Powderpuff Girls Salon.

Powderpuff girls doing the make up thang properly..

However I could list the horrors and pitfalls of cosmetic application when yours truly tries it, in fact I will, just a few:

False eyelashes. A sod to apply. I think there is an unfriendly eyelash goddess, a spikey gluey fugitive creature that makes your hands shake and your tweezers jab and ensures the things just won’t go on when you have a big night out and a taxi waiting. Then you can never be sure they are actually on. I once looked down at a drink to find a repulsive caterpillar floating in it and made a fuss. It was naturally my kamikaze eyelash.

Little plastic boxes that are hard to open, especially with long fingernails. Even once you do prise them open all the little itsy bitsy applicators fly out. One usually hurls itself inevitably into the toilet, the sink or the gaping jaws of hell.

Bright red lipstick no matter how carefully applied migrates to the surface of your teeth making you look like a messy vampire. Also when you drunkenly ram the top of your lipstick back on, without twisting lipstick down it will always be your favourite, most expensive stick that is reduced to a mucky messy stump.

Once you find the perfect failsafe shade of eyeshadow or lip colour the cosmetic company will promptly discontinue it and replace it with dead corpse nude. And in your mind no colour will ever look that good.

When applying nail varnish you will get an attack of sneezes, have an irristible urge to scratch your ear or be forced to rescue a kitten or something. Shall I just describe this as the dreaded nail varnish smudge paradox?

Katie Chutzpah had already reviewed the Powderpuff girl salon in her blog, and having worked out they are just around the corner from my favourite barnet fixer I decided to have my face put on for me. Which I did, whilst nibbling a biscuit and drinking tea. The interior of the premises is pleasingly girly and retro decorated in a fifties palette of feminine pastel shades. The ladies wear kitsch retro uniforms and cute pill-box hats and it is run by the rather elegant Katie Reynolds. This is a welcome migration from the East by this company as some of us are just innately West End Girls.

Dream dressing table.

They offer a number of services ranging from manicures, through to make-up and on to hair. I had the 15 mins 'in a jiffy' make-up which cost £15.00. Vintage themed looks are their mainstay and they have literature to help customers choose their look. As I was sitting there in a full circle skirt and petticoat a fiftiesish look was applied. What a luxury to let someone else, very efficiently, get on with it. In terms of confidence, time saved and fun the price and end-product were good. The lady applying mine was happy to give advice and kind enough to trim my unruly brows. I am also impressed with their eyelash applying service, you get two pairs of eyelashes, and one of these is applied for you, which seems a good deal at a tenner considering that a decent pair of false eyelashes cost this. The speedy hairdo's at £15 pounds seemed also good value for girls in a hurry.

Powderpuff Salon interior.

Moreover it is pleasant to be sat in a feminine stylish environment. I'm sure this, the good looks of the staff and the fact that they have leaflets and advice on retro looks encourages visitors to experiment. It had a friendly atmosphere and I felt the environment encouraged the customers to be chatty (and those that know me know I am far from monosyllabic). To be honest all I need now in Covent Garden is a Wallace and Gromit like machine to drop me into the perfect vintage frock, the 'right dress' rather than the 'wrong trousers'!

Minn x