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.