Beauty collection (From The Northern Echo)

Beauty collection

11:28am Tuesday 2nd February 2010 in

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As she heads for the new season’s designer bags collection, Lucy Richardson is side-tracked by Collectables’ latest addition – the beauty bar.

NESTLING among the designer handbags, charm bracelets and scented candles, a department store has launched a beauty bar designed to prolong the retail therapy experience.

After browsing round the cookery ware and enjoying a spot of lunch at Collectables, in Stockton, customers can enjoy a pampering session.

The therapists at Beauty at Collectables offer Indian head massages, henna tattoos, eyelash and eyebrow tints and brow threading.

Shoppers can also take the weight off their feet by opting for a pedicure, or enjoy a manicure using the OPI nail range.

The shop, which has branches across the region, has seen its core customer base change over recent years from mature collectors of ornaments and crystal to younger fans of brand-name bags and jewellery.

Now it hopes to capitalise on the trend for in-store pamper parlours.

At the foot of the stairs leading to the restaurant, a team of beauty therapists perform their magic. I decided to let them show off their skills and rather than opting for a 20- minute “shopper’s manicure” chose to have a full set of gel nails, my first foray into the world of false talons.

I try to look after my nails and regularly treat them to home manicures with cuticle creams and polish, but the urge not to nibble sometimes proves just too much to bear.

My only experience of false nails was when my glamorous mother opted for a full set in the Eighties. My abiding memory when one fell off while she was cooking tea, only to turn up later in a dish of lasagne.

At Collectables, my small fingers were transformed to digits any selfrespecting footballers’ wife would be more than proud to flourish. The process, which took about an hourand- a-half, was thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing. Angela Evans gave my new, natural- looking nails a French polish highlighted with tiny crystals.

Intrigued passers-by watched the transformation, while I got the chance to pursue one of my favourite hobbies – watching the world go by.

Next up was brow-threading. I sat back in what felt like a dentist’s chair while therapist, Alex Flavell, armed with just a reel of cotton, arched my brows using the ancient art. The painless procedure, which involves hairs being pulled out by the roots was over in a flash and looked much neater than by my usual tweezing method.

So this time I may have walked out of Collectables without one of their fantastic designer bags over my arm, but I had still treated myself and it felt fantastic.

■ Collectables, Portrack Lane, Stockton. Tel: 01642-676675.

Bra fittings: They don’t measure up

HIGH Street stores’ bra fitting services are busted, says consumer champion Which?.

An undercover investigation revealed that fewer than one in three measured up and no shop’s service was good enough to recommend.

Which? sent 11 researchers, aged 25 to 75 with a DD cup size or larger, to 70 specialist and high street stores to buy an everyday bra. A quarter of the fittings were “appalling” said the experts, who suggested the volunteers would have been better “picking something off a market stall”.

Some of the women were sold wildly different sizes by different shops. In one case, this varied by seven sizes from a 34FF to 40D.

Another was sold exactly the same bra in two House of Fraser branches but in sizes 34C and 34F, both of which were a terrible fit. Despite the difference in age and requirements, the 30 and 75-year-old researchers were sold the same Wonderbra-style bra in one store – it fitted neither.

Badly-fitted bras don’t just look awful – they can also cause neck, shoulder and back ache and poor posture.

Jenny Driscoll, of Which?, says: “If stores are going to offer this service to customers they need to up their game: do it properly or don’t do it at all.”

John Lewis and Bravissimo received the best scores, but still were not good enough to recommend.

Boob survey

STILL in the bra department, The Big Green Boob Survey hopes to give women the chance to tell all about their best assets and how they want to dress them. The aim is to create the “best ever” ethical bra.

The combined results will be used to challenge a manufacturer to make the bra and ensure it is as close as possible to the ideal for women of all shapes. It is likely to be fairly made from eco-friendly fabric, and available to buy on the high street at a sensible price.

To take part in the survey, visit daisygreenmagazine.co.uk and click on the link on the home page.

It takes just two minutes to complete. Everyone who does the survey will be entered into a draw to win £50 worth of ethical lingerie (not including a bra).

Thinking of sleep

RESEARCH from Loughborough University’s Sleep Research Centre has shown that women need more sleep than men each night.

“One of the major functions of sleep is to allow the brain to recover and repair itself,” says Professor Jim Horne. “Women tend to multi-task – they do lots at once and are flexible – and so they use more of their actual brain than men do. Because of that, their sleep need is greater.”