Benefit's Curl's Best Friend pop-up parlour

Image from telegraph.co.uk

Last week my good friend Chloe and I arranged to meet up after work for a drink and long overdue catch up, and we thought what better place to do so than at Benefit's pop-up parlour in Soho! For one month only, Curl's Best Friend is open and offering three floors worth of pampering, cake and cocktails.

The ground floor is reminiscent of a 1950s salon; pink, kitsch and impossibly girly. We were greeted by the lovely Jordan (owner of the most fabulous sparkly tuxedo jacket I have ever seen!), who found us the last remaining table and delivered impeccable customer service, despite the fact we had no appointment and were really just there to see what it was all about.

We were soon drinking bubbles and eating popcorn (having talked through what really should have been dinner time) before Jordan returned to give us the guided tour. Curl's Best Friend is a celebration of Benefit's new Roller Lash mascara, hence the 50s salon theme, but they have also offered a shout out to the best selling They're Real mascara. The second floor, otherwise known as the Noir Bar, opens at 7pm and has a much darker more edgy feel, with decor to match the cult classic's black and orange packaging.

The first floor is home to the beauty parlour where you can choose from a brow wax and tint or a blow dry from the parlour's resident hair stylists. Chloe and I both sat down with a fantastic Benefit makeup expert and were recommended a variety of Benefit products and showed how to apply them. Naturally this included the star of the show, the Roller Lash mascara.

The brush is revolutionary, hooking the lashes and separating, lifting and curling them. By this point the lovely Alison was working on top of makeup I had applied at 7am that morning so it was a little hard to establish the true benefits, but after application to one eye I could certainly see the difference. My lashes definitely had a serious curl. In fact this mascara is supposed to be so effective that you can ditch your eye lash curlers for good! I'll need to try it again to give a fair assessment, but I think it's safe to say that anyone trying to prize my Shu Uemuras out of my hands will have their work cut out...

The attention to detail at Curl's Best Friend is fantastic and to be expected from a brand like Benefit, that always manages to combine makeup and a sense of humour to create something fun yet glamourous rather than tacky.

Curl's Best Friend will remain in Soho until the end of the month before going on tour around the country. I definitely recommend checking it out, whether you want to try out the new mascara over a cocktail and a cupcake or fancy a blow dry and bubbles before a night out.

For bookings call 020 3620 4747 or download the Curl's Best Friend app
Tuesday to Saturday, 11am-11pm, Noir Bar from 7pm
26 Greek Street, Soho, W1D 5DE

www.benefitcosmetics.co.uk