With winter getting ever closer, and the nights getting darker, you may be thinking about covering up with lots of layers... especially as the temperature is already plummeting - not that it was that warm to begin with. It's all too easy to let things slip when you're covered up to keep warm, and I know this from experience!
I regularly forget to paint my toenails in winter, unless I'm going out and remember they'll be on display, which is mostly because I don't see them as much when they're covered with tights and/or boots; and before at home laser hair removal products came about (which I'll be covering in the near future), my legs may have been known (to myself) to be sporting a little more stubble than I'd normally allow... again, because I'd usually be wearing trousers/jeans or tights, and what you can't see, can't hurt, right?!
So maybe you're also thinking about sporting a paler complexion to complement that look? Right again, I mean I'm pale and interesting at the best of times, so why would that change in winter? Well one reason to change would be this fab 'Fake Tan Friday' offer from Xen-Tan and Saks Salons, as they're offering a spray or hand applied fake tan for just £15 (RRP £25) every Friday until the end of November, with the last day being on Friday 30th - not bad, eh?!
This is perfect for weekend partying, and even more so for people like me, who never seem to leave enough time to apply a tan and let it develop - especially as they say you can have your spray tan and then go 'straight out on a night on the town'. I now have no excuses to be pasty when I'm off out for the next month or so.
All you need to do, is fill in some details here, print off your voucher and then take it with you to your appointment. Simple.
Fake Tan Friday Terms & Conditions:
Selected salons only, please contact your local salon to find out, and mention the offer at the time of booking.
Not valid on homecare.
Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.
Services may vary from salon to salon and are subject to availability.
Only one redemption per person, per week.
No cash alternatives offered.
Psssst, there's also a competition to win the ENTIRE Xen-Tan range here!!
Back in July, I attended a Xen-Tan event and I've been wanting to blog about it ever since, but due to internet/email/laptop issues, have been unable to do so, until now. The event was focused around the Xen-Tan brand, the products within it and celebrity fans of the brand, which you can also view here.
At the event, I met lots of lovely people, got pampered with a Jessica manicure and a Xen-Tan spray tan, and came out of it
actually looking alive, rather than the almost deathly pale shade that I
usually sport.
Having my nails done.
More nails being done.
Nails again!
I chose the darker shade of tan and was really, really pleased with it. It wasn't too dark, and it wasn't orange in the slightest. I could see the colour difference straight away when I moved the string of the oh so flattering (and not at all embarrassing to wear) paper knickers to another position and I already felt better for having a 'healthy' colour.
Chatting with lovely bloggers and PR ladies.
And again. I love how my tan looks here, especially on my legs haha.
Over the course of the evening, my tan developed into a lovely, even shade - bar my hands which were noticeably paler than the rest of my body. I think the girl who did my spray tan was a bit too cautious with them, and so this was the result of possibly over-moisturising them and just doing the one coat of tan as opposed to the 2 she used on the rest of my body.
My tan shortly after having it done, note the pale hands, especially my right hand. Nail polish used in my manicure, which is just about showing was 'Venus Was Her Name' by Jessica.
That being said, I was still pleased with the tan in every other way, it lasted about 11 ish days before I felt it had faded noticeably, but evenly, and would happily go back for another... just without the pale hands lol.
Apologies that the only images I have are ones taken at the event by Xen-Tan and the PR team - my images of my tan etc were on my old laptop that I no longer have access to. Also, apologies for the way I look in the image above, no make-up (bar tinted lip balm), flushed cheeks and my
hair just scraped back off my face coupled with extreme awkwardness in front of the camera is not a good look for me haha.
On Thursday evening I attended a beauty evening that I had been invited to, hosted by Wahanda at the Radisson Blu Hotel at Manchester Airport. I arrived later than I intended but was promptly given a nice glass of the fizzy stuff (that’s Champagne, not lemonade) and a little goody bag which took the stress of the train journey away rather quickly, and was then taken through to a large conference room with a buzz of activity going on in all directions.
The first thing going on that caught my eye was what I could only describe as a star wars mask at that point, but actually turned out to be a Fine LightSkin Rejuvenation system being demonstrated by SPA in the CITY who are based in Manchester city centre. It was a bit freaky looking at first glance, especially as the person wearing it wore small goggles under the mask/helmet type thing that made their eyes look completely black... very odd, don’t you think?
Apparently the Fine Light mask stimulates the dermis to energise the cells which then promotes the production of collagen and elastin which helps to plump the skin and reduce fine lines and wrinkles! I have no idea if this works – I got the opportunity to try it later on in the evening, but unfortunately I couldn’t for reasons I’ll explain below. However I do think it looks great and will definitely try to find out more about it soon.
Also from SPA in the CITY was a tank of Garra Ruffa fish... bliss, I love fish spas (as you may already know from previous posts) so this was great for me to see at the event. I didn’t put my feet in as well frankly I didn’t fancy getting my feet out in front of everybody, but I did put my hands in instead as I’ve never had it done on my hands before and let them have a good old nibble (well suck) on them instead!
These photo's of me were taken by the talented Lily from Beauty's Bad Habit!
If you haven’t been to a fish spa before I really do recommend it, there are plenty of them around these days... and if you’re a bit fish/sea phobic usually this is a great help if you can conquer it. I actually managed to snorkel with tropical fish in Egypt since conquering having my feet in with the fish in Malaysia last year!
Also demonstrating some of their treatments were The Beauty Lounge who are based at the Radisson Blu Hotel at Manchester Airport. This is actually where I had my first ever spray tan done a couple of months ago; you may remember me posting about it here!
They were spray tanning anybody who fancied it (shown above) – although only really on legs/arms and shoulders so that people could keep their modesty intact!
Jessica Manicure
They were also doing manicures with Jessica products, both normal and gel manicures too – I would have loved to have been able to have a gel manicure but there was always a queue and as I was trying to get around and find out about things, and take photographs, it just wasn’t possible for me to stand in the queue and wait.
Jessica Gel Manicure Application.
Jessica Gel Manicure Curing.
The manicures all looked amazing though, and I’d definitely recommend them for anybody who is thinking about it – especially the gel ones, which can last up to 3 weeks. The lady doing the gel manicures actually said that instead of having the polish soaked off when it starts to grow out that you could actually have it filled in to get another week or 2 out of it which sounds great to me.
Botox: Frowning.
The final treatments that I saw were being done by doctors from the Re-Enhance Clinic (based in Hale but with clinics in other places too), Botox and dermal filler demonstrations to be precise, and these were the ones I wanted to see the most as I had been toying with the idea of having at least some Botox in the very near future (on my frown line mostly, but maybe in other areas also) but had never managed to commit myself, I think possibly just through fear of something going wrong!
The first demonstration he did was on a girl who had Botox on her forehead, it actually seemed very straight forward, she said it didn’t hurt and I believed that as she didn’t even flinch when the needle went in. I’ve took a few photographs but unfortunately I was at the wrong angle for the most part, so sorry about that.
All done!
Before the demonstration of the dermal fillers I spoke to the event organisers from Wahanda about seeing the Botox demonstration being done and that I thought it had alleviated my fears of having it done, only to be asked ‘do you want to have it done?’ – I found my mouth saying yes whilst my head was mainly going ‘OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD’, and so it was arranged that I would be having Botox on that very night.
Even though I had seen it being done I was still very nervous, although this was definitely mixed with a big dose of excitement too. As I was having it done my nerves went away as I found that it really didn’t hurt that much (I’ve actually had tummy cramps whilst I had gastroenteritis that hurt more than the needle) and also that I hadn’t died on the table either *phew*. The weirdest feeling was after the Botox was in when the doctor (Martin Kinsella) gave a little squeeze to the frown line; I think to distribute the Botox through the area. It’s a feeling I can’t really describe either – it wasn’t painful, just a little bit sharp and unexpected.
I was told that the effects wouldn’t be apparent until maybe 2-3 days after treatment with the full effect showing up to 2 weeks later, and this has definitely been the case so far. I’m starting to notice a small change and it’s just about 2 days since it was done. I am photographing the progress at least once per day and will start posting about it, with photographs from either tomorrow, or Monday. This is also the reason that I didn't try out the mask, as mentioned alll the way up at the top of the post!
Before: Although this lady had dermal fillers approximately a year ago.
The dermal fillers demonstration was something else that I was very interested in, I’ve seen horror stories of things going wrong on TV and really wanted to see what it was like in reality to have it done. Unlike Botox, having fillers gives an instant effect which also allows the doctor to make sure everything is symmetrical and positioned as it should be. I took a bit of video of it being done (shown below, sorry they're sideways) and in it you’ll see that Martin is actually using his fingers to kind of sculpt the filler into position.
The finish of the filler was surprisingly natural, and I think this is due to Martin’s expertise in the field – as you can hear from his explanation, avoiding certain areas stops you getting the pillow effect that quite a few celebrities sport.
After.
The fillers (he used Juvederm) last up to a year once done, and whilst slightly more firm to begin with, do soften in time. I felt the skin after the treatment and to be honest, it wasn't really that hard at all. I’ve always said that I wouldn’t mind having ‘work’ done, although I’m not entirely sure I’d go fully under the knife so this was a great demonstration for me to see.
I completely recommend Dr Martin Kinsella though, he really seems to know his stuff (thankfully) and he was so friendly which made me feel completely at ease too. If you’re thinking about having something like this done then I would definitely check out his sites.
His clinics seem to be quite a family orientated business with both his mum and dad working with him - which I think is a rather nice thing, as I really think it would make it feel like a more personal experience! The other areas that his clinics are based are Abersoch, Derby, Hayfield, Wirral, Worsley and he even has one in Majorca too.
Finally, I couldn’t write this post without mentioning the gorgeous cakes at the event made by ‘Katja’s Kupcakes’ (www.katjaskupcakes.co.uk) – seriously bad for a diet, but SO worth it. I was allowed to bring 2 cupcakes home (so Mr Beauty Scoop could have one too, which was very kind of them) and they were delicious. Highly recommended.
The more fancy looking cakes can take up to 20 minutes to decorate for each small cupcake – that’s some patience needed, probably more than I’d have but fair play to them as they look every bit as good as they taste (and vice versa)!
It was a fantastic night, and a great opportunity to see some of the fabulous companies, spas and clinics that Wahanda work with and really get a feel for what they're about. I'll certainly be looking for the deals even more now I've seen it all first hand!
After purchasing deals for The Beauty Lounge (at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Manchester Airport) from Wahanda, my sister and I went and had our first ever (St Tropez) spray tans on Friday! I was a bit nervous about baring all, and hoping that I wouldn’t turn orange but I am really, really pleased that I went and also with the results too – I just wish that I was this colour naturally as I don’t think I could maintain it all year round!
My appointment went well, I found the staff friendly and considering I was stood in nothing more than a pair of paper knickers, I felt fairly at ease. I would say that I was a little bit shocked that the door to the spray tan room opened straight onto the gym, which meant that anybody near the door when the therapist was coming in or out of the room could cop an eyeful of my wobbly bits (and more)!!
I think the tan has turned out quite natural and not at all scary, what do you think?
Before (just a picture from a previous post):
After (although the flash makes my skin look a bit lighter than it actually is):
I notice that St Tropez say that their tanning products now contain Aromaguard, a fragrance technology that they say will ‘eliminate the tell-tale self tan aroma by a minimum of 70%’ – now I don’t know how they measure this 70% but I would say that my tan still had quite a strong, distinctive scent to it – more so before I washed the guide colour off; it wasn’t completely off putting but Mr Beauty Scoop definitely didn’t like it.
I would definitely have a spray tan again (depending on how this one lasts but so far, so good), maybe just for special occasions though - or maybe if I see more deals on Wahanda/Groupon to take advantage of!
