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Reviews or Comments for 'Malika Westfield' (1)
“You’ve got a big gap where you’ve plucked too much”, said MALIKA’s head therapist and owner Ritu Patel, assessing the state of my straggly brows with one cool glance. “And here you’ve taken too much hair from underneath the brow.” As I was under strict instructions to hold a mirror to my face, the ugly truth was staring me in the eye. Ritu was right - my eyebrows were a state! How had I not noticed?! My bad habits became even more apparent when Ritu used a piece of string to show the natural shape of the brows and to highlight the areas which needed to be allowed to re-grow and improve. She also pointed out that my eyebrows were far lighter than the shaggy fringe falling on my forehead; another truth that I had never noticed. “We will tint them for a fuller look” said Ritu, taking away the mirror and encouraging me to lie back and relax.
It’s not hard to relax at Ritu’s new threading salon, MALIKA, on the ground floor of West London’s sprawling new shopping emporium, Westfield. As a hyper self-conscious person, I thought I might feel tense having my treatment done in close proximity to the nearby shoppers. But the small salon achieves a feeling of privacy and its thin chain-metal curtain hanging before the window gives you a sense of being hidden away from public view. The mix of dark purple décor with one white wall achieves a clean, restful and sophisticated effect. Two thick leather chairs sit central stage almost like dentist chairs: this is where the magic happens.
After examining the current state of my eyebrows in what Ritu calls a ‘made-to-measure’ consultation, a cooling swab of unguents was put onto my brows to prepare them for the tint. The semi-permanent tint, a vegetable dye, was painted on and left on for around ten minutes. I lay back listening to the soothing background music (sort of ocean noises, very relaxing) before Ritu used another swab to remove the tint. She then took some small scissors and shaped the tops of my eyebrows, at the point where they both meet the bridge of the nose. With one expert twist, Ritu then began the threading process.
My best friend, a regular threadee, had warned me that threading can be uncomfortable. But as Ritu began, I relaxed back into the chair smugly thinking, “What rot!” The tug of the hairs with the string felt strangely satisfying and I could feel that lots of hairs were being uprooted with each adept movement. Ritu asked me to pull down the skin of each eye whilst holding up the skin at the side of my head, so that she could pluck under the brows. This is where my bravado crumbled a little. As Ritu threaded, my eyes began watering copiously. Different areas of the brow require different threading movements and here, Ritu used fast, scissor-sharp movements of the string to banish the hairs under the brow.
When Ritu had finished the first brow, she gave me the mirror so I could examine the results. Sadly, I was temporarily blinded by my own salty tears and stray eyelashes floating around my eyes. “That’s great!” I said weakly and lay back down so that the other brow could be similarly transformed. The good news is that the second brow didn’t hurt quite so much, or maybe I was used to it by then. Ritu told me that the first time you have a threading is the most painful, after that the hair grows back softer and can be removed with less discomfort.
After the threading was done (it took Ritu no more than ten minutes) another cooling swab was applied and this soothed the skin, causing no stinging. Ritu then massaged my head and neck briefly and this signalled the end of the treatment. When I looked in the mirror I was delighted with the results. The vegetable tint had made my brows darker, more lustrous and more noticeable (in a good way) and they were shaped and defined without looking skinny or noticeably meddled with (I hate that skinny slug look of over plucked brows!)
Threading originates from China but it was in India that it was first applied to the eyebrows and face. Ritu, who first picked up a threading string aged eleven, named her salon after her threading teacher. During the half hour I spent at the salon, MALIKA was constantly busy, with the chairs operating on a one-on, one-out type policy. There were also plenty of customers queuing to buy gift vouchers and REN beauty products, which are used by the staff for a whole host of other beauty services, such as facials and massages.
MALIKA’s staff are gentle, calming and expertly professional. The service is speedy, efficient and delivers great results. A threading service costs £15 and is well, well worth it. It’s also much better for your skin than plucking, which causes the skin to lose elasticity as a result of the pulling movement. I have promised Ritu not to pluck again and with brows looking this good, I won’t need to for a while! On average, threading lasts for around three to four weeks so I will be heading back to Westfield in the New Year to get that teary-eyed feeling all over again.
It’s not hard to relax at Ritu’s new threading salon, MALIKA, on the ground floor of West London’s sprawling new shopping emporium, Westfield. As a hyper self-conscious person, I thought I might feel tense having my treatment done in close proximity to the nearby shoppers. But the small salon achieves a feeling of privacy and its thin chain-metal curtain hanging before the window gives you a sense of being hidden away from public view. The mix of dark purple décor with one white wall achieves a clean, restful and sophisticated effect. Two thick leather chairs sit central stage almost like dentist chairs: this is where the magic happens.
After examining the current state of my eyebrows in what Ritu calls a ‘made-to-measure’ consultation, a cooling swab of unguents was put onto my brows to prepare them for the tint. The semi-permanent tint, a vegetable dye, was painted on and left on for around ten minutes. I lay back listening to the soothing background music (sort of ocean noises, very relaxing) before Ritu used another swab to remove the tint. She then took some small scissors and shaped the tops of my eyebrows, at the point where they both meet the bridge of the nose. With one expert twist, Ritu then began the threading process.
My best friend, a regular threadee, had warned me that threading can be uncomfortable. But as Ritu began, I relaxed back into the chair smugly thinking, “What rot!” The tug of the hairs with the string felt strangely satisfying and I could feel that lots of hairs were being uprooted with each adept movement. Ritu asked me to pull down the skin of each eye whilst holding up the skin at the side of my head, so that she could pluck under the brows. This is where my bravado crumbled a little. As Ritu threaded, my eyes began watering copiously. Different areas of the brow require different threading movements and here, Ritu used fast, scissor-sharp movements of the string to banish the hairs under the brow.
When Ritu had finished the first brow, she gave me the mirror so I could examine the results. Sadly, I was temporarily blinded by my own salty tears and stray eyelashes floating around my eyes. “That’s great!” I said weakly and lay back down so that the other brow could be similarly transformed. The good news is that the second brow didn’t hurt quite so much, or maybe I was used to it by then. Ritu told me that the first time you have a threading is the most painful, after that the hair grows back softer and can be removed with less discomfort.
After the threading was done (it took Ritu no more than ten minutes) another cooling swab was applied and this soothed the skin, causing no stinging. Ritu then massaged my head and neck briefly and this signalled the end of the treatment. When I looked in the mirror I was delighted with the results. The vegetable tint had made my brows darker, more lustrous and more noticeable (in a good way) and they were shaped and defined without looking skinny or noticeably meddled with (I hate that skinny slug look of over plucked brows!)
Threading originates from China but it was in India that it was first applied to the eyebrows and face. Ritu, who first picked up a threading string aged eleven, named her salon after her threading teacher. During the half hour I spent at the salon, MALIKA was constantly busy, with the chairs operating on a one-on, one-out type policy. There were also plenty of customers queuing to buy gift vouchers and REN beauty products, which are used by the staff for a whole host of other beauty services, such as facials and massages.
MALIKA’s staff are gentle, calming and expertly professional. The service is speedy, efficient and delivers great results. A threading service costs £15 and is well, well worth it. It’s also much better for your skin than plucking, which causes the skin to lose elasticity as a result of the pulling movement. I have promised Ritu not to pluck again and with brows looking this good, I won’t need to for a while! On average, threading lasts for around three to four weeks so I will be heading back to Westfield in the New Year to get that teary-eyed feeling all over again.
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