was a lot bolder with my style back then - I had pink hair for a start! I met my good childhood friend Emma for a free lunch today. I am a 'mystery diner' which means we get £40 to spend on food if we do a review afterwards! SWEET DEAL! We stuffed our faces, naturally. I was wearing a forest green dress from forever 21, and I decided to co-ordinate my make-up -

I absolutely HATE taking pictures of myself haha! here we have:-

• FACE - Benefit Erase Paste in Medium, Rimmel Stay Matte foundation in 100 Ivory, MeMeMe Blusher in Rouge (these are meant to be a dupe for the benefit blushers, and although very pigmented, this is muuuuch redder than Coralista despite looking almost identical in the box. I'll have to do a comparison one day)
• EYES - I used a very, very old 17 green eye palette. Dark forest green, light green and a yellowy gold - none of them have names. I don't think they do the exact combination anymore, but their green Eye Shadow Trio will do a treat, with a yellow gold shadow, in creating this look. Eyeliner is H&M Brown, Mascara is Max Factor False Lash Effect.
• LIPS - Topshop Lip Polish in Iced Coffee. 

Here's a couple of shots so you can see the blending on the eyes -

This look is dead easy and you can use the same technique with literally any 3 shades of you choice. I started with the medium green on the eyelid, then used the gold in the corner, blending it outwards and slightly under the eye. I then took my darker shade of green, with a smaller shadow brush, and blended this from the outside edge inwards, creating a slight taper as I went, taking it under the eye and across to about halfway. Added some eyeliner to the water line and just along the top lash line, some mascara, and voila!

This is what my hair looks like from the back today, a messy rosette with the hair from the crown:

Close you eyes to the mountain of crap on my bed...cheers!

Another easy one - take two medium sized pieces of hair from each side of the crown, bring to the back of the head and pin in a cross shape, with 2 bobby pins, so one overlaps the other (this will hold it in place better). Take the little pony bit and wrap it around your finger so it makes a twist. Form the twist into a circle and pin in place at the end and the top, weaving the bobby pin inside the rosette so it cannot be seen. Spritz with hairspray. Five minute up-do!

I hope you enjoyed that my dears, any questions just let me know on the comments, or drop me an email :) A bit of exciting news, I will be doing a guest post for Leanne over at DoNotRefreeze in the next couple of weeks - it's a nail art tutorial, and a good one at that! :D

I'm trying to do tomorrow's Mani tonight and I'm SO uninspired. Need to have a think and a peruse of the BundleMonsters  I reckon. Only thing I know, it will be blue haha.

Take care everyone! xxxxxxx