Hair Trials & Make Up Trials

Hair and make up trials are very important to have done. Reason being is it is best to make sure you and your artist are on the same page with what the final result should be. The trial gives you the opportunity to meet your artist, consult, and together determine what would compliment you best. It is helpful for us to know a few things before hand to have a successful trial.

For Hair:

My first question I always ask... How do you NOT want to look? What do you hate about your hair?
That usually can start me off in the right direction.

Pictures are VERY helpful but, can be the kiss of death if your not realistic in your expectations. If you show me a picture of someone with a very large updo with volume etc.. and your hair is only shoulder length then we arent accomplishing that look right at that moment.  However, a consultation for hair extensions instead might be the first step ;)

I ALWAYS recommend to arrive with Clean and Dry hair. I can always dirty it up if need be. I personally like to start with a fresh palette. It gives me more options. Oily hair can drop a curl and make volume alot more difficult to achieve or even hold up.

Bring any hair accessories you plan on using or just want to try out and see what it looks like. If you don't have anything no biggie, Just ask if you have questions or would like our oppinions. We do thousands of updos..litterally. I can easily tell you whats the trend in Ct at least! lol    I'm constantly scouring the internet and the runway to see whats up and coming too so please feel free to ask for suggestions.

Check out a past blog I wrote on 2011 Trends and accessories

My best advice is, if your indecisive coming into your trial, most times than any you will not be fully satisfied when you leave. You need to have at least a general idea of what you are looking for. As professionals we will make suggestions that we feel would enhance what is already in your thoughts but, we are not mind readers and we don't know you from any other day as to what your normal hair routine is. Don't ever feel afraid to voice your oppinions or your ideas. A stylist that takes offense is a stylist that should take a walk.
You hired us and it is our job to listen to your needs and execute them as so. Communication from beginning to end is the only way to a successful trial run.

We have a 96% rate of achieving the look our clients are looking for the first time round because we keep them well informed throughout the process.  I can't give away all our secrets as to what also makes that rate very successful, however, hopefully these tips can help you have a great trial or expectations when you book your appointment whether it is with our entourage or someone else's.

In final thoughts... When getting a trial your stylist or make up artist should always perform to the ability as they would the day of your wedding. If you receive a trial that is a "general idea" then that is not a trial run. You need the real deal so you can see what your hair does throughout the day. Test run that hair and make up. Make sure it lasts through out the day your just running errands or cleaning the house! That is hair and make up that will look fabulous the day of your wedding too!

Happy Planning :) <3


Pictures of some recent trials of ours.  (We don't show faces...We don't want to spoil the look for them if anyone else sees)

 Mermaid Waves (below)

 Spiral Curl (Below)

Shoulder Length Hair

(Added in pinned in extensions)

Upcoming Events!!

We are jammed packed for March Madness at the end of the month!! These are some of the fun things we are up to so come out and see us!!


March  24th~ VAZ Fashion & Fantasy~ The Society Room in Hartford from 5-9   The Salon Alexander/Beauty Entourage Staff will be in the Beauty Lounge giving FREE mini make overs and great discounts on products!! Come visit! Avant Garde hair on models in full body Paint!     VAz hosts a one day event that’s feminine, fabulous, & fun. VAz is an exclusive event that includes shopping, fashion, beauty, fabulous cocktails and free giveaways. Their team is dedicated to searching out fabulous trends and brands just for you! If you love shopping, socializing, and a fun night out with your girlfriends then VAZ is for you!

PLEASE GO TO http://www.vazinfo.com/ for more info and to purchase tickets*

*Part of proceeds will benefit CT WOMENS EDUCATION and LEGAL FUND
http://www.cwealf.org/



March 27th~ Fantasia Bridal Show~ We will have a booth as well as doing all the hair and make up for the fashion show!

March 31st~ Salon Alexander, back by popular demand...Blowdry Class! $30 to attend (includes a $15 brush) Discounts on your favorite products and professional hot tools if needed. Learn how to style like the pros. We guarantee you will leave with new tricks up your sleeve ;)  Space is limited. Call immedietly if you are interested 860-667-7722


April 2nd~ Beauty Entourage presents, "The Bridal Stampeded, Stomping out Breast Cancer!"    Support the breast cancer research foundation. Meet us at Bushnell Park in your running shoes and your formal dress! Wedding dress, bridesmaid dress...Whatever you have formal. All women feel empowered in their best dress and we want to empower other women in their fight against this disease. With more research we will one day have a cure. Awareness is everything and early detection is key! 

http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=6iahuwcab&oeidk=a07e3fldftre7133640

Vaz Fashion & Fantasy

Come out for a fun ladies night on March 24th at the Society Room. Beauty Entourage & Salon Alexander  will be in attendance in the Beauty Lounge offering FREE hair & Make up Services and great specials for products and in salon services exclusive for this event!

What is VAz?

Vaz was created with the idea for women to come out and celebrate themselves for a night of Feminine, Fabulous, Fun that includes shopping, pampering, socializing and entertainment.
These events encourage women to enjoy themselves with complimentary massages, drinks, food, goodie bags, and entertainment such as tarot card reading, henna designs, music, fashion and beauty shows, all while shopping from unique vendors seeing the latest fashion and beauty trends, home decor and products in a beautiful atmosphere.
Prior events include VAz Femine Fabulous Fun, VAz Beauty, VAz Fabulous Fun in the City, VAz Spring Glamour 2010, and VAz Fabulous Fun for the Little ladies, (A special event for girls 12 and under)  and VAz 1 Year Anniversary Celebration.
VAz events are always partnered with a charity. Some of the charities we have worked with are United Way, Food Share and Our Little Brothers and Sisters Organization for the Haiti Relief Fund and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure CT.
VAz’s next event is VAz  Fashion & Fantasy. Please join us on Thur March 24th  5 – 9pm at The Society Room, 31 Pratt St Hartford, CT

Please join us for a fun filled ladies night like none other! For tickets and more details please visit the VAZ website.

http://www.vazinfo.com/vaz/

Beauty Entourage Presents..."The Bridal Stampede, Stomping out Breast Cancer"

Beauty Entourage Presents:
"The Bridal Stampede" Stomping out Breast Cancer(You don't need to be a bride to attend..read further)
This is our unofficial announcement about this event! Basically what that means is we want you to save the date and spread the word. Official registratation will begin March 1st, 2011.

...
What better way to kick off wedding season?? Whether you are a past Bride/ Brides maid or a future one. We want you to attend!!

$25 minimum donation to participate in the run through the park. 100% of the participation fee will be donated to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. This organization has the highest amount of money that goes to research and awareness. .90 cents of every dollar to be exact.

Requirements: You must wear a dress. Wedding gown or bridesmaid dress, Borrowed or your own!

Many wedding professionals will be in attendance and will be announced soon!

More details to come!! SO click yes to attend on our  Events Page We will message you when registration opens to make your donation. Even if you can't make it you can still donate and still click YES!

Thanks everyone to help us maintain our goal to support breast cancer research year round!!

**Wedding Professionals*** please email us for details to participate and sponsor!

BTW**** If you dont want to run in a dress you can come cheer us all on the sidelines. Same goes for anyone that is participating. Youcan invite your man or whoever else you would like that isn't running to come cheer us on! The more the merrier!!!!
http://www.bcrfcure.org/

My favorite Pictures from 2010 brides

I get to see some stunningly beautiful pictures thanks to all of our clients and photographers that send us photos after the wedding.  I chose some that are artistically inspiring and the most talked about when clients see our portfolios. Also, some of my personal faves!   All hair & make up provided by Beauty Entourage.

                                                                

                                                                      Top Pick!

http://www.halaymcguiness.com/

2nd Pick!!

http://www.rogerphoto.com/

http://www.johnlophoto.com/

http://www.lamphotography.com/

                                                http://www.catherinefiehnphotography.com/

                                                            http://www.dreamscapestudio.net/

http://www.christymurray.com/

http://nodophotography.com/

http://www.ericfoleyphotography.com/

                                                              http://www.amillerphoto.com/

http://www.parsonsphoto.org/

http://www.candacejefferyphotography.com/

                                                            http://www.discoverphoto.com/


ok, so that was amazingly hard to do! This blog would go on forever if I could.  I absolutely love nothing more than the artistic side to what I do. These photos visually inspire me. Not only were these photographers able to get great shots of our work but, they caught shots that just stood out from the rest.
What stands out the most with these pictures to me is that they are memorable and most talked about by my clients, my staff, and myself. Thank you to all of my brides and the photographers that took these amazing photographs. Their work deserved to be showcased.   The best or maybe hardest part about the work of a great photographer, is narrowing down the pictures to use in the portfolio without looking like I made an album of my brides whole wedding! lol

I hope I can continue my art collection as I still get last years pics in and from my future brides!

Chosen as the Bride's choice by Wedding Wire!~2011

 1/26/11 - 


WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, is thrilled to announce Beauty Entourage has been selected to receive the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 for Hair & Make Up

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation. 

Beauty Entourage stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year. 

“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud Beauty Entourage for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.” 

We are happy to announce that Beauty Entourage is among the very best Hair & Make Up within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011. 


For more information on the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011, please visit www.WeddingWire.com. 

Boudoir Show

I'm always looking for anything to inspire myself and my team and something fun to share with my clients. So, in search of something to do for my own anniversary I came across this idea of a Boudoir Photoshoot.  I had to do some research because I had no idea what it entailed and my first thought was (after having a child) if I felt comfortable doing this and how naked do these things get lol.

Luckily, one of my clients Diane, owner of Parsons Photography  , had an appointment to get her color done and it gave me plenty of time to ask questions and pick her brain to see what this was all about. After talking with her I had other conversations with clients and found many women loved the idea but also had the same questions.  So, the idea was created. Why not have a fashion show surrounding the idea of this kind of shoot and have Diane come shed some light on the topic.  We came together and invited all of our clients to this exclusive invite only event that I hosted at my Salon in Newington.  Let me just say how excited I was about this idea that I was actually having this show at my salon. I recently relocated to a larger space and the salon made for a PERFECT space for this kind of thing. (This is exactly what I dreamed of when I first laid eyes on the space) The date was set and the invites went out. We got an overwhelming response! I don't know about you but, there's not much to do in this state. Nothing is better then something different to do with the girls.

My team and my models came together collectively to create the looks with things out of our own closets! Nothing is better than a room full of women brainstorming. It was great. The excitement once everything was set was overwhelming. I've put on my own shows before but, this one was so different. The main point was to have fun and exude confidence. Not for nothing thats the basis of a boudoir shoot.

It was a crazy day to say the least! We had a few regular color clients prebooked on this date and if anyone knows me, it's like pulling teeth to move an appointment and usually will never happen unless I'm deathly ill or have to get emergency surgery (which unfortunatly has happened lol)  So, we did our models in between our clients on top of setting up the salon. Gave my regular clients some behind the scenes action lol. Needless to say they are never surprised by my ideas and the things we do and thought it was great to watch!

Everything was all set to go and the doors opened. We got a GREAT turnout! You never know with these things. Some hor'dourves, champagne, and a scavenger hunt to get girls mingling and get to know Beauty Entourage and Parsons Photography. 

To kick off the show we introduced ourselves and the purpose of the event folowed by some give aways! My favorite idea I came up with was this HILLARIOUS game that turned out to be a hit with the guests. We had a team of two compete against each other. One person in the team was blindfolded and had to dress their other teammate with lingerie (over their clothing) give them an accessories and apply lipstick on them. Reminder, this was done blindfolded! When they were done they had to compete on the runway with their looks.  It was great! Loved this part of the show...In the end we couldnt help but give them both a prize for participating in the fun. 

           (introducing ourselves. Me conquering my fear of public speaking)

                      (The girls not really sure what to think of my game as I'm explaining the rules)

                                                                 (game on!)

I just have to give credit in between this photo. My little sister inspired this whole idea!! This is a game she introduced me to over the summer. pics to prove it! lol  <3

             Thanks Cheyenne!!! <3                                               

ok, back to the show...The girls are struttin their stuff here.

Next up SHOWTIME!!!!   I can't say enough about my models..Some of the girls\we knew from other shows we've done. (most models we use are past bridal clients usually that stick around for the fun lol)   We also had some new additions to the ladies and even some of our very own BE staff bared all!!

To respect the privacy of the models I only have some to share:

Candy girl (Rachel one of our make up artists/Hair Stylists)

Love this girl. She worked that run way! She was a teacher and even surprised us with her apple she hid at the end of the runway lol gotta love the dedication to character!

        Kayle (Hair Stylist & Make Up artist on my staff)  I had this crazy idea to go braless and covered in pearls. There's no end to how far my girls will go with my crazy ideas..I love them! It ended up amazing and made for one of the top looks that were the talk of the show.

                                           Kayle after we added her hair extensions for the second look
        The whispers were great when the audience realized it was the same girl that had short hair before.

                                                                  Kayle rockin out the short hair.

The show was a HUGE success and I look forward to doing more events like this and then some. It was incredibly fun and ispiring.  Thank you to Diane of Parsons Photography , the models that made this show so amazing, and the guests that attended and inspired me to continue doing events. <3  Nothing like the feeling after such an accomplishment.