THE_LIFESTYLE_EDIT_CHARLOTTE_TILBURY

You’d struggle to find a woman who thinks more about beauty and make-up than Charlotte Tilbury. And chances are, if you have even a vague knowledge about her you would have heard the stories: how she sleeps in her eye-make up, won’t open the door without a full face on and how her husband has never seen her without it. With such a vehement passion for all things beauty, the success of Tilbury’s eponymous beauty range was no surprise. The last time we met, she was surrounded. Women had flocked on mass to the launch of range in Bergdorf Goodman in New York, the first time the line was available to buy in the United States. Make-up artists were busy at work painting women’s faces in one of Tilbury’s 10 signature make-up looks and many of the celebrities that inspired them were out in full force showing support. Meeting today on a damp afternoon in West London, Charlotte is still is staring at my face. It’s grey and lifeless and, remembering that we were meeting, I hurriedly applied some make-up on the train on my way from a shoot: in other words, not my finest work.

‘You are getting your make-up done aren’t you, darling?’ sheshouted across the cosy suite she’d hired for the day at London member’s club, Home House. ‘I’m going for the Glastonbury lipstick and a subtle smoky eye,’ I respond, waiting for her approval, as I jump up into the make-up chair. ‘Wait until you see it on yourself – that colour is perfect on your complexion.’ She was right. A short while later and, after spending most of the afternoon avoiding catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror – that’s what sleep deprivation does to you, guys – I looked, and felt like a new person. And that’s part of Tilbury’s charm. For the past 20 years as a make-up artist, she’s been transforming the faces of countless and models and celebrities who sit in her make-up chair. She’s the maestro who Kate Moss counts on for her signature feline eye and nude lip, and she’s also made a name for herself giving the likes of J-Lo, Jennifer Lopez and Penelope Cruz a goddess-like glow.


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Unlike other make-up artists, Tilbury isn’t just about keeping the stars looking beautiful. With her line, she’s successfully managed to bring that A-list look to the masses.
“Fifty per cent of women in this country don’t engage with make-up, and that’s a huge disaster,” she told me when we met up late last year in London home. “Women are not using that secret weapon to make themselves look gorgeous and feel better. I think lots of them are scared of looking stupid: they just don’t know which colours match or how much to put on, but beauty is not this exclusive club shrouded in secrecy – everyone can look beautiful.’
‘Treat and transform’ is her mantra, evidenced by products like WonderGlow and Supermodel Body, a light reflective formula she created after years doing Victoria’s Secret shows that leaves your skin with that Gisele, glamazon-like sheen. Even her make-up has a skincare twist to it. Her Light Wonder Foundation, for example, not lonely provides luminous cover it also contains a botanical alterative to retinol to

stimulate collagen and hydrate the skin and her Magic Cream has quietly enjoyed cult status among fashion industry insiders for some time now.

The good news is that she’s expanding her skincare offering over the next two months with a whole host of new launches. For Charlotte, it’s a no brainer: ‘I’m just as obsessed about skin as I am with make-up. If you don’t have a great canvas, you cannot make a beautiful painting, it’s the same with make up. If you have beautiful bouncy and plump skin, the make-up just goes on like a dream.’

Taking inspiration from Ibiza again, hitting shelves in March is Charlotte’s new Goddess Skin Clay Mask, a new mask inspired by the original recipes she grew up using on the Spanish island she grew up.

Bursting full of rich nutrients to help improve the skins elasticity, boost collagen and initiate DNA repair, after just 10 minutes you’ll see a considerable difference and better still, if you won’t get that dry feeling you normally get in clay masks.


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‘I do all the things you shouldn’t do: I take millions of planes, I smoke, I drink, I don’t sleep plus I have a five-month old baby so I don’t have time to go and have facials all the time so I wanted to create something that would be like a red carpet facial in just 10 minutes,’ she explains. ‘I’m obsessed with baby’s skin. I look at my son’s face and there’s no pores, no lines; it’s just this fresh, plumb, bouncy skin and that’s what this mask gives you. Because of all the oils, it plumps your skin, tightens and cleanses the pours and really nourishes. Everything is lifted.’
Tilbury is all about creating the perfect lip so coming in February is Lip Love and Lip Magic, a two-step treatment that she’s coining ‘youth-boosting magic for the lips.’
‘Before we put the lipstick on backstage or on photoshoots, we’re always scrubbing the lips otherwise, if you put the lipstick straight on, it just sits in the lines and the dead skin and looks terrible so you have to make sure you have a beautiful surface,’ she explains. ‘We’re told to exfoliate our skin at least a couple of times a week because it gets rid of all the dead skin cells – it’s the same with your lips,’ and that’s where Lip Love comes in. It’s a renewing honeybee scrub comprised of a combination of sugar crystals and emollient rich jojoba seed oil, olive oil, shea

butter and beeswax to stimulate the remove all dead skin and moisturise lips in the process. Lip Magic is the soothing balm. Expect to see more lip pencil colours coming next month to match the new lipsticks from her Matte Revolution collection too.

If you haven’t tried her make-up yet, you really need to. Apart from actually doing what they promise to do, what makes Tilbury’s range stand out from the crowd is that it’s just so easy to use. Products are named after what they do, such as the feline flick eyeliner and she has curated the 100+ range into ten faces, from Rock Chick a la Kate Moss or The Golden Goddess a la Farrah Fawcett, so you know what products you need to achieve each look. It’s like a take-out menu for make-up, she says.

To make it that little bit easier, Charlotte’s website offers video tutorials on common make-up questions like how to achieve killer cheekbones or how to create the perfect brow. And now, she’s incorporated those video tutorials into gift boxes you get, when you purchase on of the 10 make-up looks. If only all make-up were this easy.