Miss Madekwe talks all that beautifies...

I caught up with my beautiful co-star Ashley Madekwe who is currently shooting in Los Angles for some serious beauty goss..

Eye: Ashley. You have the most beautiful skin I have ever seen, I think in fact it's quite possible u have been dipped in caramel.....do u have any favorite products we could try with perhaps a less sticky residue.....?

ASHLEY: Ohhhhhhh thank you! I used to have quite spotty skin so I try to take really good care of it now. I swear by Shu Umeura's oil cleanser. Nothing else removes my make up like it. I also love Shiseido's day moisture protection creme. Both of these products are very rich in texture but I'd rather be oily and moist then dry!

 Eye: Please share with our fellow beauties your biggest beauty NoNos ... I do recall you mentioning a few horror stories in the makeup truck! 
ASHLEY: Over plucked eyebrows. Ugh! I think I full, groomed brows frame the face better. Over plucked brows look harsh and are aging. I especially hate the tadpole/sperm shape that some women favor.

Eye: You have portrayed many beautiful women on screen from Bambi in 'Secret Diaries of a Call Girl' to Chloe in the 'Beautiful Life' and most recently Molly in 'Bedlam' -what tips have you picked up along away and what's the one item all your ladies couldn't live without....

ASHLEY:*Every make up artist will tell you to remove your makeup before you go to sleep. It's the oldest trick in the book. It's the first thing I do when I come home at night. I then slather on loads of face creme! All of my characters wear mascara (and individual lashes if I can get away with it!). Mascara is a basic female right! 

Eye: let's touch on inner beauty, which u radiate in killer watts, what rituals and mind sets do you embody to keep smiling inside and out.....
ASHLEY:I'm a very honest person. Perhaps too honest! I've found that as I get older I cannot keep they way I feel inside. If something or someone bothers me- I say something about it. Life is too short to keep negative feelings inside. I also like to do Bikram yoga. That 90 minuets of moving meditation keeps me sane. It's a time where I'm not thinking about anything other then the postures that I'm doing.

Watch Ashely in tonight's finale of BEDLAM Skylivng 10pm

VANITY FAIR..GET THE LOOK

One early morning in a drafty studio in North London Will Young and myself were transformed, from a sleepy eyed coffee clutching pair into 1960s old hollywood screen sirens inspired by Leo and Kate a la revolutionary road....it wasnt easy, the professionals were called in...and here's a little look in their tool box..

Make-UP

Artist - GINI BOGADO

PREP- Sisley hydrating mask, 

            Nars primer

            SK11 under eye pads

SKIN - Mac face and body C3 foundation mixed with dior shimmer

            Sisley compact powder

EYES-COLOUR-Christian Dior brown, gold shimmer pallet 

           LINER- Mac gel pot in black

           LEASHES- Temptress blink+go

LIPS-Mac lipstick "cut a caper"


NAILS- Christian dior Nude

HAIR









step one: curl hair using a cone shaped hot rod..


step two: pin curls up onto your head to alllow to cool without loosing     their shape..


step three: when cooled brush out curls and hair spray..


step four: get creative and wip hair into a chignon, take all hair over to one side keep lots of volume on top and turn back over its self and pin like you've never pined before...


dadahhh...there you have it you look like Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous!

FINISHED ARTICLE MARCH ISSUE 

SkyLiving's launch party for their new original dark drama 'Bedlam' (click for preview) was a highly anticipated event and a girls gotta look the part, so of course one was have a mini melt down over looking cool, calm and collected whilst oozing high doses of sex and sophistication....well maybe not so much of the latter but you get my drift....
So Sky called in the professionals, I wore a fab dress by VaVaVoom, I was lent an amazing pair of Camilla Skovgaard shoes (I am in love with all her styles) and the wonderful Rebecca Richards was called in for hair and make-up, her powder puffs have buffed many famous noses such as Romola Garai, Fearne Cotton, Edith Bowman and Vanessa Hudgens, with a suitcase full of make-up (too exciting for words) she worked her magic...and two hours later I was preened too perfection and even had time for a sneaky interview.....
  




EYE:Rebecca, has make-up always been a major part of your life? from pre-teen experiments to a full blown career?

REBECCA:I WAS ALWAYS PLAYING WITH MY MUM'S MAKEUP WHEN I WAS VERY LITTLE AND INFACT ONE OF HER EARLIEST STORIES ABOUT ME WAS WHEN WERE WERE ON HOLIDAY AND I WAS ABOUT 5 - I HAD HER LIPSTICK ON AND WAS WALKING AROUND POUTING ...I EVEN TURNED DOWN AN ICECREAM BECAUSE 'IT WOULD RUIN MY LIPSTICK'!

I ALSO HAD 2 AUNTIES WHO WERE HAIRDRESSERS SO WAS ALWAYS EXPERIMENTING AND LEARNING NEW TRICKS FROM THEM AND PRACTISING ON MY FRIENDS...BARBIES DOLLS ... BROTHER!

EYE:We grew up not far form each other in equally small villages, where Im guessing like me there weren't many people in the 'business", was there a particular turing point where your realized your dreams of becoming a make-up artist could in fact be a reality and be taken seriously as a professional career?

REBECCA:ALTHOUGH I WAS ALWAYS VERY ARTISTIC AT SCHOOL AND WANTED TO BE A HAIRDRESSER OR A FASHION DESIGNER, I DIDN'T ORIGINALLY GO DOWN THAT ROUTE.  WHEN I LEFT SCHOOL AT 18, THERE WERE STILL ONLY 4 CHANNELS ON THE TV (HARD TO IMAGINE NOW!).  A CAREER IN 'THE ARTS' WAS DEEMED AS 'TOO RISKY...THERE'S NO MONEY OR OPPORTUNITIES' AND I HAD A BRAIN SO I TRUNDLED OFF TO UNIVERSITY TO STUDY BUSINESS AND MARKETING.  I THEN ENDED UP IN LONDON AND WORKED IN MARKETING FOR MUSIC AND FILM FOR ABOUT 6/7 YEARS.  MAKEUP & HAIR WAS STILL A BIG PART OF MY LIFE AND I WAS FOREVER EXPERIMENTING ON MYSELF OR MY FRIENDS (MANY A DODGY 'LATEST FASHION' HAIR CUT CAN BE FOUND IN OLD PHOTOS!).  BECAUSE OF THE NATURE OF MY WORK, I WAS INVOLVED IN LOTS OF PHOTOSHOOTS AND FILMING AND I LOOKED INTO RE-TRAINING IN MAKEUP SEVERAL TIMES,  BUT COULD NEVER FIND A WAY TO MAKE IT WORK FINANCIALLY AT THE TIME BECAUSE THERE WERE ONLY FULL TIME DAY COURSES AVAILABLE.  IT WASN'T UNTIL I WAS 27 AND WAS LEFT SOME MONEY BY A RELATIVE THAT I DECIDED TO TAKE THE PLUNGE.  BY THEN THERE WERE LOTS MORE COURSES AVAILABLE AND INTENSIVE EVENING COURSES TOO.  I REALLY WORRIED ABOUT TELLING MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHAT I WANTED TO DO AS I DIDN'T WANT TO LET ANYONE DOWN, BUT EVERYONE WAS SO SUPPORTIVE.  I STUDIED WHILST I WORKED AND THEN LOVED IT SO MUCH I QUIT MY MARKETING JOB QUITE SOON AFTERWARDS.  THE FILM COMPANY I WORKED FOR AT THE TIME WERE GREAT AND EVERYONE BELIEVED I WOULD GO ON TO GREAT THINGS, AND THEY ARE ACTUALLY NOW ONE OF MY BEST CLIENTS.   HAVING THE GUTS TO MAKE SUCH A MASSIVE CHANGE WAS SCARY, BUT I HAVEN'T LOOKED BACK SINCE!  I STILL FEEL TODAY THOUGH THAT MY ORIGINAL MARKETING CAREER HAS REALLY HELPED ME TO GET WHERE I AM NOW.

EYE:Your alarm didn't go off, your flatmates drunk all the milk, you cant find any clean underwear and you have an interview your already late for ....what would be your quick fix essential beauty tips for our readers....?

REBECCA:QUICK CLEANSE OF THE FACE (COULDN'T LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT A QUICK FACE WASH AND IT WILL HELP TO WAKE YOU UP!) , SLAP ON  SOME TINTED MOISTURISER, BRONZER, CREAM BLUSH (ON LIPS AND APPLES OF THE CHEEKS) AND LOTS OF MASCARA (LAYER IT ON) . EITHER SCRAPE YOUR HAIR BACK INTO A TOP NOT KIND OF BUN AND RUN OR GRAB SOME DRY SHAMPOO... PERFECT FOR WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO WASH YOUR HAIR!

EYE: Top 3 products?

REBECCA: OOOO....ONLY 3?!! HAVE YOU SEEN THE SIZE OF MY MAKEUP KIT?!

CHANEL - SOLEIL TAN DE CHANEL - MAKEUP BRONZING BASE ..IT'S AMAZING! SO SILKY AND GIVES YOU A BEAUTIFUL HEALTHY GLOW

NARS - ORGASM ILLUMINATOR - A HIGHLIGHTER THAT MAKES TIRED SKIN LOOK RADIANT AND GLOWING

BOBBI BROWN - POT ROUGE FOR LIPS AND CHEEKS - THERE ARE SOME GORGEOUS COLOURS - I LOVE PALE PINK AND CALYPSO CORAL AND THEY ARE GREAT BECAUSE YOU CAN USE THEM ON YOUR CHEEKS AND YOUR LIPS

myself with gorgeous co-star Ashley Madekwe

Bedlam cast: Will Young, ME, Theo James, Ashley Madekwe, Hugo Speer

Will Young, ME, Theo James, Ashley Madekwe, Hugo Speer

BEDLAM - SKYLIVING MONDAY 7TH FEB 10PM......

she said it sisley

There is a a certain 'je ne sais que' when it comes to the French, beautiful on what seems like a diet of champagne, cigarettes and croissants...or maybe its more to do with fresh oysters, farmer market greens and the unwavering demand for real top quality food....i'll defiantly guess at the latter oh and SISLEY...founded by the d'Ornano family in the seventies, a family affair over 3 generations that is still going strong in the growing world of beauty. 

January is not a good month for skin, recovering from the debauchery of December- it is exhausted, dry, greasy, puffy and possibly spotty....so between the shriveled mistletoe and flat champagne..things are pretty dull....well that was until Sisley came into my life,  recommend to me by makeup artist Ginni Bogado on a recent Vanity Fair shoot, my skin couldn't thank me enough...

To begin your skin will be crying out for  Express Flower Gel hydration mask, it drenches life back into your skin reviving even the most parched of cheeks...I like to keep mine in the fridge for the ultimate cooling, de-puffing experience..!

Now that you can smile again with the youthful vigor of a child, you need to address those bags under your eyes, and low and behold Sisley has the perfect solution 'Eye contour Mask'...which will really does reduce signs of fatigue whilst strengthening the delicate eye area with a whole host of wonderful plant extracts such as Ginko Biloba and Arnica 

If your after a little more oopmf the reach for Sisley's Radiant glow express mask, the red clay works wonders performing a gentle deep cleanse, tightening your pores and leaving you purified, matified and beautified!

I know what your thinking...surely something that looks this good will surely be bad for me, well its your lucky day as this fine milled powder, available in 3 nude shades evens out skin tone, absorbs sebum all whilst hydrating and protecting...

This foundation has such a wonderful powdery smell it will have you pining for rusks and Johnson's 'no more tears shampoo'...it goes on like a dream and stays their..I found the beige shade a little pink for myself, so im on a quest to get my perfect shade in this delightful oil free fluid..

To get you started treat yourself to an express Sisley facial exclusive to Selfridges which is redeemable against two Sisley products! So don't morn December its all about 2011 -rejuvenate and hydrate..oh and maybe swing by that lovely french patisserie in soho on your way home...just to get into the spirit of things...viva la france 'n all...she said it Sisley...