As part of our My Life In Beauty series, This Morning TV presenter Cat Deeley talks exclusively to Good Housekeeping about how beauty has shaped her life, and the products she swears by.
Growing up, appearance was only really discussed in our house as a source of humour and silliness. My nose bends a little in one direction, and my dad would joke around and say, ‘Put your nose straight. I’m not talking to you until you put your nose straight.’ It was never a big thing; we didn’t take it very seriously. At the same time, there was a belief in our family that if you feel good on the outside, you tend to feel good on the inside, too; you’ll always feel better if you’ve put yourself together a bit.
My mum allowed me to be quite experimental. For instance, if I wanted to try a perm, I could... and I did, and it was the worst mistake of my life! It was awful. I was 14 and wanted Cindy Crawford-style beach waves. But, from the moment they took the curlers out, I could see that what I actually had were crispy corkscrew curls. I hated it; I think I even cried in the hairdressers.
My attitude to my appearance is to make the best of what I have. I’m at a point in my life where I know what works for me; I know what looks good. Sometimes it’s incredibly boring and I just want to change my hair or change my style, but I know what actually suits me now. On a practical basis, too – it doesn’t work for me to spend every day blow-drying my hair or ironing a fringe.
Making the best of what I have involves taking care of my skin and hair; I can even do my own manicure so that my nails look clean, healthy and shiny. And then it’s about taking time every once in a while to do something just for me that makes me feel good. At the moment, I love finding 10 minutes to use Ella & Jo The Glow Up Enzyme Mask, £34 (pictured above). It’s amazing – you feel a tingling, and you feel it working and revitalising the skin, but it’s not burning your face off. Then, on a regular basis, I use Ella & Jo Brighten & Glow Hydrating Exfoliating Cleanser, £30, in the morning, followed by Ella & Jo Hydrating Hyaluronic Serum, £40, and Ella & Jo Plump & Protect Hydrating & SPF 30 Day Cream, £36. It’s brilliant – SPF is already in the pot so I don’t have to think about another product.
When I’m not working and wearing heavy makeup under lights, I like to give my face a break. Plus, I’m a great believer that if you take care of your skin, you don’t then have to put much makeup on it. So I’ll just do a little bit of a brow with Wunderbrow Eyebrow Gel, £20, then use my Kevyn Aucoin The Eyelash Curler, £36 and L’Oréal Voluminous Mascara, £9.99 – I love it. I’ll finish with Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream, £29 on my lips, and Victoria Beckham Beauty Matte Bronzing Brick in 01, £56. I dust on a little and I’m good to go.
Victoria Beckham Beauty Matte Bronzing Brick
I would always spend money on my hair. You can spend £400 on a pair of shoes that you wear once in a blue moon, but you wear your hair every day. At home, I try not to wash it too often because I don’t think that does it any good (well, not my hair anyway). When I do wash it, I need products that are super-duper because my hair is really thick and big and crazy! I’m a Kérastase girl and I love its Nutritive Bain Satin Riche shampoo, from £24.75, and Nutritive Masquintense Riche hair mask, £43. I’ll give my hair a dry while using the BondiBoost Blowout Brush Pro, £68 – although it’s never quite as good as a proper blow-dry – and then I tend to use the T3 SinglePass Curl curling iron, £150, to give my hair a bit of movement.
We’re moving on from the notion of anti-ageing. Getting older is, after all, a complete privilege – the fact that you’re here and enjoying life – gaining experiences while being happy and healthy. Wow. That, to me, is amazing.
I’m into wellness in the sense that I’m into taking care of my body. But also, I think it’s really important that we don’t slip down the road of ‘wellness’ that is, let’s be very honest, essentially a giant money-making exercise! I do think, though, that there are certain things you can take from it and benefit from. Listening to your body, for example, and what it needs. I know, for instance, that a Mediterranean diet works well for me and my body. Some carbs, lots of fruit and vegetables, some meat, lots of fish. What I also know is that I really like a glass of wine...
My best friend Amanda and I created our own fragrance, e11even Fragrance Oil, £80, because she’d had so much demand for the scent. She used to mix this oil at her kitchen table and people she worked with would beg her for it. Amanda had been travelling all around the world and couldn’t find a fragrance that she liked – she felt everything smelled too synthetic. So she would mix essential oils such as patchouli, geranium and rose, and it created this almost spa-like scent. It sounds weird to say but this oil is energising, uplifting, grounding, and calming all at the same time. You can wear it on a hot date or after you’ve had a bath and put your pyjamas on; either way it just makes you feel lovely. Every day I wear it, I get a compliment.
When do I feel most beautiful? When I’ve been on a beach all day, the sun is low in the sky, and I can feel its warmth in my bones and smell the sunshine on my skin... ah, I love it. That is my favourite; it makes me feel pretty good.
Cat Deeley is an ambassador for Ella & Jo cosmetics, TV presenter on ITV1's This Morning, and host of So You Think You Can Dance on FOX.
