Claudia Winkleman Makeup At Marks & Spencer – an Interview

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So last month I met up with Claudia Winkleman to chat about the brand new Claudia Winkleman Makeup range at Marks & Spencer and I have to say, she really is a larger than life character.

“Great nights are about being out with the girls, possibly in a rickshaw, sh*tfaced, with a lot of eyeliner on, and then you find a bag of Percy Pigs. That’s life!”

She doesn’t believe in skincare, or even cleansing, and thinks that if she ever stands in front of the mirror with some toner on a cotton pad, then her life is pretty much over. It was different! Find out what else she has to say about beauty and her new M&S line.

Don’t expect any chat on Strictly, that was firmly off the menu, although I feel that Claudia would have been fairly easy to persuade! Lucky for her, I am obsessed with beauty and not ballroom dancing!

Is makeup a commitment or a pleasure?

Totally a pleasure. In normal life I have 9 million kids and I live on the tube. I don’t wake up and think right I have to do my face. I actually can get very excited about a great toothpaste. I think I have found the best toothpaste in the entire world – Euthymol – get it, you’ll write 5000 words on it!

At most I might go lip salve on the tube. This is why I have one in my collection – First base – it has a soft sheen and it mentholly. It doesn’t just sit there, it’s nourishing but not glossy.

If I am doing my telly stuff then I put on a shed load of eyeliner. More is more.

What was your first makeup memory?

My mum is very glamorous. So I remember lots of hairspray and Giorgio Beverly Hills and Ultraglow. Then I went to a day school in London and me and the girls would always put on bad makeup. All sharing the same stuff. Makeup is just fun for me. I hate slow makeup or spending too long. If I had an hour to do my makeup I wouldn’t do it because that would make me boring and vain.

I told Claudia I was boring and vain.

No I get ready 3 minutes before the cab comes. Just enough eyeliner to sink a ferry and a pale lipstick. Done.

Do you ever sleep in your makeup?

Of course of course. Much better dreams. I never take it off…ever.

Some people would really judge you for that.

That’s ok. Let them. I’m alright with it.

Skincare?

Please… M&S were adorable and said, would you like to do skincare, and I was like, I don’t know what you’re talking about… Oh my god, I would know that the world had fallen in on itself if I was standing in my bathroom with some toner on a cotton pad. Then that would be my signal that my life had fallen apart.

I like this. You’re like the anti  beauty guru.

Yeah. I like it. Yes that’s what I want to be.

I think you should have a blog where you give people really reckless advice about how to really enjoy life.

Life is too short to stand there with an eye gel. And P.S here’s the big news… it makes no difference. We know that.

Actually, I do love Eve Lom. The cleanser and the cloth. It does actually get off the black.

Do you worry about ageing?

Oh no I don’t worry about that. No no. It’s all falling off. It’s coming – death, old age, it’s fine. We should talk about it more, it really bothers me that we don’t. The train has left the station. It’s over. I don’t think that’s embarrassing, I think bring it. Grow a fringe – sure by all means. By the end I’ll have a fringe down to my chin and I’ll have to part it in the middle.

Look I try and sleep well, I try and eat healthy.

You’re very slim.

Am I?! I don’t feel it. In my twenties, if there was a choice of Itsu or Burger King I would have chosen Burger King. Now it’s Itsu.

Was it always a plan to have a cosmetics range?

No! So M&S came to me and said do you want to do a makeup range, to which I snorted! I was worried that nobody will buy, and maybe no one will buy it by the way!! Anyway, I went in and had a meeting with them. They were so adorable. They were properly open to my ideas. I said, if you come to me with a pot of eye makeup remover, I am going to be a little bit sick in my mouth.

So my range is just so me. My nail polish colours, that come with instant nail polish remover. It’s easy, Nothing is too much.

With my liner, I wanted a proper smudger.  The eyeliner is unapologetically black, you draw it on, you F**k around with that (the smudger) and that will come off in December.

People always ask me what conditioner I used. So I said to M&S, can we make the dream conditioner.  And we did.

And then they let me call everything exactly what I wanted. The Panda Eye kit for example – and the instructions – when you think you have got enough on, put some more on! [whispers] And the prices are all really good.

We all fell in love with Marks & Spencers. And they let me include Percy Pigs.

I love the red lipstick in the range. It’s a bricky red. It has the promise of filth. It’s called Do Me.

So this must be really exciting?

Well I’m nervous. But I think, I’m not trying to sell anything I wouldn’t use. Like I wouldn’t do a palette – too much fuss! Don’t be pretty, be clever.

Top 3 Products?

My top 3 things are the Conditioner – it’s life changing, Thank You Wendy lipstick, and The Game Changer. They are all well priced. I don’t want people to spend £22 on a f**cking mascara.

Claudia Winkleman Makeup launches on 21st November 2015. Find it HERE.

Ree

XXX