London College of Beauty Therapy
London's best budget beauty treatments
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By Katie Dailey. Photography Max Diamond
Posted: Tue Jan 20 2009 -
Across the capital, salons and spas are offering cut-price deals on everything from manicures to massages, pedicures to facials. Time Out rounds up ten of the best London beauty bargains
See our guide to London's 20 best spas
Apsara Herbal
Despite moving to a more auspicious salon on Whitechapel Road, Apsara still offers great-value threading. Treatments are short and sharp, but for £5 you can have your eyebrows beautifully groomed using the same skilled technique which would set you back £24 in Harrods.
Apsara Herbal, 249 Whitechapel Rd, E11DB (7377 2004/www.apsara herbal.co.uk). Whitechapel tube. 9.30am-7pm Mon-Sat, 10.30am-5.30pm Sun.
Cucumba
If you need just enough post-work pampering to take you from desk to dawn then Cucumba is a good option. You pay for time rather than treatments – a ten-minute quick fix such as a mini manicure and pedicure costs £12.50; a 20-minute facial will set you back £20; a half-hour deep-tissue massage is £29.50.
Cucumba, 12 Poland St, W1F 8QB (7734 2020/www.cucumba.co.uk). Oxford Circus tube. 10am-8pm Mon-Fri, 11am-7pm Sat. Feature continuesAdvertisementDiamond Nail Spa
BEST FOR NAIL EXTENSIONS
Anywhere in the city where there is a rich Afro Caribbean culture you are likely to find excellent nail bars, and this one offers dazzling nail extensions with a choice of glittering embellishments. This place is also worth a look in if you want a simple manicure or pedicure LA style, as the prices tend to be affordable. Diamond has the works: massaging chairs with foot spas, a toolbox filled with hard-skin annihilators, and top notch Opi and Essie polishes. Manicures cost just £10. If you are in the market for a full set of talons, extensions cost £20.
Diamond Nail Spa, 332 Mare St, E8 1HA (8986 9503). Hackney Central rail. 10am-7pm Mon-Sat.
Errol Douglas
BEST FOR AFRO/HAIR RELAXING
Celebrity hairdresser Errol Douglas dresses the tresses of a glittering array of stars. His Belgravia salon offers some of the best Afro services in the capital, but at fair whack. Book in on a model night and you can get an excellent relaxing treatment for £20, and a cut and blow dry for £15 from Errol’s highly skilled apprentices, often under close supervision from the man himself.
Errol Douglas, 18 Motcomb St, SW1X 8LB (7235 0110/www.erroldouglas. com). Knightsbridge tube. Trainee cuts available 5-7pm Tue-Wed.
Haringtons
This multi-award-winning hairdresser has a handful of high-end salons across Britain, and all of its students visit the Soho flagship for a six-week stint at the end of their training. To anyone who has been the victim of a sub-standard ‘model’ cut for a fiver should rest assured that this is more a finishing school for the very nearly qualified – this salon will give you exactly what you ask for rather then the latest prevailing trend in asymmetrical Mohawks. Cuts cost £7.50 and can take about half an hour longer than usual. In all other respects this is a luxury service at a very reasonable price.
Haringtons, 14 Great Marlborough St, W1F 7HP (7292 2890/www.haringtons.com). Oxford Circus tube. 10.30am-6.30pm Mon-Fri, 11.30am-7.30pm Thur, 9.30-5.30 Sun.
Hari’s
Perhaps you’ve always thought of the legendary hair salon where Catherine Zeta-Jones is reported to treat herself to Beluga caviar and truffle hair masks as a touch off-budget (cuts top £250). However, a new diffusion service at this chi-chi South Kensington salon sees junior stylists carry out cuts and colouring for a fraction of the standard prices: a cut is £40; highlights £60. Alternatively, pop in on a weekday and get a trainee cut for absolutely free. Just don’t tell Catherine…
Hari’s, 305 Brompton Rd SW3 2DY (7581 5211/www.harissalon.com). South Kensington tube. 9.30am-6.30pm Mon-Fri, 9am-6.30pm Sat.
Karine Jackson Hair & Beauty
BEST FOR A FACELIFT
Organic colour pioneer and failsafe beauty salon Karine Jackson is kick-starting 2009 with a range of timely money-saving offers. All colour treatments, from highlights to washes, have 50 per cent off. New customers are being offered a free CACI non-surgical facelift (Botox for the petrified) worth £75 (subject to availability).
Karine Jackson Hair & Beauty, 24 Litchfield St, WC2H 9NU (7836 0300/www.karinejackson.co.uk). Leicester Sq tube. 10am-7pm Mon, Sat; 10am-9pm Tue; 10am-8pm Wed; 10.45am-late Thur; 10am-7pm Fri. Offer valid until end Feb.
London College of Beauty Therapy The London College of Beauty Therapy
BEST FOR FACIALS
Run like a proper beauty salon, with spick-and-span premises round the corner from Liberty, this is where the students of the prestigious London College of Beauty Therapy practise their trade. A full roster of beauty treatments is on offer: a full paraffin wax pedicure costs £12.50; and an hour-long full-body massage is just £20. There’s a vast range of specialist facials, such as the pore purging Vacuum Suction Facial (60 minutes costs £20). Gents on a budget might opt for the Executive Male Manicure for £10. Aside from the occasional look-in by a tutor or supervisor, there is little to distinguish the salon from any other, except the lower prices.
London College of Beauty Therapy, 47 Great Marlborough St, W1F 7JP (7208 1302/www.lcbt.co.uk). Oxford Circus tube. 9am-6pm Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm Sat.
The London College of Fashion
Students on the LCF Beauty Therapy and Health course have gone on to work in the crème de la crème of the capital’s beauty salons, from the Mandarin Oriental hotel to the Elemis Day Spa. Experience their talents before they are fully qualified for a fraction of the price you’d pay at a top salon by volunteering to be treated during a training session. You won’t be able to choose your treatment – you’ll have to sample whatever is currently on the syllabus (this month it’s black-mud facials). A quick phone call will reveal what treatments it has coming up – anything from a top-of-the-range Jessica Manicure to a skin rejuvenating Dermalogica facial, for just £8. Students are fully supervised throughout the process, are in their final year with good experience. The catch? A lack of privacy which might put some people off (though any girls brave enough to try out a bikini wax by a student will be granted closed blinds).
London College of Fashion, 20 John Princes St, W1G 0BJ (7514 7482/www.arts.ac.uk). Oxford Circus tube. By appointment. Spring term runs until Mar 20.
The Natural Beauty Salon
In the Asian enclave of Southall there is an abundance of extremely cheap Indian beauty salons that specialise in threading as well as herbal treatments. This is one of the cheapest around, with a team of deft ladies providing threading (£2.50 for eyebrows) and waxing (£12 for a full leg), in no-frills surroundings. Make the trek, and bargain to get a good price for top-
to-toe de-hairing in one go. Painful, but not on the wallet.
The Natural Beauty Salon, 242 Western Rd, UB2 5JW (8574 1967). Southall rail. Noon-7pm Mon-Sat.
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7 comments
Just went for some waxing at Apsara Herbal, and while I know it was their threading recommended in this article I would not recommend a trip here to anyone for anything. Staff were strange and spoke an incomprehensible English. The husband and wife team upstairs had a half-hour high decible argument including door slamming and the works, which was great as it distracted me from the pain inflicted by an inexperienced "therapist" with a veet roll on and two strips which she re-used for the whole treatment. The bikini wax was waaay overpriced for two roll ons of wax which have left me with scabs and bruising, and I could go on a lot more about the poor hygiene there. To summarise, Apsara Herbal is in every way a PAINFUL RIP OFF!! STAY AWAY.
I visited London College of Beauty Therapy salon today, and had two treatmemts (deep cleansing faciall and Galvanic body treatment). Two of the students who gave me treatments were very well trained and professional, and I really enjoyed their treatments. I am really happy that I went there.
Went for a mani and pedi to London School of Beauty. WORST MANI/PEDI ever... and that's saying a lot when it only cost £12 for each. I kept thinking, "Have these girls ever HAD a manicure?" One "therapist" cut my toenail WAAAY to short into the nail bed. They both put polish over oily nails on hands and feet so it didn't stick. It took about an hour and a half and I felt like I was getting treatments someone's kid sister playing at make up. A truly uncomfortable and amateur experience. AWFUL!
Cucumba promises much but does not deliver. While prices are reasonable, your money would be better spent elsewhere. Cucumba staff are not trained, badly turned out and standards are very poor. When the therapist got dye in my eyes - causing considerable discomfort - she merely laughed.
I went to the London College of Beauty last week for a the purifying back treatment. I was looking for a back massage and thought getting the cleansing and mask couldn't hurt! My therapist was lovely and professional. I have never had the skin on my back so clean and smooth and soft. I would definitely go back and have been thinking about a facial next. When you call to book make sure you tell them which treatment you want to have as they don't do all of them every evening.
Errol Brown - went there due to having mixed race hair in very good condition. Nearly didn't though as when I called, the receptionist snapped "Do you have Black or European hair" and she was perplexed when I replied what I had. On my arrival, she'd obviousl told colleagues who looked me up and down and even came out to have a look. Staring and whispering is rude and I was uncomfortable, feeling this inverted racism. They were black. Had good cut by young white man who has now moved on, sadly I don't know where. He was very attentive however I suspect this may have been him overcompensating for his own lonely day due to his snidey colleagues who were incredibly cliquey. Celebrities in there? No, but lots of Mayfair purple rinse women who were having boring cuts. People too scared to criticise the place incase they get called racist well, not me. Snobby, supercilious staff in a frankly dated "rent a chair" atmosphere. Don't bother.
Can I just add, the best pedicures in town - Lithuanian style, TWO HOURS (!!!) of proper foot treatment (getting rid of that hard old wintry skin, yecch) are at Kristina's Salon in Cavell Street E1. Not the most glamorous of salons, and at £25 it's not dirt cheap (well not for a skint guttersnipe like myself), but beats anything I've found elsewhere, where for the same sort of price and in 1/4 of the time they do little more than file and paint your nails. You can even read a Polish Hello! while being pampered... Marvellous.