Celebrity Salon 2 -The Final!

17 June 2011

Six highly entertaining episodes of Celebrity Salon 2 came to a thrilling climax on Friday 17th June.

After carrying out a task to prepare and present "mood boards" to a Dragons Den-type panel, the contestants gathered to hear which two of them would go head-to-head in the grand final. Stern mentor Elaine Butler-Doolin announced that the chosen finalists were ...... Alan .... and ........Aisleyne! "Our BFFs have made the Final Two!" said the excited voice-over man.

The finalists' task was to put their mood boards into action by doing the styling, hair and make-up for an assigned model and then supervising a fashion shoot for Social and Personal magazine. Fashion designer Aisleyne was clearly MUCH more at home and assured on this assignment, compared to her earlier hilarious reactions on the waxing and pedicure tasks. The resulting photographs from both contenders were impressive, but the final verdict went in favour of Alan Hughes. Hard luck, Aisleyne, but we're still proud of you!

We suspect the ultimate decision may have rested on Alan's slightly more consistent performance throughout the fortnight, though it was apparent that Aisleyne had raised her game significantly as the series progressed, especially after she had won the hairdressing task.

Aisleyne warmly congratulated the winner, and it appeared that she was rather more disappointed at losing out on the five-star holiday prize than on not actually winning the contest!

The show proved very popular with the viewing audience, with excellent ratings over the six episodes. We have no doubt that Aisleyne was a major contributor to the show's success as she proved once again that she can provide magic TV moments.

Our favourite "best bits"? There are so many, but here are just some of them:

Biggest laugh : her unique take on Irish history, ie "The Spanish Invasion" and "The Great English Potato Theft (which was well out of order)"
Biggest customer care moment: face-pulling and retching during the foot-scraping pedicure
Most jaw-dropping moment: her "request for advice" from Alan
Cutest moment: her thumb-sucking nap on the beanbag (when salon manager!)
Most emotional moment: when Aisleyne spoke of her mother, and hoped she was watching the programme
Combined gay icon/feminist icon moment: the "I Will Survive" duet with Alan
Proudest moments: winning the hairdressing task and making the final.

And as confirmation of our admittedly partisan view, in a lengthy and glowing review of the series in the Irish Sunday Independent, Andrea Smith said " The standout star of the show was undoubtedly Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace".

We couldn't have put it better ourselves!

But don't just take our word or for it, or Andrea Smith's. If you haven't already seen the programmes, take a look for yourself in our Videos section.

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