Not Another Salon

Happy 2016 Fashion Slanters! I hope you had a lovely break and that getting back into the swing of things is not proving too taxing. I thought I'd welcome the New Year with a post about a new discovery. 

Every time I walk down Brick Lane I notice something different. There’s an unanticipated sample sale (dangerous), an untapped vintage store, a fun pop-up or, most recently, a shiny new salon.

But this was ‘Not Another Salon’ – A Pinterester’s dream, an Instagrammer’s fantasy and a colour-lover’s long-awaited blog post.

The second you walk through the door, you feel like you've been whisked into the future – strong lines, bright shades and funky decoration took my breath away. So cool it was, that it might have felt intimidating, but the girls in the salon were so lovely and welcoming that they offered to take me on a tour. I will try and give you the same treat, statically. Let’s go:

The Entrance

The graphic flooring, the colour pops, the cages! Arghhh! 

The shopping cage

Hmm, what shall I buy from the shopping cage? How about EVERYTHING?

The hair washing area

A minimalist moment with a neon sign and a head massage. Is there any other way to go? 

The logo wall

Yes.

The mani station 

A rainbow of beautiful colours. Which colour do you want to go for? I HAVE NO IDEA.

One of these designs on each nail please. Let's begin with Zippy. 

Or maybe glitter Shellac that looks like the film Frozen trapped in a polish...

Now let's go downstairs. 

What's that? Oh, only a secret room which is like a timewarp. Doesn't every salon have one of these? No?

With some creepy Dorothy legs and trippy wallpaper. Just because. 

And Pinterest goes wild. 

We've now left the secret room (which was on our left behind that shelf) so let's explore the rest of downstairs. 

There are some sexy mirrors, found in a little boutique from the actual future. 

 

Let's not forget what these guys actually do, which is amazing hair which has the power to turn heads - even in London's coolest area. 

The hair you always wanted is sitting on another woman's head. 

Or maybe this mousy/blue creation is more your style? 

If you've always been totally jel of My Little Pony's tresses then make them YOURS.

Remember the colour wheel from Art? Of course it's here - where else would it be? 

Don't forget to book your appointment on the way out - if your New Year's resolution is to 'be more adventurous with hair' then you are in the best possible place. 

Not Another Salon

020 7033 3920

188 Brick Lane E16SA

Flo's Nails

My friend Flo did these amazing marble beauties. She used shades by Essie and Barry M.

New nails

I was feeling autumnal so used a base shade of OPI 'German-i-cure' with a triangle of Number 17 Lasting Fix in a glimmering bronze shade.

Gold Fingers

I bought these gold stick-on nails from Primark. The ring is by Topshop.

Elly's Samba Hen

My friend Elly had an amazing Samba hen party - there was dancing, dinner and drinks!

L-R Me, Jenn, Elly, Rosie and Laura


This is the Samba-inspired make-up I did for the do. I used a mixture of MUA (eyes), Mac (base), Illamasqua (lips). The lashes are by www.lalalashes.co.uk

Bit squinty here, sorry!

Close-up

My leopard nails (using Barry M and Essie)

Sophy Robson Nails

LOVE Sophy's site! Nail inspiration ahoy!

www.sophyrobson.com

Sharon's Nails by Wah

Rainbow stripes! Think this could be my favourite design so far!

Sharon’s Nails – Zebra Print by Wah Nails

A springtime special!

WAH Leopard!

Sharon at my work had her nails done at WAH in Dalston. She was really happy with the service and look how gorgeous the pink leopard is - I want!

http://wah-nails.com/

Nails!

Sorry it's a bit blurry, just wanted to show you this new nail look I did using colours from Essie. I painted the whole nail with the bright, neon pink (Pink Parka) and waited for it to dry before applying the deeper pink shade to half of the nail.

New Nail Fad Hits London

A favourite Sunday activity of mine is to sit in front of a Come Dine With Me marathon and do my nails. This activity was made even more enjoyable because I had a new toy to play with - Barry M's new Nail Effects. You paint your nails any colour you like (in this case I used white) then wait for it to dry before applying a thin layer of this magical black, matte polish. As it dries, it cracks and give a marvellous leopard-like effect. Expect a lot of experimenting and more photos to follow! OPI do a version too but it probably costs about a million quid and does exactly the same thing so I'm sticking with my wallet-friendly fave.

Barry M Nail Paint 311 in Instant Nail Effects Black Magic costs around £5.00 and can be found in Superdrug. (If there are any bottles left!)

Wrap Your Nails

The trend for nail art is only going to get bigger. WAH nails (www.wah-nails.com) is tending to thousands of fashionable fingertips and nail wraps, originally championed by the metallic digits of Rhianna and Katy Perry (www.minxnails.com), are now all the rage with us normal-uns too. I bought some DIY smurf-blue wraps from Sephora (www.sephora.com) when I was in Poland but had very little success (not aided by the fact that they didn’t come with any instructions). The effect was akin to one I achieved when seven; when I decided to put stickers on my face, ears and nails. I gave it another chance with Nail Rock (you can buy packs from www.asos.com).

Nail Rock wraps come in some seriously funky patterns (leopard print, lacy etc.) or the popular plain metallic. Apparently applying heat is key when it comes to their application (who knew?!) and one Sunday night in front of my favourite Come Dine With Me marathon, I gave it a go. I like the craft-aspect of these things, sitting and cutting each nail-shaped section to fit my teeny little nail beds. You have to buff your nails to make them stick properly and then apply the heat (a travel hairdryer is apparently ideal). This made them stick. Then I had to file away any edges that hung over. This didn’t work too well; I think you need to use a pretty hardcore nail file. The overall effect was pretty cool though and this would look great on a night out. Personally, though, I wasn’t too keen on the feeling of having something totally foreign bonded to my nails (needless to say I’m not a fan of acrylics or anything like that either). I found the wraps came loose very quickly but perhaps I didn’t apply them properly. I think I’d advise visiting a professional first so you can watch how they do it before attempting the same thing at home. Will try again soon and let you know how I get on.

In the meantime here’s a picture of the final result (it worked better on my toes than on my fingers).

Russian Nails!

I had a mani/pedi in Kaliningrad, Russia. A current nail trend there is to have long, artificial highly pointed talons, the more unnatural-looking the better. Unsurprisingly I forewent this look in favour of something a little more subtle and girly. I have since tried to recreate but am having limited success (one hand is good, the other decidedly dodgy). My toenails are still pretty much intact - over two weeks later!

New Nail Shade 1: Bianca's Barbie Shoes

You know when you have the perfect nail colour in mind but can't find the right shade anywhere? The answer is colour-combining.

Here, I have used two coats of Essie's gorgeous Rose Bowl 342 (a hot, punchy, reddy pink) and then followed with a single coat of O.P.I's pretty Princesses Rule! R44 (a super-sparkly baby pink) to create a highly-metallic mid-pink. I am going to call this combo Bianca's Barbie Shoes 1!

Here is the picture from my (rubbish) shoot. I have used the new Chanel Rouge ad as a background:

Ring: Approx £2.95, H&M