The Boudoir Dressing Service - Business Profile
Some of the Team - Jodie Lynn, proprietor & Michael Pattison, resident photogrpaher
What is the main aim of your business (relieve stress, make women, make money)?
The Boudoir is a luxury dressing service providing makeovers, dressing appointments, make-up lessons, stunning professional photo shoots, organised one to one group trips to theatre, opera, afternoon tea, trips abroad (NYC, Las Vegas, Gran Canaria etc), weekly nightclub trips. As well as public events such as Royal Ascot. We also offer a range of specialist items and clothes for sale.
Do you intergrate your service with the greater TG community?
We attend every event on the TG calendar in the UK that we possibly can. We organise trips to various TG and Non TG events where we provide hair, make-up, nails, wardrobe, transport and company and support throughout the event.
Do you only serve the TG community?
We generally only serve the TG community but we do get asked to cater for wives, partners, girlfriends of TG clients and we find that everyone mingles well.
What made you think of offering your service to TGs?
I wanted a challenge and I loved spending time with TG people. At the time when I came into the TG industry, there was very little on offer to the TG community in terms of good quality hair and make up services. I felt that I filled a gap in the market at that time.How long have you been doing it?
Five years.
What special arrangements do you make to help TGs?
We try to cover every angle possible to make people feel comfortable. Our premises is incredibly discreet on the third floor of a converted warehouse building that is now very modern studios for photographers, designers etc. Nobody ever enters our premises whilst an appointment is in progress unless they have been specifically invited. We work every weekend night til 7pm but will be flexible for regular clients who cannot get time off work. We also work Saturdays all day and provide nightclub trips in the evening. We are accessible by tube, surface train, and bus as well as roads and we have our own off street parking for our clients. We are reachable by phone, email, text message and good old fashioned post.
The BoudettesWhat special considerations are required for TG make-up?
Most high street products are fine for TG people to use. The only specialist products that we use are for beard cover and eyebrow cover. The rest of the time we use high street eye shadows, lipsticks, blushers etc. We love MAC as we find it is durable and the colours are great. Ru Paul and Boy George have also starred in their advertising campaigns so they are VERY TG friendly. The main thing is to not over do the look. The bright blues, greens or purples for example will look to garish on a face that is already against the odds in terms of physical size and masculine features. It is hard for trannies who want to go out during the day as it DOES take a certain amount of make-up to effectively transform a male face into a female face, yet in daylight this can sometimes look too much. It's hard to try and strike that even balance between wearing enough to do the job but at the same time without looking as though they have caked it on.
What special tricks can be applied to TG make-up?
The clever shading of certain areas to minimise certain areas such as large noses, masculine jaw lines or wider foreheads. The art of TG make up is minimise anything masculine and play on strengths without overdoing the features, i.e. The lips need to be full but not OTT, the eyes need to be slightly exaggerated but not over dramatic. The most important thing is to cover the beard effectively...nothing looks worse than a tranny with a great wig and clothes and a five oclock shadow!! Specialist products HAVE to be used to cover heavy shadows as high street (female) foundations rarely do the job.
Boudoir LoungeDo you teach your customers to do their own make-up?
Absolutely!! Our make up lessons are very popular. Trannies love to be self sufficient and be able to do their own make-up in case they decide to go out one night and cannot get an appointment anywhere or their finances won't allow for the cost of a professional makeover every time they want to venture out. At the same time, all of our clients who are now able to cope on their own, still come back for a bit of pampering and a professional make over every so often!!.
What advice would you give to TG readers?
Look around you and take notice of what women are doing and wearing in your office, on the train, in the street. Look at women's magazines. If you are trying to look like a woman, study them and learn from them... those that wear makeup that is! Take your time with your make up. Allow yourself a good 90 minutes to avoid rushing. Always make up in good lighting as if your make up looks relatively OK under a harsh bright light you know that it is going to look even better under lower light in a restaurant, bar or nightclub. Practice makes perfect too, so keep on practiicng your make up. Dont skimp on make up either. Buy specialist products to cover your beard and then invest in good brushes and sponges for applying your make up. Finally don't order spaghetti bolognese when you go out to dine its SO messy.
What could TGs do to help you provide a better service?
Turn up to appointments while also appreciating that we are also running a business and have staff and other customers to look after, so do try to be on time. We are very lucky that our clients are never any trouble to us so we cannot really complain. Long may it continue.
The Boudoir Dressing Service
Jodie Lynninfo@theboudoironline.com
www.theboudoironline.com
