Spa in the City

I had an absolutely amazing day in Edinburgh a few weeks ago! The weather was glorious, and I headed off there on an early train, knowing that I would probably have to queue for the first thing I planned to do - visiting Spa in the City!

Spa in the City is an event that runs for a couple of weekends, and on this particular weekend it was being held in St Andrews Square, which was a wonderful setting for it, as it's a lovely park with a pond in the middle (which looked mirror-like in the glorious sunshine!). I had only heard about it a few days beforehand, but had been planning to go to Edinburgh anyway, so I thought I'd have a look.

I arrived at about 8.30am, and was about 20th in the queue for registration opening at 9am. When you register you get a goodie bag, and a wristband which entitles you to two free treatments. You then head off to the individual tents to book your treatments. I chose a Toni & Guy fashion fix hairdo to begin with, at 9.30am, and this gave me time to look around the other tents and book something else for later.

For my hairdo I chose the Pretty in Punk hairstyle which has tight braids up one side of the head, with a low side parting, and the rest of the hair is swept up over the head. This was the first time in about 20 years I'd had a hairdresser do my hair! He really put me at ease and it was a fun experience, and my hair stayed in place all day.

I took this photo later, which I think is someone else getting the same hairdo!

I then went to the main tent where there were demos through the day, for a demo of Urban Decay makeup. It was good to see the makeup being applied, and at the end there was an offer that the first 25 people could sign up for a free makeover at their counter, which would normally cost £25. Since a makeover at a makeup counter was something I'd been planning for a while, I signed up for this.

After this I headed off to do some other things including visiting the Hidden Door arts event, which I'll tell you more about tomorrow (spoiler: it was amazing!), and having a look round Armstrong's vintage shop in the Grassmarket. Then I headed back to St Andrews Square.

There was a band playing in the square all day, so I had a listen to them while waiting for it to be time for my next treatment. This was a Liz Earle cleanse and makeover. I've heard a lot about the Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish, but I'd never used it before, and I really liked it. It was a relaxing experience having someone cleanse my face. She then applied a moisturising lotion which had an amazing scent of rose geranium, and some eye cream. She put the Sheer Skin Tint on my face, along with Light Reflecting Concealer, Healthy Glow Powder Blush, Lash Definition Smudgeproof Mascara, and Sheer Lip Gloss. The makeup was really subtle, and I really liked it. I was impressed with the mascara as it lengthened my lashes without being at all thick or clumpy.

Finally I went to the demo by Electric Hairdressing. There was a little while to wait for this, but, after treating myself to a few things in the Lush tent, I managed to get a seat on one of the blue and white striped deckchairs that were scattered around - it was a very comfortable way to wait. Then the queue for the tent began to form, so I joined that and got chatting to some of the others there about their day.

The demo was very good. They showed two different ways of creating curls, one with straighteners and one with a tong, and different ways of brushing them afterwards, and this created two very different styles of curls. There was also a braid created with lots of little ponytails up the back of the head.

All in all it was one of the best days I've had so far this year! The weather all day was stunning, it was fun to try some beauty treatments and see the demos, and it was a very relaxed and happy atmosphere with the band playing and lots of people lounging around on the grass. I'll definitely go again, and it's made me want to look for other interesting events that I could attend. Tomorrow I'll tell you about the other event I attended that day, Hidden Door.