Festival Essentials

Whenever I go away my wash bag tends to take up the majority of my case, but when going to a festival packing takes on a whole new meaning. Once you’ve got your tent, sleeping bag, protection against our changeable English weather and a variety of fun festival outfits there isn’t much space for your toiletries,and you will regret having to lug a load of huge bottles across a field along with everything else – this is what I have come up with over the years, space saving, but keeping you looking beautiful against all the odds.

small Vaseline pot– there is nothing worse than dry flakey lips, this can also be used to smooth eyebrows or as an adhesive for glitter.

hair ties, hairpins, dry shampoo, hairspray – as some point your hair isn't going to look as beautifully blow dried as when you arrived, its good to have these products handy when this happens, you can tie your hair up and out of the way. All available in small sizes.

face or baby wipes – its not as easy to properly wash your face when in a tent, you can use these to take of your make up, clean your hands and get mud off any part of your body!

Stila lip & cheek compact – looks great on lips and cheeks, two in one space saver in a great assortment of summery colours.

Waitrose Baby Bottom Butter – from blisters to insect bites you'll use this for everything!

nail file – nails get easily broken, uncomfortable and not attractive.

Chanel foundation compact – a compact of the liquid foundation I use day to day, great coverage.

Clarins Beauty Flash Balm – really concentrated hydration for weather beaten skin and comes in a handy small tube.

Sure Women Maximum Protection deodorant – great protection all day and night (there aren’t often showers!)

Heliocare SP50 -  it’s best to put a high factor protection on at the start of the day even if the weather isn’t looking to great, you never know what might happen later, being burnt is not a great festival look! This brand comes in a gel so you can put your makeup straight on after.

ear plugs – campsites are notoriously noisy places in order to get enough beauty sleep these are essential.

large mirror – the one thing most people forget, its not easy trying to do your makeup on your tiny little compact mirror, I always bring a larger one so I can see my whole face.

enjoy your festival!

Where to Shellac? - London

The Nail Boutique – Chelsea Farmers Market

Frequented by the older generation and indeed recommend to me by my mother this is the place I first discovered the wonders of shellac. In the fantastic location of Chelsea Farmers Market for me this is a great way to spend an indulgent afternoon with a girlfriend having lunch and getting your nails done. Booking in advance is essential and payment only in cash. The only draw back for me would be that they didn't do my feet and hands at the same time but this no doubt was because it was very busy. They did however do a very thorough job which lasted far longer than I have had anywhere since.

020 7351 1161

Elegance Nails – Battersea Park Rd

When I'm thinking back at all the less than satisfactory qualities of this place I do wonder why I go there at all! And the answer is that it’s cheap and convenient. Despite this I have recently vowed never to return, the final straw came when going to have my shellac removed, shellac they had applied only a week earlier and was already peeling at the edges (they use another cheaper no name alternative to the brand shellac), instead of delicately removing it they set to work with an electric nail buffer the sort that would be probably quite effective on corns or heels. Being frightfully English I kept my mouth shut and winced my way through, handing over a tenner for the pleasure. My nails several months later are still in recovery, very damaged surface and breaking easily. If you are after a quick and inexpensive mani or pedi with normal varnish for a special occasion, why not? Anything else, steer clear.

020 7223 6950

Teamwork Hair & Beauty - Battersea

The place where I have recently started getting my hair cut also does nails so I thought I'd better try it out. My work colleague has had difficulties booking in, but there is only one girl and no doubt she gets booked up quite quickly - I however had no problem. I had on this occasion decided to go for something a bit different and have natural nail, more to protect my damaged nails, the lady suggested a mixture of two of the natural colours one of which was more pearlised and looked really lovely. She did a good job but sadly they did not last as long as I would have liked for the £40 price tag, whether this is down to the chipping showing more on a natural colour I don't know.

020 7622 9034

Karmala – mobile beauty

I have written about the wonder that is Karmala my lovely mobile beauty lady, before but I though it important to mention that myself, and a few others think that she has really gone off in the nail department.

I had her round the other evening for a pre holiday session, waxing, threading, nails, the works! The waxing and the threading was swift and seamless, but the nails went on forever! My nails are admittedly very short at the moment but she seemed to be filling them down to the wick as well as cutting cuticles that did not need to by cut which was all very uncomfortable. The painting was not much better, I had a shellac on my nails and normal paint on my feet, both were done right up to the cuticle with far to much paint which clogged and looked very messy. As someone who has been painting her own nails for years it took all my strength not to grab the brush and show her how it should be done! It’s with great sadness and regret that I will no longer be calling on her for nails.
07828905006 

Las Vegas Nails – Fulham High Street

After the failed attempt at home beauty I decided to rectify the situation by trying a new nail bar close to home. Its the sort of place you can book in advance but you'll invariably end up waiting at bit anyway, there are rows of nail stations and chairs with several Orientals beavering away all looking pretty unimpressed. I had however come prepared for the lack of chatting with my technician and plugged myself into my ipod so I was quite happy to sit back and relax while they did their stuff. I was pleased to see they delicately removed my disastrous shellac using the removal solution on small squares of cotton wool and left them to soak wrapping my fingers in tinfoil, meanwhile another lady got to work on my feet bathing, exfoliating and scraping, generally doing a great job! The whole experience took no longer than 40 minutes, and was beautifully done.

020 7736 6555