Delightful Day out at the Vintage Starlet Parlour

Want to know where to go to get a gorgeous photo of yourself, fully vintage styled, made up by professionals and expertly posed by the talented Hanson Leatherby? Well, look no further.
Miss Turnstiles is now offering pamper afternoons at the Vintage Patisserie headquarters in Shoreditch.

Miss Turnstiles welcomes you.

I went along to her first one, as I needed some up to date head and shoulder shots for my business cards and website. She offers the full works by placing you in the hands of skilled artists - hair and make up by Lipstick and Curls and nails by Minnie Moons, and you are invited the loan of a vintage outfit (and boy she had some stunning frocks there), so it is a must for any vintage gal. 

Two customers in their loaned outfits

We agreed I would get "done" early as I didn't need an outfit and could do my own make up, so on arrival I was promptly delivered into Nicki's hands for hair grooming. It was lovely to have my hair done by someone else, rather than dealing with it myself. Not that I do badly, but it is a treat to have it outsourced! One can see why the celebrities don't do battle with their own locks if they can help it.

Hanson at work. He happens to be up a ladder, he isn't a giant. And Nicki from Lipstick and curls in the background, who isn't really a midget. Weird location sizing issues reminiscent of the Lord of the Rings type trickery!

Poor Hanson was just about beside himself trying to get me to NOT smile for the photo. It is always funniest when you aren't supposed to laugh isn't it? Well, getting myself (and others) into fits of giggles I must have been his trickiest customer so you can be rest assured that you will find it easier.

Jeni and Hanson in between shoots. Often when we see each other, one of us is normally working, so it was lovely to see Jeni when our "roles" for the day were pretty relaxed. We got Jeni into some hamming it up, and Hanson too.

Jewellery was up for loan or for sale too, thanks to the lovely Nathalie from Passionate about Vintage.

Miss Turnstiles has another similar beauty day coming up, This time themed around the Great Gatsby. The first one, I have just read is sold out ALREADY, so she has offered up another on the 31st May. Pop over here to find out more.

I'll show you my finished Photos once I get them, but until then, I see Jeni has some more pics up on her blog too. 

Shona x

A night out with Marilyn

An exciting email came through a while ago - one where I was invited OUT. And this was one charming invite! A chance to sup cocktails in a swish setting and then watch a movie - "My week with Marilyn" - with my mates. The Swish Setting is One Aldwych, a stunning hotel in covent garden central, where you know...all the cool people are, like these two...

Jeni Yesterday and Bethan got stuck in before they even got their coats off

Myself and Howard, who hosted us, and who very nicely engineered everyone to stay on time

As always I was drawn to the details in our fellow lovelies outfits - Jeni's skirt

Fleur's Bracelets

Charlotte's amazing hand made dress details

The evening was lovely. The cocktail hour could have dragged on a bit since none of us managed to finish our drinks properly. I've never seen such a huge icecube in my drink either! The service was excellent. Once the waiting staff realised that I wasn't eating any of the finger food because of my wheat allergy they came out with freshly prepared chocolate dipped strawberries. I only got one in before the girls made a jump for them too.

Minerva wore one of my Mary Dresses with a stunning twist on the colour combination

Definately a great combination

The swanky bar we hung about in delicately lounged in

One Aldwych have some lovely things going on that would tickle my fancy to go back and do. Firstly, the musical Top Hat has just started playing across the road. If you were planning a romantic trip to London, then staying at the hotel, supping cocktails, dinner and strolling over to the show would certainly make a memorable occasion.

Photo nicked from their Gallery 

Secondly, they are doing Martini Movies nights, with a movie in their private movie lounge, cocktails and a 3 course meal, which is quite reasonable for that much swankyness at £42.50 (if you think not, then you might not have gone for a movie in central London for a while!)

And Thirdly, they are doing "Modern British Afternoon Tea" which sounds like a great treat, and I must say I am keen to find out just how many chocolate dipped strawberries one can scoff in on sitting! (I think that would be quite a number actually)

Many thanks to Howard and One Aldwych for a lovely night out. I'm sure we will be back, perhaps even for "Midnight in Paris" which screens at the end of June.

Shona x

ZOMG by Rockalily

Last night I got to go to the ZOMG Blogger Bash hosted by Rockalily and London Lipgloss. What a great night - thanks ladies! I really enjoyed it and wish I could have got there a bit earlier.
Naturally lots of bloggers were there so this post is quite filled with links. I can assure you that each and every one of them are part of an inspirational force on the UK vintage scene, so it is worth making an acquaintance with their blogs and checking them out. In person, they are the type of women who are genuine and there is a surprising lack of snobberishery involved. Surprising in that we are all associated with clothes and make up, so one might assume the opposite. There were more lovelies ladies of that ilk there and, if I could I would include many more. But you are on your coffee break so let's get rolling...

Just as I arrived, Lena and Margaret were leaving, but there was enough time for hugs, outfit assessments, and a quick pic. Both these ladies have such a different style to me and I love seeing what they wear. 

Ree Ree from Rockalily was looking particularly stunning with her new red hair (welcome to the club!). She is a fab business lady with masses of energy and does a lot to support and encourage other women. She also has some exciting stuff happening for her at the moment so she deserves a little "high five" for that. High Five!!

Me with Ree Ree. I'm wearing (at this stage of the night), "Roulette" lippy

I had never met Zozo from London Lipgloss before and I still haven't actually formally meet her..but..., now that I see pictures of her, I embarrassingly realise that it was her that I bounded up to and said 

"When I die, I'm gonna ask for YOUR legs before I come back next time." 

Hmmm. I can't even blame THAT on the alcohol!  But I don't think she minded too much. I guess sometimes my brain just has no "skip" button. Boy-oh-boy though, I just have to say, she has one heck of a pair of pins. (No pics of them sorry, you'll have to scroll her blog and check them out yourself.)

Ree Ree had all of her lippys on display for everyone to test drive. That is Charly's hand making a cameo appearance. We didn't get a photo together, but there might be one coming up on Gemma's blog. 

Lucy and Gemma sporting their little graduation hats as they man their Historial Sauces table which included lovely vintage lipsticks and some "how to do vintage" style books to look at. 

So, you ask, what colours did I choose? Well, it was very dark in there so I focused on building my paper chart that I could refer to in daylight. The ones on the right are old favourites that I am replacing. They are from other brands and are either discontinuted or they are crack my sensitive lips into crocodile smackers. As I don't have the same reaction to Rockalily lippys I am keen to get more flavours. The one here is my first one - Red Hot Red, which I love.

You can see that ZOMG is not far from my "Marilyn" colour, Mermaid is a bit more orange than my "Frosted Apricot" and Roulette (as recommended by Ree Ree for me) is a deeper, darker tone of my old "Cinnamon" colour, so those are next on my shopping list. Some of these are limited, so I'm going to go and do that NOW.

Shona x

PS: I'm still not sure how to say ZOMG - Zoom-Geh? Zoum-Gee? I dunno!!