In the lead up to my wedding I pulled off quite a bit of vanity planning. This was a whole new area for me that I fully embraced after years of extremely low self maintenance, but better late than never!

Firstly I had a series of pre wedding facial treatments at my local “Marta Beauty” salon in Sheen. Every six weeks I would go for a facial, incorporating either mesotherapy or microdermabrasion and on her advice I started wearing sunblock everyday, even in the winter. There are so many treatments available but I discovered that sunblock and deep cleansing are a good place to start as my skin went from very dry to pretty dewy in a few months and getting rid of all those dead cells evened out my skin tone. A big thank you goes to Marta, for being so honest early on and letting me know that my skin was super dry and a bit shit and then for being able to transform it. Mesotherapy is not for the faint hearted as some treatments are a bit painful but we built up once my skin became stronger and she realised that my pain threshold for vanity was above and beyond. For a day or so your skin looks almost burnt so you can’t really go out and you can’t wear make up. But then after a couple of days, your skin boosts itself in repair mode and with the added hyaluronic acid and collagen masks, your skin texture starts to look really fab.

Another highlight of my pre wedding narcissism was my conversion to Chanel and their hydra beauty range skincare. It is so light on your skin and as the name suggests, super hydrating and gives your skin a glow of its own, even without make up. I love the packaging and everything about Chanel; it manages to be cool, edgy, classic, timeless and effective all at the same time. I’d like to imagine that I’m quite well aligned with these same attributes, I just need to work on being a little more effective at times! A couple of days before the wedding I went to their boutique in Covent Garden, to try out some make up ideas. I learnt so much, how brown eyeliner and mascara really brings out the blue in your eye. How to blend two different shades of cc creams to get the perfect even skin tone, which then go under the foundation (two different tones again to blend) It makes sense right, your skin just isn’t one colour all year round and even with our fairly average summers in the UK, we all get a little more tanned.

They also showed me that using concealer makes you look less tired and brighter and how to use it only from the corner of your eye near your nose and then underneath and stop by your laugher lines otherwise the lightness will show the lines up more. Another tip, using a lip liner as well as a lipstick works really well…of course.. right but did you know the trick of using a bit of lighter lipstick in the middle of the lips to make them look fuller? After many years sitting in a make up chair, I would have thought that my make up skills would be a bit better, I must have been half a sleep for decades. I blame the early start times! However now I’m not getting made up for work and I am no longer 25 I do need to wear make up a bit more often so I am finally paying attention.

I don’t like wearing much during the day, but balancing out my skin colour and a bit of mascara does wonders. I’m using the cc creams alone for a more natural look as they have the added benefit of SPF 50. Make up is so clever and techie these days and I’m proud to say that thanks to my daughter Lola and my new friends at Chanel, I am now totally up to date and have the best make up kit ever.

On the wedding day, Helen, my lovely make-up artist friend used all the Chanel make up for Lola and me and it was just beautiful. Josh said when I came into the church, my make up was perfect, which we all know means not too much! Chanel and Helen had struck the perfect balance between making me look way better than I was that morning and like I was hardly wearing any make up. Of course I piled on the smoky eye for the evening and switched out the browns for the blacks which was easy to do even after a few glasses of champagne.

If you’d like to try any of the products we used, here is the list of the makeup.

FOUNDATION:

  • CC Cream: 20/ 40
  • Vitalumiere satin fluid; 20 / 30 / 40
  • Les Beiges eau du teint; Medium
  • Le Correcteur de Chanel.
  • Éclat Lumiere Highlighter Face Pen: 20/ 40

BLUSH:

  • Les Beiges Healthy glow colour stick
  • Les Beiges Healthy glow luminous colour

POWDER:

  • Poudres Universelle Compacte 30 Naturel Translucent 2

EYES:

  • La Beiges Collection D’Ombres a Paupieres naturelles
  • Liner; Stylo Yeux Waterproof; 88 Noir Intense /20 Espresso
  • Mascara – Les Volumes de Chanel black / brown
  • Stylo Sourcils Waterproof; 806
  • Eye shadow; Les Beiges Collection d’Omberes

LIPS:

  • Lip Liner; (I have to confess I have already lost this so am not sure what number it was!)
  • Le Rouge Crayon De Couleur; 1 /21