Here’s a post that I wrote for Vogue.com.au recently, on how to get Brigitte Bardot’s timeless sex appeal.

Since my legs when left to their own devices look like Satan’s tracksuit pants, I am in regular need of liberal applications of body moisturiser. I have recently tried some new good ones that have displaced my usual rota of Nivea, Nivea and more Nivea, so I thought in the interests of full disclosure it was time to divulge.

My new summer time body goodie is by my favourite Aussie brand, Aesop – it’s their Petigrain Hydrating Body Gel, and it’s perfect for hot weather as it’s lighter than a regular moisturiser and absorbs quickly. When it’s hot as a sauna outside, the last thing you want to have is feeling like you’ve had a brisk bath in butter. It also comes in a plastic bottle with a handy pump, so it’s lighter and not as fragile as Aesop’s glass packaging.

Enhanced with Witch Hazel, Grapefruit and Lemon Peel oils it smells delicious (which you expect with Aesop products), and I’m thrilled to have a proper body moisturiser I can throw into my kit for summer shoots, as most of the moisturisers I’ve been using (Palmers Body Gloss, I’m talking to you!) are just too slick and greasy.

Whilst it’s hard to imagine needing some serious body hydration when your limbs are bronzed and it’s hot outside, that time is coming for my Northern hemisphere friends, and oh baby have I found your solution! By now you should all know of my love for Liz Earle’s genius Superskin moisturiser, and she has now released – Superskin Body Cream. I know, right? So all those poor dry, dessicated souls with skin (like mine) that is so parched that it feels like lizard skin, this is for you. It’s amazing, full of Shea Butter and organic Rosehip Oil, Neroli Oil and Cranberry Seed Oil, so it slides on like you’ve been touched by an angel. It smells gorgeous and, quite frankly, sticks everything back where you want it to be (you dry skinned ladies know what I’m talking about).

www.aesop.com
www.lizearle.com

London Nail Queen, Sophy Robson, has been a busy gal of late – not only has she opened a new uber cool nail salon on the King’s Road in Chelsea, but she has also collaborated with OPI and Sephora to create exclusive nail art looks. Each nail art look comes with it’s own tutorial, and if you want to see a true nail artist in action, check this out!

As well as her Sephora collaboration Sophy has recently shot the new Marc Jacobs campaign with Juergen Teller (Helena Bonham Carter at her madcap best), worked with Terry Richardson and done Kate Moss’ nails for her wedding. How she fits it all in I don’t know!

You can follow all of Sophy’s high-fashion nail-jinks on her awesome blog at www.sophyrobson.com

Lancôme Juicy Kusama Tubes

How cute are these new Juicy Tubes from Lancôme? They’re called Juicy Kusama, and they’re not your typical gloss. They feel amazing on, losing the stickiness of glosses of yore as they are specially designed with vitamins to make you feel good. They contain Bisabolol and Sweet Almond Oil, plus a blend of Vitamin C, B5, E and shea butter (the best natural skin softener there is), to protect, heal and nurture dry lips. Plus the colours are cute as well, ranging from sheer strawberry through to pink and peach. AND they have cute designs on the packaging which always makes me smile when I use it.

It’s a limited edition range, so be quick! Available on-counter in Australia from the 10^th of July.

I’ve been doing a little beauty digging and I have found out that NOT ONLY will Mr Tom Ford be releasing a full makeup line in September, he has also co-opted the talents of major British makeup artist, Charlotte Tilbury, to assist with the development of the line. Charlotte works constantly with top photographers Mert and Marcus, does runway all over the world and countless British Vogue covers – so the long and the short of it is I can’t wait for September to see what this new line has to offer.

Here’s some of Ms Tilbury’s work:

www.tomford.com

Amazing news – a little birdy told me that the incredible Bobbi Brown Universal palette of concealers and foundations (yes, THAT one, that I take with me on every single job, and that if I didn’t have with me would cause me to completely hyperventilate. It’s like a small square palette sized security blanket, only made of plastic so it’s very handy but not that cuddly) is in stock in Australia!

I honestly couldn’t be without this palette as it ensures I am covered for every makeup eventuality, from tawny skinned beauties with shocking under eye circles, and through to Snow White types with pigmentation problems. It’s amazing, and it’s now available on-counter in Australia. It’s not cheap (at $350), but it has every single one of Bobbi’s award-winning concealers, foundations and under-eye correctors in it, and for makeup artists it’s a necessity. Get it while you can.

It will also be available on-line from July, at www.bobbibrown.com.au

I have pretty sensitive skin, so I tend not to mix up my skin routine too much, and keep it simple. I cleanse, and then I rotate my moisturiser depending on the weather. At the moment my skin feels like an old dessicated sea sponge, so I’ve been getting into Liz Earle’s Superskin moisturiser, as it’s very rich and emollient. It has lots of calming Shea Butter and Avocado, and my skin just drinks it in. The Liz Earle range isn’t strictly organic (as it has parabens to preserve the ingredients), but it’s organic enough for me!

However sometimes when one gets to a “certain age” *cough cough puts on Miss Havisham creaky voice, starts calling people “dear”* – your skin needs a little extra kick to get it glowing. And lately I’ve discovered a little Aussie wonder company, called Alpha H.

I first heard about it through Twitter via lovely London makeup artist, Kenneth Soh, as he swears by Alpha H. So when my skin started to look more troglodyte and less Giselle, I decided to call in the Glycolic Big Guns.

I’ve used glycolics before, but not like this. They were usually too much and after two days used I looked like someone had flayed me with a paint stripper. But Alpha – H should be called Amazing H as that’s exactly what it is.

I used their Liquid Gold, the Clear Skin Wash and the Hydrator Gel and I didn’t react badly to anything – no breakouts or weird skin responses. On the contrary my nasty dry sea sponge skin started to look younger and behave better – I got my glow back!

Their Liquid Gold product really is as miraculous as everyone says – I just use it at night when I need it, and it takes off all the dead skin cells, and leaves it feeling soft and plump. I also use the Clear Skin wash, which even though I don’t have acne prone skin I really like from time to time as it has tea tree oil and eucalyptus in it which is a great disinfectant and really boosts my skin. I’ve been alternating that with my Aesop cleanser, depending how my skin feels that day.

The Hydrator Gel would be fabulous for those with combination or oily skin – my skin is very dry, so I can use it for a day or so before I need to dive back into a vat of Liz Earle Superskin. I think it would be a great moisturiser for the hotter months as well as it is very soothing and provides moisture without extra grease (good when you’re already feeling like a greasy bear, first thing in the morning). I plan on bringing this back into my routine in summer.

For me I found using the products for a month and then having a break for a couple of weeks is the best way to use them. That way I can have fresh Giselle skin, and not get too dry. Alpha H is a bit like a spa in a jar. No need for a holiday!

www.alpha-h.com

My favourite Aussie skincare brand, Aesop, is basically taking over the world at the moment with a gorgeous new counter at Selfridges in London, and four new stores to open in New York by the end of the year. Look how beautiful this installation in Selfridges is – if this doesn’t make you want to go and dive in to their skin loving treats, I don’t know what does.

I am currently loving their Geranium Leaf Body Scrub – it’s one of the few body products I use on a regular basis. It contains pumice and bamboo plus geranium which smells amazing first thing in the morning, let me tell you.

I’m not generally a massive body product fan, mostly due to lack of time. The products in my shower have to be quick and effective, and this not only polishes my skin, it’s even managing to compensate for the fact that I’ve given up coffee (and you know anything that can do that, must be good).

www.aesop.net.au

Late last year I was asked by the fabulous London makeup artist, Katie Service (who is now Kay Montano’s first assistant and general gal about town), to do a New Year’s Beauty post for becauselondon.com, which is the online magazine of Tank, purveyors of fresh editorial images and always inspirational.

Here it is for those of you who would like some ideas to freshen up that makeup once the champagne corks have popped and the new year has officially begun. MAKEUP MOLE’S NEW YEAR BEAUTY

And whilst we’re at it, Kay Montano has been posting MORE of her amazing beauty tutorials – this time it’s 70′s Camel, and if the last season of runway shows was anything to go by, 70′s is going to be big again for Spring/Summer.

Get on it!

Could Scarlett Johansson be any more gorgeous? I didn’t think it was possible for her to be any more beautiful, but here’s a video of her shooting the new Dolce and Gabanna makeup ads, with makeup by Pat McGrath – and yes, she is actually more divine than I thought. Enjoy the best makeup artist in the world, working on arguably the most beautiful woman in the world. Ooh, and the makeup’s not bad either!

It’s not very often that there’s something new under the makeup sun, something completely innovative and imaginative. Most new product ranges are re-workings of things that already exist, with a slight spin on concept or packaging, so it was with a gasp of happy surprise that I was introduced to the truly new makeup range by Dutch born makeup artist Ellis Faas.

Why so different? Well for a start the inspiration was a gun (already I’m intrigued!), with a silver cylinder you can ‘load’ with your choice of sleek silver bullets – lipstick, eyeliner, eyeshadow, foundation, even mascara are housed in some of the most beautiful packaging I’ve ever seen. And the colors are beautiful and extremely wearable, working on all skin tones as they are colors Ellis describes as ‘human’, or colors that occur naturally in the human body. Deep browns, blacks, bruisy purples and a beautiful deep red lipstick, along with a myriad of other colors inspired by the body. Three different people with completely different coloring tried the Milky Ellis Red lipstick on and it looked fantastic on all of them. The textures on the eyeshadows and lipsticks vary as well – the lipsticks come in three textures from Creamy, Milky to Glossy, and the eyeshadows come in Creamy and Milky. The eyeshadows can also be layered to create gorgeous washes of color.

Ellis comes from a very artistic family in the Netherlands, and started her work career as a photographer, eventually finding her way to makeup. Her amazing portfolio of work includes long collaborations with Mario Testino and Karl Lagerfeld, in addition to other major photographers like Inez and Vinoodh, Solve Sundsbo and Michael Thompson. She has distilled her love of color and extensive editorial expertise into her new range.

Really this is a range that has to be seen to be believed. The line is launching at Liberty’s of London on February, and in the US will be available at Bergdorf Goodman. In the meantime, you can shop on line at her website, www.ellisfaas.com – it’s a beautiful site that is very well organized and worth a look not just for the makeup but for Ellis’ lovely portfolio as well.

I know that everyone is still feeling dozy and sedated after lots of food (well, I certainly am), but as the year starts to get going again, let me tell you to run, not walk to your latest MAC counter for the new Warm and Cozy collection. It’s their best collection in a while, with some old favourites (2N and 3N lipgloss, welcome back!) and new Tinted Lip Conditioners, hooray!

I managed to brave the crowds at Westfield to enjoy the lusciousness of the new Tinted Lip Conditioner in Close for Comfort. I love the TLCs both for personal use and for work because they are sheer, they provide just a hint of color and they moisturize. But lo and behold! What else did I find but Close for Comfort also is gorgeous as a sheeny blush. It is sheer but if you go over it a few times it’s a soft peach-y brown with a gorgeous shine to it. Yet one more reason to go get you some MAC. (After all, a sheeny cheek goes a long way to stop people looking at your ass – I know I don’t want anyone looking at mine until at least mid-February, when some of those Christmas desserts have worn off).

A while ago, I posted about the new pale trend – skin like milk that looks touched by moonlight. Certainly with the release of the latest film in the Twilight saga, New Moon, whitening skin products are up over 200% (200 % people, that’s not a trend, that’s a tsunami of creamy complexions!), and that looks set to continue.

I applaud this wholeheartedly with skin cancers also on the rise – pale is beautiful. But now, in the depths of winter and with skin the color of an uncooked mackerel, it’s time to buck the trend (something I’ve always liked doing), and go the other way – let’s find a bronzer for winter-struck skin.

And I bring you my new addition to my kit, Benefit’s Talk to the Tan. It is delicious. It’s a self-tanner that washes off at the end of the day, so for those commitment-phobes, it’s perfect. One coat will give you sun-kissed gorgeousness, and you can layer it to go deeper if you must (although please, no Jordan tans!) I’m pretty pale and it boosts my complexion just enough to take me from this side of the undead to passably human. It solves the problem of deep-freeze weather time, where your normal blush looks like you’re auditioning for the circus. And apparently it’s one of those products that combines with your natural chemistry to make it the right shade for you – and it’s certainly working for me. And with its cute sunshine-y packaging (one of the things Benefit is justifiably loved for), it’s making me feel more Acapulco than Alaska.

Now the only question is, is this one going into my personal bag, or into my kit? It’s a tough call but the last model I worked on was the color of unbaked oatmeal, so I think it will be kit-side for now. Maybe I’ll have to channel my inner Bella until I can get to Benefit again – particularly if that pale skin comes complete with an Edward.

“Penny Lane, you’re in my heart and on my cheeks…”

Indeed you are, you cheeky perfect lilac nude-y creamy flush you! I have to confess I forgot about you for a while, but when I pulled you from the Vault and tapped you on my cheekbones I can’t believe you were ever out of my kit.

NARS is justifiably renowned for his blushes – the colors, the payoff, sweet baby Jesus the names! The names! Hungry Heart anyone? Exhibit A? Gold Member? How about the straight to the point Sin?

And let’s not forget how downright shocking Orgasm was back in the day, when it’s gorgeous peach-y tones was making everyone look post-coital. (This was before the road to fame and fortune was paved with intimate gynecological knowledge of a celebrity’s Baby Parts. ‘Orgasm’ now is about as racy as calling a blush ‘Elbow.’)

I have pretty much all of the blushes, both cream and powder (I went through a bit of a NARS craze a few years back), so I have to confess to being a fan. Penny Lane is currently back to it’s Number 1 spot on my blush parade, as it’s perfect on it’s own, layered under other blushes or with bronzer. It’s even gorgeous on the lips! (Apparently it’s Lindsay Lohan’s favourite, but you didn’t hear that from me).

“Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes…

There, beneath the blue, suburban skies…”

Yes, it’s back. How do I know that it’s really back and not some Alzheimeresque glitch in the brains of oldsters like myself who were around for this travesty the first time?

 Because the women currently wearing it were clanking alphabet blocks together in kindergarten in the mid-1990’s, which means they’ve never seen it except in pictures, and are reincarnating it for a reason – presumably because they think it looks good. (They are wrong).

 I’m not talking about normal nude-colored lip liner which you can’t see (if it’s done properly), I’m talking about dark brown pencil overdrawn with a pale centre. Back in the day Naomi Campbell, Pamela Anderson and Vanessa Paradis all went there, and it is still quite the staple lip look for the Playboy crowd. Presumably the idea is that overdrawing your mouth in chocolate crayon makes your lips look bigger, and hopefully, (perhaps for the sight impaired?) more Bardot-like. That was the 90’s theory anyway.  But no guy in the world is going to fall for the fiction that your lips are three times their actual size due to the fact that they are etched in with sludge brown.

 The first sighting was about two weeks ago on a 15 year old on a bus who had the aforementioned lip look that I thought I would never see again – and damn didn’t it take me back! To a time when CJ Parker was queen of the beach on Baywatch, Vanilla Ice was considered to be a sex symbol and Heather Locklear was out-bitching all the inhabitants of Melrose Place.

 I’m deeply ashamed to say that I not only participated in this trend for a while, I actively embraced it. Behold a fair skinned, blue-eyed blonde who used a PURPLE BROWN Maybelline eyeliner to out line my whole mouth, then filled in with MAC Faux, a Pepto Bismol pinky grey.  How ghetto is that?? Perhaps it’s for makeup sins like these that I became a makeup artist? If so I’m going to be doing penance for a looong time. Luckily there are no photos still in existence of this look which can only be described as One Hot Mess.

 Even though, clearly, I have a pretty good idea of how to recreate this look at home, I’m not giving you any hints on how to rock this particular trend – if you’re into it you can channel your inner Baywatch Bunny and sort it out yourself.

 The scariest thing of all is it’s going from the street to high fashion since major makeup artist Peter Phillips used a hardcore visible chocolate lip liner on Lara Stone in this month’s W. This means, like a tsunami, you can run but you can’t hide. It’s coming to get you. Be very afraid!

A few years ago, I would have laughed if you had told me there was a better lip balm than Kiehl’s lip balm. I loved it so much I would have married it (if it was legal to marry a lip balm, which I’m pretty sure in continental Europe and most states of America it’s not.)

Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour cream

Oh sure, I’d flirted with Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream (expensive Vaseline, let’s be real), and Smith’s Rosebud Salve (which was considered to be really cool because you couldn’t get it in Sydney. Which meant you had been overseas.)

Then when I was assisting Alex Box in Paris, she put me onto the homeopathic French wonder (only from French pharmacies, so even cooler again!) that is Homeoplasmine. This was my Number One lip lover for quite some time.

And then I found my Paw Paw Ointment. The simple red tube that can be found in any pharmacy in Australia, $5, lasts forever, next to the till. (Really daggy! Can get it at any chemist in Australia!) But then I moved overseas and I realized how good that little red tube really was.

Lucas’ Paw Paw is an Australian remedy that cures chapping, cuts, sunburn, bruises and irritations of the skin, and because it uses the antiseptic properties of the paw paw fruit, it cleanses and heals the wound with enzymes. I have had models literally begging to buy my Paw Paw from me at the shows because it did such a good job of healing their makeup ravaged faces.

It was first created by a doctor (Dr Lucas, unsurprisingly) in 1906, in Queensland, who noted the medicinal properties of the paw paw fruit in healing in his patients. He then passed the recipe on to his wife, and it’s been handed down within his family through the generations. It still uses the image of his original hospital in Queensland on the tube.

It’s become something of a cult fave over here, as more and more fashion insiders hear of it. I hand out tubes like M&M’s, because if I love you, you need some Paw Paw in your life, and I have always had to ask family to bring over suitcases of the stuff. Until now – finally it is available in the UK on the internet at www.pawpawshop.co.uk

So you don’t have to wait for my next smuggled shipment!

The original Lucas’ Paw Paw website can be found at www.lucaspawpaw.com.au