Savvylash

Tuesday 21 June 2011

JEWELS NOT TOOLS!!

Well ....Where have we been since December 30.12.10.?

Debs has been busy with endless home improvements, brewing up for all the different workmen and roofers. I've watched Debs excitedly choose wallpaper, go to B&Q with the intention of a purchase and return home with a completely different roll!!  I've had a SOS text “Please come and look at the wallpaper .......coz I can't without wearing my sunglasses!” I arrived at Debs with my Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen head on, "What's wrong?" and was lead into the lounge. I was greeted with a green citrus theme and to be honest I could live with it and liked it - I looked at Debs who looked nauseous, the decorator had only just packed up and she was ready to rip it off. What would LL-B do and say? Firstly, I flounced around, flicked my hair back, raised my arms in an operatic gesture and said "Why not try and live with it for a couple of days, don't be hasty to rip it off."  Debs by this point was squinting, saying she couldn’t even watch the TV because she was constantly distracted by the citrus green vision in front of her, and was starting to hallucinate!!  Did Debs take my advice ......noooooooooooooooooo, within 2 days the wall was stripped off, the decorator returned and a pale pewter featured wall restored calmness to the lounge.

I'm also a recent proud Godmother….. my godson is very small - Tiny ears, tiny mouth, gorgeous eyes and furry ears ..... Yes I'm Godmother to Debs latest addition to the D’Appy Household; Ollie is the heart throbbing ShihTzu dog!! Can't wait to introduce him to our Boxer dog Tito!. 

Whilst Debs has been busy ..........so have I ............BUT unusually for me ....I'm keeping Quiet.....Ermmh.. I think an "Air of Mystery" is best at This Stage!!!

Heel Today Gone Tomorrow!
So with Summer fast approaching……(or did we miss it in April)…. it’s time to bare all and we don’t mean bikinis – are you as bored as us after reading endless articles on how to lose a stone in a day? We mean getting our talons and tootsies tip-top….

Talking of bikini diets, I was encouraged to dust off mine and swore blind it had shrunk in the cupboard! As I was trying it on (over my jeans and sweater – it was pre-April heatwave), I caught sight of an imposter in my bedroom mirror wearing exactly the same clothes but with a rather large posterior! “Is that me?!..... Mark…….Mark……Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrk!!! Get the trampette out of the shed!”

Four weeks later, trampette still halfway between the shed and my lounge, the furthest I’d got to using it was to decant my Pinot Grigio into a sports bottle to fool my husband into thinking I was rehydrating with an isotonic drink! Note to self: Better buy bigger size bikini….

Whilst we pay uber attention to our Tootsies we also need to spend attention to our heels.  Cracked heels can be spotted in a flip flop from 20 paces, they can be painful and lets be honest, very unattractive regardless of whether you’re wearing Jimmy Choos or Jimmy Choo-wa-wahs.

Cracked heels are usually caused by excessively dry skin which has been left to build up in hard layers.  Unfortunately as the condition worsens, it becomes more difficult to treat, since regular moisturisers fail to penetrate the dry, dead, thick skin on our heels.
 
However don't despair we can "Heal the Heel" and would firstly recommend a professional salon treatment to combat the problem. In our experience as Beauty Therapists, this problem can be exasperated if you are tempted to over rub your heels with a scrubber!!.......Oh I'm soooooooooo tempted to add something to that!

A treatment Debs and I did whilst training and was extremely popular was the Paraffin Wax Treatment, which is incorporated with a pedicure................OOOOhhh Pure Indulgence! 

The difference with paraffin pedicure from other treatments is that your feet are covered with layers of moisturising paraffin wax to moisturise your feet. It's a luxury treatment BUT believes us .........well worth it.
Please check with your GP if you suffer from diabetes or circulation problems as you may need to see a podiatrist rather than a beauty therapist.

The market leaders, OPI, have stormed the beauty world after launching their new Shatter nail polish 2011 which creates a shatter effect revealing whatever colour you have underneath and it looks fantastic!


Just paint on your usual two coats of polish in your colour of choice and then choose from one of the 7 Shatter colours available and paint over….watch as the colour immediately shrinks to reveal a crackle effect…Deb loves “Happy Anniversary” base with “Silver Shatter” and I love “Spark de Triomphe” with “Silver Shatter”.  Can’t choose which colours? OPI’s UK Distributor, Lena White, has come up with a fantastic idea where you simply click on the base colour and select your preferred Shatter and the hard work’s done for you.  Visit www.lenawhite.co.uk/content/opi-nail-studio  

 
If you haven’t got time to wait for ordinary nail polish to dry why not try another new product “Shellac” which is half gel/half ordinary polish.

Talking of gel nails, this reminded me and Debs of the time we enrolled on a One Day course to learn how to sculpt the perfect gel nail…we won’t mention the brand as they probably wouldn’t want to be associated with our efforts…..the brand was fantastic, unfortunately we weren’t!

We paired up as each other’s nail model/client/guinea pig.  I did Deb’s nails first, mostly with my tongue hanging out of the side of my mouth and a very studious look on my face. Apparently I’ve never been as quiet.  Normally a set of gel nails should take in the region of no more than an hour…..it took me that long just to get the forms applied  - tricky little beggars aren’t they?

As Debs pointed out – rather unkindly I thought as you have to start somewhere!! –that she could have dug over her dad’s allotment with the set I painstakingly and lovingly applied to her nails – they were thick, uneven, unmanageable and each one a completely different shape!. We knew nails weren’t for us when we had to hold each other’s coffee cups at lunch-break! Driving home was a bit tricky as Deb’s famous sense of direction kicked in meaning instead of heading towards Bury, we passed several signs for North Wales with Deb confidently exclaiming “I know where we are, I know where we are!”.  Deb blamed her poor navigation on the trauma of getting distracted everytime she looked at her hands – I couldn’t change gear without changing the radio channel....our nails certainly looked more like Predators Tools than Jewels that day!
So thankfully, the beauty world can sigh relief that we left it there. 

So, back to Shellac (got lost a little there, a bit like Deb’s directions!). 

Shellac nail polish is designed for women who want to have naturally looking nails and also for those who would like quality product which lasts up to 14 days, without damaging nail beds as most acrylic and gel products can. Shellac is cured by UV light and can only be done by professional manicurist at nail salons, but you can easily remove Shellac nails at home with 100% acetone.

The beauty of Shellac means that once you are done with manicure you don’t have to worry about it for few weeks. Shellac polish also completely dries out rather fast, after you put your hands under UV light for the last time and wait about a minute you’re done. When you take your hands out, the colour is completely dry and you can start doing anything the second you exit the nail salon. This is the perfect type of manicure if you decide to do on a trip or business meeting for a week or more. It also avoids the receptionist hunting in your handbag for your car keys, cash and phone whilst your nails are still drying!


So, like me, if your trampette and porridge diet lets you down AGAIN, at least your toes and talons will look fabulous with the latest products available for Summer.