Last Updated on November 17, 2017 by HodgePodgeDays
I am not by nature one of the beautiful people. I don’t have lovely swishy hair and flawless make up. In fact on the rare occasions that I wear make up it’s usually a quick flick of an ancient mascara and some free lip gloss I got with a magazine years ago.
The saying goes – you can’t polish a turd, so there’s no point in me trying, but this week my friend Jane and I went to Toni & Guy in Didsbury to find out more about their beauty rooms and Jane persuaded me to have a makeover.
Jane has recently had what ladies of our age call “a special birthday”, she arrived at her party looking stunning. Gillian Rafferty, a local make up artist had done her make up and although Jane is naturally beautiful anyway (with swishy hair) she looked flawless and fabulous. Gillian has been a make up artist for ten years and has worked with celebrities including Colleen Rooney, Kate Kelly and Michelle Keegan.
Gillian did my make up and Jane watched keenly. Gillian quickly assessed my skin and applied a tinted primer, deftly hid my quite massive eye bags and put eye-shadow, mascara and eyeliner on me to make more of my eyes. She finished my makeover with some pink lipstick in a shade I’d never normally try, but obviously worked for me, and then sort of spray painted my face which fixed my make up and made it look flawless. Yes, I looked flawless.
We spent some time looking around the beauty rooms, Clare Angela is the resident beauty therapist and she offers pretty much everything you might need -manicures, pedicures, tanning, waxing and facials. Clare is passionate about skincare and she offers a range of facials using Environ products starting from £45.
During the evening Environ were there with a special camera which takes photographs of your face and allows you to see how damaged your skin is and what you can do about it. They come to Didsbury every few months, so if you’re interested it’s worth phoning Clare and booking a session with them.
We had a lovely and interesting evening learning about make up, beauty and skincare at Toni & Guy and then we went off to drink some more prosecco in a local bar. And my make up still looked good when I got home!
Beauty and Skin Health by Clare Angela is available by appointment at Toni & Guy in Didsbury, phone 0161 445 5466 for more information on what Clare offers. Makeovers and make up tutorials are available from Gillian Rafferty by appointment.
Can’t polish a turd! That’s one of my favourite phrases BUT you. YOU. YOU ARE NOT A TURD! You look lovely with your make up done, but you have a lovely friendly face anyway – one that doesn’t really need make up! And who cares about swishy hair? I don’t think I’ve ever had swishy hair either! x
You can’t polish a turd but you can roll it in glitter 🙂 I love that saying too! Thanks for being kind about my ancient face xx
You look gorgeous lovely lady. I wear make up on very limited occasions, and I swear my 10 year old has more make up than me. I would love to go for a proper make over one day, and learn how to put make up on properly at the grand old age of 42 lol x
Tracey you’ve got great skin and you’re very pretty you don’t need make up. I’ve decided to invest in a new mascara and a new super-duper eye bag hider. Not quite sure what to get but I reckon those will make the quickest and biggest difference to my aged face 🙂
Ah thanks Jane that is a lovely thing to say. I was going to say my skin is rubbish (do you need glasses lol) but I did have a facial last week, so I am pretending I am still sporting the glowing facial look. As opposed to the red and sweaty look. My mission is to have more facials, as it definitely improved my skin x