Emily Becomes Belle at Disneyland

I had seen an advertisement for the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique where they do Princess makeovers for little girls. I thought that Emily might like that a lot. She had spent a lot of time doing what Cameron wanted to do and not getting to do the rides that she wanted (she was too short) so something that was all about her would be nice.

So on 21 Sep 2009 I took Emily to get a Princess makeover.

The shop was full of princess things - complete costumes for all of the Disney Princesses. When I asked her if she wanted to get a princess makeover she was very excited. She told me that she wanted to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

We went over to ask about pricing for the makeovers and decided on the middle package which included hair, make up and nail polish, plus some other things. We decided to buy the dress, and shoes separately (cause the next package up included a professional photography session and cost $220, the package we got cost $49.95).

Emily answered a couple of questions, her name and age, and then someone took us shopping to find the right sizes of things for Emily. While Emily was waiting for her turn to be made over she selected some rings and a necklace.

All of Emily's stuff was spirited away to a dressing room. And we met Emily's Fairy God Mother - Virginia. Emily's Fairy God Mother took her to the dressing room and said the magic words "Bippity Boppity Boo" and there was all the stuff that Emily needed to become a princess (delivered by the birdies don't you know ;-).

I helped Emily get changed into her new outfit and put on all 5 of the rings she had purchased plus the necklace. Once we were done we went out to meet the Fairy God Mother. On our way out we ran into Jasmine and her Mum wanted a photo of Little Belle with Little Jasmine, and Emily was happy to oblige.

Emily then went over to her chair for the start of her makeover. All of the Fairy God Mothers were rather amused about all the bling Emily was wearing (there was more to come!).

When it was time to pick the hair style, Emily's Fairy God Mother came over to me to ask what style Emily should have (there were 3 to choose from). I suggested that we ask Emily which one she would like. Emily picked the traditional princess type hair style (rather than frizzy multi-coloured hair). Because Emily has such short and fine hair making a bun was not possible, so Virginia gave Emily a little pony tail right on top of her head and spread out the hair to make it look like a bun. It was rather impressive. It seemed that she needed to get approval for doing something different from the bun because she called over another Fairy God Mother (who seemed to be in charge) and explained to her why the hair was not done in a bun.

While the hair was in progress Emily got to choose a ring (which was part of the package). This is where Emily got a second Fairy God Mother who was in training. She showed Emily the rings she needed to choose from. They both were blue and huge, one was round and one square. Emily selected the round one.

It took the Fairy God Mother's a little while to adjust the ring to fit Emily because the smallest setting was too big and they needed to do a bit of extra bending to get it to stay on.

Emily loved posing for the Camera - there were two professional photographers that were taking photos who were super excited to have such a cute little model that was so co-operative. One of the photographers told me that Emily was her favourite princess that she had ever photographed. I guess most people find Emily a bit surprising cause she is so little but talks a lot and is very clear about what she wants.

Next came the selection of the Tiara. Again the Fairy God Mother asked me about which tiara. I told her that Emily could pick whatever she wanted. I found it rather interesting how I was asked questions rather than Emily. I suppose not all princess makeovers are about the little princess.

I also found it amusing how the Fairy God Mothers referred to me as "the Queen". Emily told them that there was no queen in the room. The FGM told Emily I was the Queen, and said replied "No that is Mummy".

Once the Tiara was added to Emily's hair she looked so very "princess-y". The FGM even managed to get it in without Emily complaining about it pulling - I was amazed.

Emily's FGM explained to Emily about the nail polish - when it dries it smells like strawberries. Emily looked rather uninterested in that and put her hands out to start getting painted.

The FGM in training got to do the nails. She painted the right hand first and then showed Emily how to blow on it to make it dry quicker (it seemed to be very quick drying nail polish). Then she did the left hand. When she was done with the left hand Emily said "missed one" and pointed at a finger. The FGM in training said "I did that one", to which Emily replies "more". The FGM in training was very obliging.

Next came the selection of makeup colours from a little pallet. I think by this point they had worked out that Emily was going to choose so they asked her which colour lipstick - she chose a pink (surprise!) sparkly one. The FGM checked with me if that was OK, which of course it was. So they applied the lipstick. It took a little while for Emily to get the mouth shape but she eventually got it.

When doing the eye shadow Emily closed her eyes really right which made it hard to get the eye shadow on so the FGM's told Emily to close her eyes like she was going to sleep. So Emily laid back in her seat (like she was going to sleep) but with her eyes still tightly closed. This was rather amusing to the FGM's and photographers. Eventually they got her to keep her eyes open but look at the ground.

Next came the magic fairy dust (which was glitter) for the hair plus some industrial strength spray that stuck the glitter to Emily's hair and scalp (there was still a bunch on her scalp a week later!). Emily also got to pick her own face jewelery (they stopped asking me to approve Emily's chices at this point).

Finally they did the big reveal, which is where Emily gets to see herself in the mirror for the first time. She was very pleased and excited. She was happy to do another pose for the photographer, which looked very cute.

The FGM's then thought it was rather important that the little princess have a photo with the Queen so I got in the photo with Emily and we both had our photo taken in the mirror.

Emily was happy to pose outside the Boutique for another photo, she was also insistent on having a photo taken next to the Sleeping Beauty Castle (although I couldn't get the castle in cause she was so close to it).

I liked how you got to keep the left over make up and nail polish, so that she can get made over the same way at home. Emily was stoked to get a pink bag that she could carry her princess things in.

I made a joke to Geoffrey about Emily's dress costing more than any that I own, but that is not really far from the truth. The dress is beautiful and well made, and I am sure that Emily loved the experience so much that it was worth every penny it cost.

Emily got so many comments on how cute she was and lots of waves. She had a great time, and I had an amazing amount of fun watching her enjoy the makeover.