London Fashion Week: Part 3: The manicure!

Before I attended LFW I was asked if I wanted a complimentary manicure and for someone who has been growing her nails, I'd have been a fool to say no.

The EdC show finished and I hung around a bit waiting to find someone who could take me backstage.  The staff were, to their credit very helpful and polite.  I don't think I could have been so polite if my work day had of been so hectic.

I was finally led to the backstage entry and given this:

I went on through to the media room and was introduced to Heather from Jessica Nails by Mary Tabitha (also from Jessica Nails).

Heather sat me down and asked me questions about my nails and what I wanted from the manicure and so I started rambling about how I'd been growing them and how one was a bit funny (anti biotic nail) but how now I was pleased that I had a surface where you could put more than a milimetre of nail polish.

She was really patient and listened to everything I had to say and explained which products would be best for my nails.

The manicure itself was my first ever manicure and I now have very high standards for any which follow.  I can't remember the order in which Heather applied products because I didn't think to write it down as soon as I got home but I don't have it totally out of sync.

Everything that was used on me was by Jessica Nails so I'll just state the name of the product.

First, Heather removed my clear nail polish with this and then got me to soak my fingers in some warm water.  I don't know if it was plain warm water or if it was diluted with a Jessica Nails product.  My fingers and were dried and Heather applied some Nourish Cuticle Formula and worked that into my cuticles (I have this in the Jessica Nails giveaway that I won on Twitter but was never sure how to use it but I do know now).  I asked a million and one questions about what cuticles were (I had no idea) and she explained what they were and how to make sure that you are removing only cuticle and not parts of the nail/skin.

Heather then applied some Phenomenon Oil to the cuticle area and massaged it in.  My cuticles were then pushed back by a vibrating machine thingy which looked painful but totally wasn't.  My nails keep getting really dirty underneath and despite me having cleaned them a million and one times during the day, they still had dirt under them so Heather took a wooden stick thingy (which I've since learnt is called an orangewood stick) and took the dirt out from under my nails.

My cuticles were then trimmed with a cuticle trimmer (shocker, I know!) and some more Nourish Cuticle Formula was rubbed in.

My nails were then filed into a round shape which I was told was the best and strongest shape for nails.  I didn't really notice a difference until I properly examined my nails the day after, they looked a lot more "professional" in shape.

My nails were brushed with warm water to get any of the excess cuticle off my hands.  I soaked them again and they were dried and ready for painting.

Heather applied Reward (a basecoat) and then two coats of the nail polish I chose (I really should have asked for the name!)

Oh, I forgot to mention this.  I asked about my anti biotic nail (ring finger nail) and Heather said that the actual nail had been injured and that this was why there was a ridge in it but she did have a product for it so that nail got a special coating with Flawless which helps to even out nails with bumps and ridges.

I asked about drying times and was told that Jessica Nails nail polish works itself into the nail and by the time you've completed your last nail, the first one is dry.

After two coats of polish, a top coat (Brilliance) was applied and once that had dried Heather added a drop of Quick Dry to each of my nails so that the polish would dry quicker.

One thing I was mighty impressed with was the high standard of hygiene, Heather cleaned her hands with a sanitiser after every single step which is something I have never seen a manicurist do before (I've seen them carried out, never had one myself).

This is the finished product and the pics don't do the brilliance of the manicure any favour, it was looking mint when I had it done but I had to get things out of my bag and pockets and so there were some slight imperfections, all my fault though :(  I took the first two pics on the Tube so the bumps and wobbly bits are reflections. 

This is how they looked when I was back home:

I didn't think to ask the name of the colour I chose to go on my nails but it's a very nice dark purple/plummy affair and I love it.

The manicure lasted from Sunday until Friday and I've decided that when my nails are a bit longer, I'm going to get another Jessica Nails manicure.

London Fashion Week: Part 2

The second show I watched was Espirit de Corps by Horace.

This show was totally different to the first one. 

All the models in the EdC show donned wigs and had their makeup done so that they looked like shop mannequins, I don't know how the makeup artists did this but all the models looked like mannequins..how do you make a person look plastic yet totally matte? The models wore mannequin lips (lips that were the same colour as the rest of their faces) and the brows were jet black and bushy.

I really liked the fact that all the models were made up to look exactly the same as I feel it fitted in with the outfits which came down the runway.  It also reminded me of something that Tyra Banks said on ANTM, that the models are just pretty hangers for the clothes (hence being made up to look like mannequins so that the attention isn't taken away from the clothes).  It would never of occured to me to make the models actually look like mannequins because I didn't think that was possible.  The skills of the makeup artists were way beyond what I thought was possible with makeup.

You could tell that the items were all from the same collection as the boots sported by the models were all v. similar and the outfits utilised a lot of the same colours (mainly black, grey and bright pinks, purples, oranges and blues) and materials.  That sounds really bitchy but it really isn't, I liked the way it all fitted together.

I can't think of the word I'd like to use to describe the clothes in this show, they weren't as girly as the items in the Doii show but they still had bright colours.  I think the EdC collection is more wearable than the Doii collection but that's clearly down to personal preference.  I would wear clothes from both collections but the EdC collection would be more at home in my wardrobe.  I think the Doii collection was more "gentle" and the EdC collection was more edgy but that's just my own opinion.  I'm not discrediting either collection at all, I saw the work that went into making both collections (my mum is a bitchin' seamstress so I know how hard sewing is).

The music once again was very booming but it was a gentler booming than the Doii music, I see that the old juxtapositioning is not lost on the fashion world.  

There was just as much varation in the EdC show as there was in the Doii show, both did it very differently.

I got a better seat for this show (second row in towards the end of the catwalk) and the photographs are a bit better.

Well done if you've made it this far, it's photo time!  I warn you now that they're nowhere near the quality of photos I usually take.

Anyway, look at the boots!

 

I wonder how they managed to make the boots the way they did, they defied the law of gravity.  I remember thinking that they looked upside down because of the way they fell.

London Fashion Week: Part 1 (of 3)

I never thought that I'd be invited backstage at LFW when I started this blog, I never even knew that beauty bloggers existed outside the beauty blogging bubble but if reports from the last few weeks are anything to go by, we do and we're ruffling the feathers of many a professional.  I'm sure everyone read that vicious article written by a two faced person (nothing slanderous there, the article was vicious and the person who wrote it is two faced) about certain beauty bloggers (who by the way, delivered a rebuttal which was not only far more eloquent than the original "article" but also used actual facts and not some distorted truth which would fit their version of events better).

Anyway, let's move on.

I was invited to LFW and originally I wanted to go on the Saturday but family commitments prevented this from happening so I went on Sunday instead.

I was asked if I wanted to go backstage beforehand but time constraints (had another function in the evening) prevented this.  I watched two catwalk shows and lost my (manicure) viriginity.

Both shows ran late and there was a fair bit of waiting around outside the catwalk "room".  I'd expected that there would be a lot of waiting around and I was kept occupied by the spelling game on my Blackberry.

I really didn't know what to expect from a fashion show as I'd never been before but it was pretty hectic, and that's just "infront of the scenes" so just think what it's like behind the scenes.

Everyone was ushered in at different times and I got a seat on the back row but it was set out so that everyone would be able to get a decent picture of the outfits.

The first thing that got me was the music.  For some reason I didn't think that a catwalk show would have music but both the shows did and now I can see why you wouldn't do it without music.  I assume it was primarily so that you couldn't hear spectators chatting loudly amongst themselves (RUDE!) and secondly so that you couldn't hear anything going on directly backstage.

The second thing that got me was how fast the show was over.  I sat down, got my camera out, snapped pics of a few outfits and the show was done.  Having said that, the outfits were STUNNING.  The room that the catwalk was the perfect size for a runway show as you could see the items of clothes perfectly.

The first show I saw was Doii by Doii Paris.

The outfits were brilliant, you would never be able to tell that this was all the work of one person/designer.  I like both types of collections, ones where you'd never think that one person had put all these items together in a collection and also ones where you can tell they're all from the same collection.

The shoes in the Doii show were out of this world, I really tried to snap a photo of them but I was too busy trying to switch the "auto review" function off on my camera.

The outfits were a mixture of items you could quite easily see in the High Street in the coming months and more outlandish items which I think were meant only for the catwalk.  The standout piece (for me) was the "beady hat" as I call it, I have a photograph of it but it's not the best.  I'll point out on the picture what was going on.

I liked the fact that all the outfits weren't the same, i.e. they weren't all dresses/coats.  There was a mixture of dress types and types of coats etc..   Another thing I really liked was the juxtapositioning (GCSE English, you WERE useful!) of the thumping music and the delicate outfits.

The makeup was lovely, I think the closest I could describe it as would be the English rose look.  Pink cheeks and lips.

The hair was how I wish mine would be once I'd washed it, super voluminous curls with no frizz.

It didn't sink in until I was on the way home that one person had made ALL of those outfits and that the ideas had sprung from that one individual mind.

You can breath a sigh of relief now and stopping tapping your watches and feet, the writing part is over and photo part is just about to start!