My London Beauty Blackbook

*Ahem* I have something to announce

I dunno guys, this mercury in retrograde is retrograding in a way it’s never retrograded. At least for me personally. Firstly, my cat ate an absolutely enormous piece of twine that was wrapped around a rotisserie chicken. So I’ve had to examine every single one of her..movements.. using gloves and a plastic knife (after days of being a litter box archaeologist, I eventually found the entire piece of string). Then, over the course of three days, I got terrible work news, a migraine, a horrific bill in the mail, my period, and woke up with a massive, cystic chin pimple. And if all that isn’t stressful enough, I’m in the midst of an international move.

To be clear my flat looks like hell on earth, this just happens to be a somewhat tidy section of the chaos.

So yeah! Fun Little Treat exclusive: I’m moving to Los Angeles! And I’m sure there are some of you rolling your eyes, thinking, “Oh great, another person moving to the greener pastures of LA.” But if you didn’t know, Los Angeles is my hometown. And I actually really resent the vapid reputation some influencer transplants have given LA. People see Beverly Hills on TikTok and think they understand Los Angeles, but that's like going to Mayfair and assuming it represents the essence of London as a whole. With that said, I can’t tell you how excited I am to do beauty deep dives there. Facials in Koreatown, budget-friendly laser treatments, industry-secret dermatologists, and hidden beauty gems tucked away in unassuming strip malls are going to hate to see me coming.

But let’s talk London, shall we? I have a complicated relationship with her. My London rose and thorn are easy to assign: I fucking love English people (the least funny person in a London friend group is the “funny friend” in LA or New York). But I profoundly and deeply despise English weather—the constant black, grey skies and 3pm darkness is not for me.

But when it comes to beauty, over the course of my three, almost four, years in London, I’ve scoured beauty articles, aggressively sleuthed Instagram, and begged chic people for recommendations, and as a result I ended up accumulating a pretty excellent London beauty black book. For people who don’t live in London, this is important to note: London gets compared to New York a lot in terms of, for lack of a better word, vibe, but I’d actually say that it’s quite similar to Los Angeles in terms of scale. London is sprawling, and where you live/where you’re staying will heavily impact what neighborhoods you visit. So by nature of where I lived during my time here, most of my recommendations are central, east, and a few west.

So today, I’m going to walk you through what I consider London’s very best:

• Hair colorists

• Nail techs

• Workout classes

• Places to shop for skincare and makeup

• Facials

• Wellness-y spots (reiki and even a homeopathic pharmacy)

• Plus some notes about vintage shopping

Buckle up, because this newsletter is a long one.