luscious lashes

ANNIE: Thank goodness, I can still do frivolous. Buying fake eyelashes at Malaga airport scores high on the frivolity stakes.
Even cack-handed I managed to put these on in a rush before going out. I was worried that my eyelids would be a smear of copydex (that's what the glue looks like) but any residual glue easily rubs off and you can cover up with eyeshadow or eyeliner. The effect was stunning and you can add mascara for added wow. They peel off completely painlessly to use again. Effortless (and cheap) glamour. £8.50 for set of top lashes; glue £8.50 from Mac stores and maccosmetics.co.uk.

EMILY: Unlike Annie, who has lovely long thick lashes naturally, I have short, thin ones that no amount of mascara can remedy. So the idea of individually applied falsies was very tempting. A trip to Bliss Spa took an hour and a half but when I came out I was a new woman. For the first time in my life I could bat my lashes. For about 24 hours I was a convert. But then I made an error. I went to Jamaica – sun, sand and sea – lots of suncream, lots of swimming. My new lashes did not like it, despite assurances they were water-resistant. They fell out and, worst of all, they did not fall out alone. Attached to about one in every three was a poor, thin, tawdry real lash. Moral: if it matters to you to lose a lash or two (or twenty), DON’T do it prior to a beachy holiday. Ooh-la-lash  £150. An upkeep session every 2­–3 weeks is recommended. Removal is free.  blisslondon.co.uk. 60 Sloane Avenue SW3 2

Tans to order

EMILY: I tried two cheat’s options. First stop: Urban Retreat, the spa at the top of Harrods, for a spray tan. I was in and out in half an hour. The result would not have been accepted by a purist, my face was too dark and there were streaky bits, but it was good value and I felt confident on holiday. Sienna X Airbrush Tan, £45  harrods.urbanretreat.co.uk  7893 8333 When my real tan wore off, I was back for more. This time I went for the ‘original’ fake tan, St Tropez, expertly applied by Spa NK in Notting Hill. The experience was much more of a ‘beauty’ treatment - I left the spa looking as though I had forgotten to shower after a mud bath, but the following morning the results were surprisingly natural. Self-tanning session £60 spa-nk.co.uk 127-131 Westbourne Grove, W2 7727 8002

Painted Lady

ANNIE: Your talons must be sporting gel, not varnish, this summer for long-lasting brilliance. The colour dries instantaneously so no smudging or pretending you are a webbed animal for an hour. But the colour range can be disappointing. Watch out for the Jessica branded gel at Chelsea Day Spa when it launches in  mid-July. New Tillie's Nail Lounge in Maida Vale works with CND with a fantastic range of colours. You'll need a top up after three weeks and you have to have it professionally removed. Chelsea Day Spa thechelseadayspa.co.uk, 69a King’s Road, SW3 7351 0911; Tillie's Nail Lounge, 5 Formosa St, W9  7266 2620
tilliesnaillounge.com
 

 
Braving the Brazilian

EMILY: They use Lycon wax at Strip: 50% beeswax, 50% tree resin; it is totally different to normal hot wax and has the consistency of warm gloopy putty. When applied it felt heavy and warm but not unpleasant and when taken it off it genuinely did not hurt. The whole process remains very undignified – legs over the back of the shoulders for the last bit. As the therapist chirpily intoned “welcome to your new vagina” I was in need of a large drink; but she was right, I have already been back. Brazilian bikini £45 Stripwaxbar.com Branches in Notting Hill, Chelsea and Soho

 
Vintage sunglasses

They did glamour properly in the old days. To top off your summer look you need a pair of exquisite original 70s' or 80s' sunglasses from retrosun. Move over Charlie's Angels. retrosun.co.uk From £125 a pair. 

1, 2, 3 , pause, 5, 6, 7 pause

EMILY: So goes the beat in salsa. The past two Monday nights have seen Annie and me in Zoe’s beginners’ class at the Pineapple Dance studios in Covent Garden. The basics of salsa are not tricky. We have mastered the standard forward, back, side. Annie is better than me at the turn. We can hold our fingers above our waists in a vaguely Latin way. We are not the worst in the class though we know we are still pretty hopeless in the free dance routine at the end. It has been fun. Getting to Covent Garden for 8pm on a Monday night has been a hassle, such that both times I have nearly cancelled and arrived grumpy. The music is infectious and uplifting. The anonymity is refreshing. Between 10 and 20 total strangers, a variety of ages, abilities, agendas (yes, there were a couple of besuited lads on the pull); the charming Zoe assuring us we can ‘blag’ it and anyone can salsa; the encouragement to embrace salsa as a way of life and hang out in salsa bars. Both times we have left and gone out to dinner in Soho, drunk too much (Spanish) wine and woken up with hangovers. In a good way. Classes cost £10 (£4 to Pineapple, £6 to the teacher) 7  Langley Street, WC2, 7836 4004 pineapple.uk.com

Reading material

ANNIE: Before this edition of the magazine, my appreciation of Spain had been sorely lacking. I now can’t get enough of it.
It started when a friend sent me a copy of Lorca's Gypsy Ballads. Lorca was Spain’s most famous poet, writing right up until he was murdered by the Nationalists at the outbreak of Civil War.
The gypsies are those he would meet up by the Alhambra in the Moorish quarter of Granada. Little seems changed in those
winding, whitewashed-walled streets; the passion, even in translation, is overwhelming.
If you are visiting the towns of Madrid, Seville, Cadiz, Tarifa or Malaga, your holiday reading should include Laurie Lee’s As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning. He writes evocatively about his journey south from Vigo through Madrid, Seville, Cadiz, Tarifa and Malaga, before settling in Granada in the mid-30s. He recounts his meetings with Galician wolves, sleeping rough and busking with his fiddle. 
Closer to where I’ll be for a week this summer on the Costa Brava, I have enjoyed Norman Lewis’ Voices of the Old Sea. Hailed as the first – and, by some, the best –travel writer, he describes life in the tiny fishing village of Farol, which in the late 40s was evolving from a fishing economy to one based on tourism. I fear the idyll he describes is long gone but it is lovely to know how it once was.
 

Sherry, vicar?

ANNIE: 'Is yours an Oloroso or a Manzanilla?' asks the waiter. Help! What to drink in a Spanish restaurant? In fact, when eating tapas in a bar, Spaniards would ask for 'un fino', a pale, dry sherry, drunk incredibly chilled. We sought the advice of Richard Bigg, owner of the only sherry bar in London, the newly opened Bar Pepito in Kings Cross. He explained that sherry is only made in Andalusia in the small triangular area between Jerez (which gave its name to 'sherry'), Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María. The locations are important: Sanlucar de Barrameda is home to Emily's and my now favoured Manzanilla, which is very dry with a slight salty taste due to its seaside origin. It is the perfect accompaniment to almonds, padrone peppers and olives. But you could equally have a Fino. These two types have been protected from oxidizing by a layer of flor – hence the fact that they are only about 15% proof, so you can quaff away. With richer food, including cheese, the heavier Oloroso is better but it is a bigger drink to get used to.
Bar Pepito is a great place to discover what you like. Try their sherry ‘flights’: three 50ml shots of styles for comparison, each served with a bite of something suitable from the menu.  Bar Pepito, 3 Varnishers Yard, The Regent Quarter, Kings Cross, N1 7841 7331 camino.uk.com/pepito