L’OREAL PARIS NATIONAL MOVIE AWARDS

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to be invited to the National Movie Awards by L’Oreal Paris. L’Oreal Paris had a beauty room set up in Claridges for both hair and make up to help glamourise everyone, which was fab. I also got to have cocktails with Diane Kruger and her boyfriend Pacey from Dawson’s Creek AKA Joshua Jackson at the Soho Hotel. I got a bit overexcited chatting and hanging out with him, he really was warm, funny and a cheeky chap - is there anyone who didn’t have a crush on him back in the day? I also got to walk the red carpet and my husband was there too filming with our beauty consultancy company Couture Communications, www.couturecommunications.com with the presenter George Lamb who was lovely and super sweet.

As I stopped to say hello and have a chat to my husband on the red carpet, I could see a wave of men walking towards me so I thought I should dash off and as I did I managed to almost smash into in Mr Big himself Chris Noth- he did look a bit startled bless but I got screamed at by a wall of paps telling me to get out the way. Not very cool I felt like a complete nerd.

Once inside it was a really fun and fast show and I was seated within spitting distance of the stage. Tom Cruise didn’t look that short I’m thinking lifts in shoes???? I also did a rise the roof salute to Chris Rock- he was v cool.  I was so excited to be seated behind George, Diane Kruger, Pacey AKA Joshua Jackson and next to James Corden (how funny was he on stage) and Dominic Cooper who looked a little sad and thin- it must be heartache from his rumoured split with Amanda Seyfried. I would have given him a hug but obviously that would be stalking right? With Pacey and Katie Holmes AKA Joey only a few rows away from each other, we all were waiting to see if there was some kind of love triangle smack down (Joshua and Katie dated for real during Dawson's Creek) but sadly there was not.

The aftershow party back at Claridges was just as glam and I was rubbing shoulders with Gwyneth Paltrow who looked amazing in pink. Thank you again L’Oreal it was a magical night!

BEAUTY BANG

It's been a busy and wild couple of beauty weeks for me. I was invited to give a talk to a lecture hall full of Unilever scientists in Holland to get them all fired up about beauty, which was really exciting. 


I also met the legendary Dr Weil at an Origins launch, shot beauty films for Sky Showbiz with my beauty consultancy company Couture Communications, attended the National Movie Awards and walked down the red carpet and had cocktails with Diane Kruger and Pacey from Dawson's Creek- OMG. I also went to the Chelsea Flower Show with Estee Lauder's Calyx and had the pleasure to spend the day with the iconic perfumer behind the creation Sophia Grojsman. 


I will be blogging all about it so look out for my posts!!!!!!!!

GOODBYE LENA HORNE

On Sunday the legendary singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist Lena Horne passed away at the ripe old age of 92. Horne joined the famous Cotton Club when she was 16 as a singer and later went on to become one of the first African American women to be in mainstream Hollywood films. She became a star with her hit movie and song ‘Stormy Weather’. Her success in Hollywood was due to the fact she was light skinned and didn’t threaten white audiences of the 30s and 40s with her overt ethnicity.

However, she was a fierce fighter for civil rights and was deeply hurt when her scenes in movies were cut when shown in the Deep South -due to the fact she was black. When asked if she ever considered passing for a white woman, as life would have been much easier she replied, “no never, my grandmother would never have forgiven me!” She also walked out of a USO tour during WWII when she noticed that black US soldiers were seated behind Nazi POWs. Her mantra was “accept me for who I am, do not try to typecast or compartmentalise me”, and she fought to enter buildings through the front door instead of the back as her colour dictated and to swim in unsegregated swimming pools. 

I think we all owe a huge debt to Lena in terms of beauty and how we see ourselves. Without pioneers like Lena pathing the way for different types of beauty and ethnicity, we wouldn’t have JLO and her Puerto Rican bottom or Grace Jones and her ebony skin or Beyonce and her shimmering golden goddessness. I salute you Lena for being an amazing artist, inspiration and the epitome of beauty, which is acceptance and celebration of whoever you are without any limits.

NINFEO MIO BY ANNICK GOUTAL

Good God this election has had me on edge. Five days of a hung parliament, speculation, backroom deals with Nick Clegg the Kingmaker-it’s all a bit much. Now to cap it all off Gordon Brown has resigned ninja stylee and David Cameron is the new PM with a coalition government, our generation hasn’t ever seen. In these uncertain times I need a bit of comfort and have been pumping myself with Annick Goutal’s Ninfeo Mio, prices start from £51 for 50ml.

I love Annick Goutal fragrances as they use the best quality ingredients, feel very individualist and interesting and when I wear them I always get asked by complete strangers what I am wearing, fragrance that is- there are loads of weirdos in London, aren’t there??? Anyway, the fragrance is deeply comforting and creamy and was inspired by a visit to the gardens of Ninfa near Rome by Camille Goutal, Annick Goutal’s daughter and Goutal’s Isabelle Doyen. The fragrance like the garden is laced with a heady smooth mix of bitter orange, petitgrain, fig leaf, lavender and the woody accord of the lemon tree. The bottle is also very chic and makes me feel like a lady and starts my day off with a bit of elegance in these unsettling times.

Whatever happens politically in the next few days my Ninfeo Mio will take the edge off and leave me feeling a bit dreamy. LOVELY.

THIERRY MUGLAR'S WOMANITY.COM

Theirry Muglar has always been a visionary, whether it has been with his Haute Couture fashion seen on 90s supermodels in George Michael's iconic " Too Funky" Video, which he also directed by the way to his fragrances like Angel, which broke records and the mould in every way. 


Now Mr Muglar has launched what I can only call quite a noble new endeavour with Womanity.com. This new site is open to women of the world to express themselves and encourages them to interprete the world around them and post these thoughts on what can only be described as a massive mosaic or patch work made up of their photos and musings. I was really honoured to be asked to contribute to this lady mosaic and please see my photo and quote, which was "What Womanity means to me is the power of creation, whether it's the power to create life, relationships, art, ideas or love" . Please visit the site and add what you want to say, it's a great way to feel connected ironically through technology, which can be incredible isolating. Get in touch with your Womanity today!

KATE HUDSON: PUMP, PUMP IT UP!

Did she or didn’t she that’s what everyone is asking about Kate Hudson’s suspected boob job??? Here she is in Stella McCartney at Monday’s Costume Institute Gala in New York. If she did have a boob job rather than gain a little poundage by eating cakes and chillaxing with the exercise regime, it’s really telling about how she feels about her body.

I had a friend who had a boob job, it was her 21 st birthday present from her Aunty (cool Aunt- all I get is a call and coupons) anyway she went up to a rather small B cup- like Kate Hudson’s alleged boob job. This modest increase hardly meant my friend was battling Pamela Anderson and Katie Price in the implant stakes. Her boob job was not a sex alert/ look at me message to the world but made her feel more feminine and confident and it really did a lot for her self esteem and the way she presented herself to the world. I think good on you lady, if that’s what you want to do and you feel good about yourself.

The truth is when it comes to boobs and femininity there is a strong link and whether you are small or big- I don’t know one woman who loves and is 100 % happy with hers. I have the biggest boobs known to mankind and don’t really know what it’s like to live in a small boob world. I have had buses stop for me, free black cab rides (please read my black cab beauty post to further elaborate), free Starbucks and Pret coffees and strange men being ever so nice to me while chatting happily to my chest (freaks).  However, there is a dark side to having big boobs too, girls can be mean and think you are going to steal their men and white van drivers just assume because of your cup size that you are a slaggggg and that " you love it up you", I am quoting here by the way, while drinking my free decaf latte I have had that shouted at me on Oxford Street -mortifying!  So boobs whatever the size really do matter in our society and world for good or for bad. However, if you want to take charge of your body and make yourself happy and your boob job comes from a confident emotional stable place I say pump, pump it up! What do you guys think? 

Please tell me what you think in the comments section under this post.

EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK SERGE LUTENS BAS DE SOIE

The other day I had lunch with a lovely Pr who gave me a sneak peek at the new Serge Lutens fragrance- Bas de Soie, £64, Harrods, available in June. I’m a huge Lutens fan as all his fragrances really do take you on a sensorial journey. When I have to buckle down to a tough deadline and all I want to do is shake my booty to Beyonce’s top 20 hits on MTV, I spritz the air with Serge Lutens Serge Noire. This immediately whisks me to a Harry Potter Hogswart/ Oxford University type library full of leather bound books as it’s laced with comforting cinnamon, amber, patchouli and mysterious black woods and I feel cocooned and ready to work.

Perfumers like Serge Lutens create fabulous fragrances, it’s as if they have taken a snap shot of a moment in time or a landscape and captured it in a bottle with a bit of modern alchemy. All well crafted fragrances also have a bit of a witchy mercurial magic to them as they often change on each wearer depending on the natural oils in the skin, which changes your skin’s chemistry. I think that’s rather wonderful that like wine, fragrance is a living breathing creature. I’m also a bit of a fragrance snob and hate it when I’m in a lift and can name (using my inside voice) what everyone is wearing around me. When I’m wearing Serge Lutens, I know no one can play the ‘name the fragrance game’ with what I’m wearing.

With Lutens latest creation Bas de Soie or Silk Stockings, Lutens whisks me straight to a Parisian 1940s attic flat where a burlesque dancer is washing her stockings and hanging them up over the bath in preparation for another night of seductive stripping. That’s where the powdery yet sexy iris, hyacinth and grass flowers takes me. Next time you pump on your favourite EDT before rushing out the door -close your eyes and take a few minutes to be whisked away before the day starts.