So, my favorite brow gal has her own salon now!
Head on up to Roger’s Park to Shiva’s Beauty Salon, on Sheridan Road just north of Morse. Seriously, the best brow threading in the city—for just $7.
Go. Now!!
Archive for the ‘grooming’ Category
Shiva Beauty Salon
Thursday, February 16th, 2012Eyelash Dash and Benefit Bash!
Saturday, October 30th, 2010
The other evening, just the other night, I went to a Beauty Bash at Benefit in Evanston. My friend Elizabeth had won the Bash, simply by entering her name in a contest at the boutique when she had her eyebrows done.
The Beauty Bash consisted of us, a bunch of exhausted women on Mom’s Night Out, standing around, drinking champagne (bliss!), and each having one service (brows, lip wax, eyelash tint) taken care of while there.
After the first glass of champagne, after wavering about an eyebrow wax (I don’t wax; I have mine threaded), after smelling some of the lovely perfumes at the counter, I bravely decided to have an eyelash tint.
Basically, I had to take all of my eye makeup off with their lovely, gentle makeup remover; then, I sat in the chair while the esthetician with the calming-est voice ever put some vaseline under my eyes, close to my lower lashes. Over that, she put a small, moon-shaped pad, which would protect my undereye from excess dye.
Then, with a mascara wand (I think: my eyes were closed), she glopped on the natural vegetable dye all over my lower and upper lashes. I had to keep my eyes closed for 14 minutes (not a problem!) and when the time was over, she took the excess dye off and sort of sprayed saline solution all over my eyes while I blinked rapidly.
Not my eye, but LOOK at those lashes!
I kid you not: I looked like I had on mascara. I looked like a little kid, whose eyelashes you envy. I was so excited.
While I was sitting there, eyes closed for 14 minutes, I thought, “There’s no way this service is less than 50 bucks: all natural vegetable dye that doesn’t sting my eyes? Lasts 4 to 6 weeks? Has to be more than $50.”
It’s $20. TWENTY BUCKS!
I am so excited. I don’t have the best of luck with mascara; I haven’t found one that doesn’t get all clumpy, that doesn’t leave odd raccoon smudges under my eyes by the end of the day. I will definitely be back for this!
After we finished our Beauty Bash services, the gorgeous Benefit women redid our makeup, and some of us went out for yummy pizzas and drinks at Union; I’m fairly certain that the waiter, who was all of 20, thought I was slightly off my rocker—I felt all sassy with my new eyelashes, and kept blinking and winking them at my friends, for laughs.
And now, two days later, I’m still pretty darn excited about them. And that, Lovely Readers, is an indication that it’s worth it!!
Playing Hooky, in a way.
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010Last night, I didn’t sleep very well. I woke up at almost 2 am and worried for about an hour and a half about things that, quite frankly, I can’t control. When the alarm went off at 6 am, I was groggy and not at all rested. I kept yawning all morning, apologizing to my students, who suggested that vats of coffee would help. I also had a full day scheduled, which included another round of teaching in the early evening.
Also on the schedule today was a 5 mile run and short weightlifting session at my gym, while the Bean was in preschool. I have a half marathon on Saturday, so this run was definitely necessary, but when I dropped the Bean at his classroom door, I knew I just couldn’t do it. I decided to go a different route of relaxtion: a mani/pedi at Nail Bar Evanston.
Chick Flick Cherry
I called to check on their availability and to see if they still were running a $40 Recession Buster express mani/pedi; the lovely woman who answered said that yes, they did have the Recession Buster, but that I was in luck! On Wednesdays, you can receive a Regular mani/pedi for only $45, which included the massage. A massage that the Recession Buster lacks. She asked if I’d rather do that.
Oh yes! I would! And I did! A half an hour later, I sat in one of Nail Bar’s new massage chairs, my feet soaking in a tub of bubbles and warm water. Helen took her sweet, sweet time on my feet, paying much needed attention to every detail (During the Chicago winters, my feet so rarely get out to play. And you can tell!) It was wonderful.
I like to have clean, pale fingernails, so although I opted for a deep, berry red on my toes, I asked Helen to just tend to my cuticles, file my nails into a pretty shape, and buff them to a shine. The manicure was good, but I do think she made my nails a little too short.
I’m so glad I skipped my run to do this. It feels much better to have my feet taken care of after a long winter. I left the salon relaxed and calm.
Nail Bar Evanston is running three specials right now, including the Wednesday Regular Mani/Pedi for $45 special. On Mondays, you will receive a complimentary paraffin treatment with a pedicure, and on Tuesdays, a complimentary polish change with a pedicure.
Brow POW!
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
My brows just the other day.
So it seems that I always put off brow grooming until my eyebrows start to look like caterpillars hanging out on my face; at that point, I start to feel terribly disheveled and, in a simple word, gross. I know that I don’t appear that way to others, of course, but I just feel like I’m sprouting hair from every pore, warts all over the place, all split ends and bad hair color, mismatched clothing (not in a good way). I feel all schleppy. And did I mention gross? (all this from just my brows not being groomed. I’m telling you, it makes a difference!)
I don’t know why I put it off so long. Time is of the essence, of course, but really it doesn’t take that long for me to zip into Carmen’s, where I have Shiva thread my brows (here’s the yelp review).
Yesterday (finally!), it took me FIFTEEN MINUTES TOTAL—from the time I parked my car a half a block away until I got back INTO the car—for me to have brows and upper lip threaded by Shiva.
FIFTEEN MINUTES, Lovely Readers. That’s all it took to change my face from caterpillar-y/warty/hair in all pores/gross-ness to groomed and ready to face (literally) the world again.
I definitely should not put it off ever again. This time, I’m writing it down in my calendar, making space for that FIFTEEN MINUTES. Space for kicking eyebrow ass and takin’ eyebrow names.
Anyway, let me tell you a little more about Carmen’s. It’s in Roger’s Park, near Loyola, for all of you Chicagoans, and two different friends both told me about Shiva, saying she was the best threader and eyebrow-er in the city. At that time, I was paying a huge amount of money ($55) to have my brows plucked at a brow-only salon in Bucktown, which was really really not worth it.
Carmen’s raised their prices for brow threading a few years ago—to $7.
Totally worth the money. Shiva is amazing. She makes a perfect brow.
Please note: I can’t vouch for any other services at Carmen’s, and if you go to the Yelp review, it seems everyone adores the brow threading but other things are spotty; I am all about the brows there, and Shiva is definitely the one to see.
