Oct 27 10 2017

27.10.17 beauty EDITION

THE NEW NATURAL

capital disruptor

beauty grows up

Sharmadean Reid strikes again

POWER PLANTS

London’s NEXT GEN herbalists

Plus:

your future face smart sleeping and bella freud’s My London

Grace Coddington

Shot by Paolo Roversi

An audience with a fashion legend

CONTENTS

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5 What could be greater than Christian Slater in CAPITAL GAINS 6 Laura Craik gets the glow in UPFRONT 8 Our MOST WANTED are Louis Vuitton’s vanity cases

THE COLOGNE ‘I love the rich notes of rose and orange flower at the heart of this new ADP scent. A new personal favourite.’

Dipal Acharya, commissioning editor

11 Keeping it merry it’s Grayson Perry in FLASHBULB 12 The coup de GRACE CODDINGTON 21 Freudian knits in MEN’S STYLE 23 A brave new BEAUTY world

HERBALIST, heal thyself 34 From cuts to styles, this is HAIR to slay 40 SHARMADEAN REID has it nailed 45 AGE BEFORE BEAUTY? The new rules 49 Read our LIPS 50 TUBEROSE is back, and smelling good 55 GRACE & FLAVOUR eats at Salon 58 Get a skinful in DRINKS 61 Put it away in HOMEWORK 65 ESCAPE to Six Senses Zil Pasyon 66 Bella Freud’s MY LONDON 31

EDITOR Laura Weir

Here are the ES team’s top five beauty picks

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TIFFANY & CO eau de parfum, £52 (tiffany.co.uk)

Cover: Grace Coddington photographed by Paolo Roversi. Jean-Philippe Woodland

ACQUA DI PARMA Note di Colonia IV, £280 (acquadi parma.com)

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THE EAU DE PARFUM ‘Tiffany’s first fragrance in 30 years does not disappoint. Iris, patchouli... what’s not to love?’ Lily Worcester, deputy beauty and lifestyle editor

MAC Happy Go Dazzlingly face powder, £24.50 (maccosmetics.co.uk)

Visit us online: standard.co.uk/esmagazine • Follow us:

THE POWDER ‘You know it’s nearly Christmas when golden face powder winks at you again.

This time round I’m channelling the gilded cheekbones at the recent Versace show.’

Katie Service, beauty editor

@eveningstandardmagazine

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THE GADGET ‘I’m the kind of person who accidentally sleeps in their makeup quite regularly!

This hassle-free cleansing brush has reformed me, as it whips all traces off in no time.’ Eniola Dare, fashion assistant

LUNA 2 for Combination Skin

by FOREO, £169, at cultbeauty.co.uk

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THE BODY SHOP Japanese Matcha Tea Pollution Clearing Mask, £17 (thebody shop.com)

THE FACE MASK ‘I have to walk to work through the traffic fumes of Kilburn High Road every morning. My skin needs a little detox and this potion is my go-to defence.’

Nick Howells, deputy chief sub editor

@ESmagofficial

@ESmagofficial

Editor Laura Weir Deputy editor Anna van Praagh Features director Alice-Azania Jarvis Acting art director Emma Woodroofe Fashion features director Katrina Israel Commissioning editor Dipal Acharya Associate features editor Hamish MacBain Features writer Frankie McCoy

Acting art editor Andy Taylor Art editor Jessica Landon Picture editor Helen Gibson Picture desk assistant Clara Dorrington

Beauty editor Katie Service Deputy beauty and lifestyle editor Lily Worcester

Social media editor Natalie Salmon Office administrator/editor’s PA Niamh O’Keeffe

Merchandise editor Sophie Paxton Fashion editor Jenny Kennedy Fashion assistant Eniola Dare Chief sub editor Matt Hryciw Deputy chief sub editor Nick Howells

Contributing editors Lucy Carr-Ellison, Tony Chambers, James Corden, Hermione Eyre, Richard Godwin, Daisy Hoppen, Jemima Jones, Anthony Kendal, David Lane, Mandi Lennard, Annabel Rivkin, Teo van den Broeke, Nicky Yates (style editor at large), Hikari Yokoyama Group client strategy director Deborah Rosenegk Head of magazines Christina Irvine

ES Magazine is published weekly and is available only with the London Evening Standard. ES Magazine is published by Evening Standard Ltd, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, Kensington, London W8 5TT. ES is printed web offset by Wyndeham Bicester. Paper supplied by Perlen Paper AG. Colour transparencies or any other material submitted to ES Magazine are sent at owner’s risk. Neither Evening Standard Ltd nor their agents accept any liability for loss or damage. © Evening Standard Ltd 2016. Reproduction in whole or part of any contents of ES Magazine without prior permission of the editor is strictly prohibited

capital gains What to do in London

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by FRANKIE M c COY

LITTLE ITALY

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A decent place to drink on the King’s Road? You better believe it. The marvellous Ritorno serves fabulous Italian-inspired cocktails, such as the feathered White Lady, with cicchetti to soak up the gin. (ritorno.co.uk)

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silk pyjamas, £600

Illustration by Jonathan Calugi @ Machas; Jenna Foxton; Steve Gullick

Lycra up and justify winter bingeing with snazzy new boutique studio KXU’s fourstep Optimum Fat Burn package: espresso shot + cryotherapy + U-Cycle + Green B juice. Feel free to follow up with a whole tray of roast potatoes. (kxu.co.uk)

sleep style

Cold evenings are made for lounging at home, central heating switched to max. And with impeccable timing Cowshed and Mary Katrantzou have collaborated on a new range of über-comforting body washes and lotions, and some extremely beautiful but oh -so-cosy silk PJs in floral digital print. Let the hibernating begin.

COWSHED x MARY (cowshed.com) KATRANTZOU

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Winter blast

Dip TEA

Cucumber sandwiches get the multi-sensory treatment in Hotel Café Royal’s Diptyque afternoon tea, with cakes mimicking the scent of the brand’s delicious roses, vanille, violette and verveine scented candles. £42 (hotelcaferoyal.com)

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Soul Siblings

Hyper-talented brother and sisters, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, bring their supremely catchy rockabillytinged tunes to Islington Assembly Hall for one night only.

Haim who? Tickets £17.

28 Oct (islington assemblyhall.co.uk)

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Glide on over: the Natural History Museum ice rink

ICE ICE BABY

The unofficial first day of winter is when the Natural History Museum opens its ice rink, for the foolhardy to don their killer blades as their sensible friends look after the mulled wine. Tickets £12.65.

26 Oct to 7 Jan (nhm.ac.uk)

ART OF THE DEAL

We do love a poignantly relevant modern satire, and they don’t come much more relevant and modern than David Mamet’s multi award-winning Glengarry Glen Ross, now starring Christian Slater as a cut-throat Chicago salesman. Tickets from £15. 26 Oct to 3 Feb (playhousetheatrelondon.com)

last chance: Get a piece of the legendary Pierre Cardin

at Maison Assouline’s pop-up shop, selling one-off and limited-edition hats, sunglasses and more, before it closes on 28 Oct (assouline.com)

look ahead: Grinches be gone — November is truly a festive season, all the more so as the Southbank Centre Winter Festival opens on 10 Nov (southbankcentre.co.uk)

27.10.17 es magazine

upfront Laura Craik on no-glow areas, hot bobs and fright fatigue

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FRINGE BENEFITS Every time I have a fringe cut I regret it, and immediately start growing it out.

Maybe it’s my hair type, maybe it’s my moisturiser, but it always starts to look claggy and lank. Which has done nothing to prevent me from being seduced by The Leon, so-called (by me, anyway) because its two components ­ ­— a jawlength bob and heavy fringe — are a dead ringer for Natalie Portman’s in Luc Besson’s cult 1994 film (right). The Leon works especially well

es magazine 27.10.17

“Glow, and how to get it, is now a market worth £1.11bn and growing all the time. Everybody wants expensive skin”

Picture perfect: Londone Myers, and right, Melania Trump

on dark hair (google Vogue staffer Olivia Singer for tips — very Eighties era Anna Wintour) but upcoming model Fran Summers (bottom left) also nails the look. I like the Leon because it’s a clean, decisive move away from all the beach waves and sunkissed balayage that have lingered for so long. See you down the hairdresser. Or not.

ALL TRICK, NO TREAT This ‘Halloween is the new Christmas’ stuff is getting ridic. Halloween can never be the new Christmas because you don’t get to lie around drinking wine, watching Elf and finishing off the brie the next day, however many spiced pumpkin Martinis (yes, actually A Thing) you manage to neck while your kids are trick or treating. According to search platform Lyst, searches for pumpkin-related fashion items are up almost a third since last year. Get a grip, everyone. I’m no eco warrior, but when you think of all the plastic lights, masks, straws, lanterns, skeletons and buckets being sold, then used for 24 hours before being binned, it’s hard not to ponder whether the spookiest thing about Halloween is how environmentally unfriendly it has become. Just sayin’.

HOT Cloud Paint ‘If you can finger paint, you can cloud paint,’ says the blurb on Glossier’s cult blusher (£15) — I’m sold.

NOT Squiggle brows Read about them, thought they were made up, saw some, was traumatised.

Josh Shinner; Getty; Alamy

ecently the internet lost it over #FakeMelania after some wag decided that the woman by Trump’s side was not, in fact, his beloved wife, but an imposter. I could see the internet’s point. The grainy freeze-frame did make Melania appear as though she had a strange new nose shape, but what seemed most altered was her skin. It looked porous. Less expensive. Less... glowy.

Beauty industry vocabulary is so limited that whoever first came up with harnessing the word ‘glow’ should get a medal and a lifetime’s worth of free facials. Glow, and how to get it, is now a market worth £1.11bn, according to Mintel, and growing all the time. Everybody wants expensive skin. It’s much cooler to look radiant like naturopath Rosemary Ferguson (right) than like a raddled old crone trying to mimic flawless Freja Beha Erichsen with an over-judicious use of filler.

If you want to get the glow, don’t get a puppy.

News just in: they’re harder work than babies. At least you can put a nappy on a baby. At least you can watch The Apprentice at 9pm. A puppy needs not only a 9pm feed but a ‘vigorous play’ afterwards. When it cries in the night, you can’t just whop out a breast to make it quiet. Beauty sleep? Any sleep? Forget it. I have never looked so raddled in my life. I’m currently at Can’t Even Look In The Mirror phase, to which anyone who has ever had a newborn, a night shift or insomnia will relate. ‘When did I get so haggard?’ I wail, as the puppy defecates on another rug (always the shaggy rugs. Never the floorboards).

It’s no accident that we’re all obsessed with radiant skin at a time when people are getting less sleep than ever. You can’t buy eight blissful hours of rest in a bottle, but you can do the next best thing: find a moisturiser / primer / highlighter that works for you, slather it all over and never, under any circumstances, get a puppy.

THE most WANTED Top right: Louis Vuitton Flaconnier case, POA; Matière Noire, Mille Feux and Rose des Vents travel sprays, £185 each for 100ml.

Bottom: black, white and pink travel cases, £330 each (louisvuitton.com)

Vanity Fair: Your favourite Louis Vuitton perfume now comes in a sumptuous monogrammed leather trunk

Vanity Fair: your favourite Louis Vuitton perfume now comes in a sumptuous monogrammed leather trunk es magazine 27.10.17

PHOTOGRAPH BY william bunce

FLASHBULB! Party pictures from around town

by FRANKIE McCOY photographs by james peltekian Grayson Perry

Cressida Dick

Melissa Hemsley

Camilla Kerslake

Matt Hryciw

Anna van Praagh

Sadiq Khan

Nick Curtis

Nicholas Coleridge

Nick Howells

Progressive alliance Bankside

A thousand of our favourite people waltzed through the Turbine Hall to glug LaurentPerrier and be far too adventurous on the Superflex swings at the Evening Standard’s Progress 1000 at Tate Modern, where 12 everyday heroes took the top spot, Gemma Cairney, Angela Scanlon and Helen Lederer struggled to selfie and London’s foremost party person Sadiq Khan chatted to quite literally everyone.

Matt Hancock and Gemma Cairney

Maria Balshaw

Clara Dorrington

Munroe Bergdorf

Thomasina Miers

Helen Gibson

Edward Enninful

Vanessa Kingori

Robert Peston

Sarah Sands

Henry Dimbleby

Waris Ahluwalia and Ben Elliot

John Studzinski Harriet Capaldi

Rosanna Falconer and Olivia Grant

Elephants and Egyptians Across town

Zafar Rushdie

Stanley Johnson

Ewan Venters and Morvarid Sahafi

GO TO eveningstandard.co.uk / ESMAGAZINE FOR MORE PARTY PICTURES

Camilla Rutherford

Fizz for the pharaohs at the British Museum for the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award with Zafar Rushdie and Nicholas Pinnock, while across town Waris Ahluwalia and Ben Elliot greeted travellers dressed as Wacky Racers and raised tea cocktails in farewell at the Travels To My Elephant send-off bash.

Nicholas Pinnock

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Grace in focus

12 es magazine 27.10.17

She’s the genius creative director at large of American Vogue and, thanks to The September Issue, a celebrity in her own right.

Sarah Mower meets Grace Coddington

PhotographS BY paolo roversi Sittings editor sophie paxton

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long queue of fashion pilgrims is inching adoringly towards a desk at which Grace Coddington is seated at a book signing at Smythson in New Bond Street. The photographers and stylists, socialites and students, and a string of her ex-assistants are clutching special Smythson orange leather-bound £195 editions of GingerNutz. Actually, the book isn’t by Coddington, but the man in the flat cap who is gleefully signing away next to her. Nobody knows the creative director of American Vogue better than the illustrator-writer-filmmaker and fashion mischief-maker Michael Roberts. The pair have been friends since the Seventies. GingerNutz is the cartoon

re-telling of the life of Coddington — depicted as an orangutan.

Roberts flips over his favourite pages.

GingerNutz shoots to modelling fame from obscure beginnings in the Borneo jungle. ‘Her trademarks were her ever-changing hairstyles: the Gibbon, the Baboon, the Capuchin and the Rhesus.’ (Coddington was legendary for her overnight style makeovers, which would stun lesser British Vogue staff when she was fashion editor in the Sixties and Seventies.)

Then he breathlessly recites the denouement: when GingerNutz goes to the MET, she explains to her parents, ‘That’s the in-crowd’s name for Monkey’s Exclusive Tea Party!’

Coddington is laughing, her red hair flaring. It’s all there, one way or the other, from her birth in Anglesey in 1941, through her

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Always in fashion’s front row: clockwise from left, Coddington modelling in 1967; with editor-in-chief of British Vogue, Edward Enninful; on the frow with Anna Wintour; below, with Michael Roberts

Sixties modelling career in London, right up to her current position at, well, the tip-top of the international fashion canopy. ‘It literally is my life, which Michael knows very well.’

‘The more we got into it, the more connected it was — she had a Vidal five-point haircut, she got photographed by Helmut Newton sitting in a chair, all the make-up things I did,’ says Roberts. ‘She started her life by the sea, and she found a copy of Vogue in a bottle, and dreamed she’d be a model.

Which is roughly what happened. Sort of.’

Today, Coddington far more closely resembles a latter-day Elizabeth I than an orangutan. With her nimbus of coppery hair, high forehead, refined bones and pale, untouched complexion, she’s highly identifiable fashion royalty. When she rides the subway to the Vogue offices at One World Trade Center in New York, people scream when they see her and ask for selfies at every corner.

We decamp to a corner of Claridge’s bar to talk. She and I have been colleagues covering shows for more than a decade, so I’ve been a side witness to what it’s like, walking around New York, Milan and Paris in her wake, as Grace-spotters run towards her from every direction. ‘I have a huge gay and transvestite following,’ she chuckles. ‘But also, all these very young kids.’ Why? ‘I think they know I’m a very positive person who will not take no for an answer. Even from my boss.’

Today, as every day, Coddington is wearing Céline — her poster-woman, allblack uniform for state-of-the art, personality-framing style. ‘The cut of their trousers is very, very good, and the shape of the cashmere sweaters — slightly classic, but slightly modern, too. I can fit into them.’ She

14 es magazine

“anna is very generous about what I do. She wants me to do the stories I want to do” laughs. ‘I have their Crombie coats, and that’s about it. I can’t get away with anything cheap at my age. It has to be a certain quality or it just looks terrible.’

Now I’m staring down at her white trainers: perfect yet unidentifiable. ‘Ha! They’re Céline as well,’ she laughs. ‘If I put any other shoes on, I just look super boring. I just think they’re cool. With fashion there’s so much that’s cute and baby-doll, and that’s great if you’re young. But if you’re not — I just think sneakers cut the age. They take the bourgeois off. I wear them to the Met.’ Completing the total Coddington is her slash of red lipstick — Dolce & Gabbana, she can’t remember the shade.

Her late incarnation as an inter-generational style and beauty icon accidentally came about in 2009, after Anna Wintour famously insisted — following a months-long running battle in the halls of Vogue during which Coddington slammed her door against the cameras — that she took part in The September Issue documentary.

‘Vogue gave me a voice, but The September Issue gave me a face,’ she once told me.

Nevertheless, the editorin-chief handed her the gift of a second, highly

valuable career opportunity, as Wintour had doubtless foreseen. The nature of the relationship between these two extremely reserved, perfectionist Englishwomen was the creative dynamic that made the movie, a tussle that masks their shared — also very English — romantic vision, which soars off the pages of Coddington’s epic stories.

They’re non-emoters, the pair of them.

But, yes — in answer to what people always want to know about them — I would dare say that after more than 30 years of working together at both British and American Vogue (with a little break when Coddington went to head up design at Calvin Klein in 1987, and thought better of it) they’re fond of one another: a fondness masquerading itself as professional respect.

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ven the Michael Roberts book itself was a consequence of a covert Wintour kindness to her. ‘It was going to be my 75th birthday and a few people got together and decided to give me a surprise party.’ Coddington had thought she was just taking her ‘kids’ — her assistants — out for dinner. ‘And when I got there, there were like a hundred people — it was fabulous. Anna does that really well.’

Unbeknown to her, Roberts had sketched the monkey cartoon for a party invitation.

‘Because orangutans have red hair. Everybody decided I would be really offended, so they all said, absolutely no!’ When Roberts eventually showed the scrapped drawing, Coddington had exactly the opposite reaction. ‘I thought she was adorable — she had to have a life.’

The child of hoteliers, brought up on a remote Welsh island, Coddington loved Vogue from a young age. ‘I ordered Vogue every month from the local store,’ she has reminisced to US Vogue. ‘For me, the magazine represented an amazing fantasy world of sophistication and grown-ups. I dreamt of getting away from the tiny place I was raised.’

At 18 she won a Young Model competition in

the magazine. She then began a modelling career for Vogue, but at 26 she was in a car accident that left her with head and facial injuries — nearly slicing off an eyelid — forcing her to endure years of reconstructive surgery. It is testament to her character that she went on to become one of the most celebrated models of the Sixties. At 27 she became a junior fashion editor at the magazine, and in 1988 she joined Anna Wintour as creative director of American Vogue.

Rex; Getty; Arthur Elgort/Smythson

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ince the release of The September Issue in 2009, everyone has wanted a piece of Coddington. It’s the reason she’s been able to traverse the world without a surname for the past eight years, because ‘Grace’, now, is a brand.

It’s something she’s able to pursue more since she’s moved to being creative director at large, doing four or five stories a year for the magazine. ‘I think it got to the point where Anna saw — with the pressure to shoot, shoot, shoot every day — it was not my personality. Or I was not dealing with it very well. What I have found is that since I’ve had less to do, and therefore more time to think about it, she’s very generous about what I do.

She wants me to do the stories I want to do.

Even if budgets are much less, you just have to rethink it, and you’ll find a way. And I don’t need a limousine everywhere.’

We mustn’t run away with the idea that she’s gearing down. Grace Coddington has always been a pioneer of her generation, and at the age of 76, that’s just as true now. With her prolific abilities, her love of cats, her drawing, her books of her fashion work, her perfume Grace (with its rose scent and cat-shaped bottle) and her astonishing photogenic power to look amazing on her 440k-followed @therealgracecoddington Instagram account, she is now a personality with the power of a globally marketable reach.

For a digital sceptic, this is quite a funny turn up for the books. She’s a stickler for insisting on using her phone just to call and text. Her assistant picks up her emails. ‘I do Instagram, but none of the others like Snapchat or snap-crap,’ she laughs. ‘I don’t even know what they are that I don’t do!

They’re time-wasters. There’s one thing: if you have more followers, you can ask for more money. But I’d have to post something every day. And I just can’t be bothered.’

This brings us to the other reason

Ace of Grace: clockwise from top, with Marc Jacobs, left, in 1994; with partner, Didier Malige; with Natalia Vodianova and Karen Elson

Coddington is making this rare touchdown in London today: she’s signed up to be a Smythson ambassador. ‘Grace is the quintessential global traveller,’ says head of brand, Nicole Bahbout. ‘She not only understands the Smythson ethos of quality and detail — I think she embodies it. She understands the value of a product built to last a lifetime. The image of her sitting in the front row writing in a sea of screens just about sums it up.’

“I can’t get away with anything cheap at my age. It has to be of a certain quality or it just looks terrible” She’ll only ever take on arrangements which instinctively feel correct to her and this English stationery company, founded in 1887, is a proper fit. First, because she’s a long-time user of its diaries and notebooks, and second, because she feels it’s a gesture that sticks up for something she still recognises about the England she left in the Eighties.

‘I’m very picky about what I agree to do.

I think Smythson has a really beautiful product and the workmanship is something I really admire. I would not put my name to something that was not of a certain calibre.

Smythson Burlington holdall, £1,395 (smythson.com)

The more classic they stay, the more I like it.

I love notebooks. I take a pleasure in writing or drawing in something that is beautiful.’

Watching Coddington drawing shows is a mesmerising sight. She has the ability to note the silhouette of every single outfit in a 50-look show, her pen moving across paper while her eyes barely seem to leave the catwalk. It has made her fashion’s greatest poker player — when competitors and designers alike would kill to know what she thinks, there’s never a flicker of an expression to give away her verdict.

‘I just love writing on paper, which is why I’m one of the last people sitting there doing dumb drawings at shows. It’s so weird with people using their phones all the time,’ she shrugs. ‘You’re barely even looking. If I just took pictures, I wouldn’t have any memory of the show. There’s something about forcing myself to make a line which is almost like engraving it in my brain. It really helps. I look at that page, I remember the moment and I remember the dress.’

Coddington has a country house in upstate New York at Wainscott in Long Island, a cosy English-country looking home she shares with Didier Malige, her French hairdresser partner of 30 years (she was formerly married to the restaurateur Michael Chow and the photographer Willie Christie), and their two Persian cats, Pumpkin and Blanket. In New York, her base also sounds a bit like the old country. ‘I have my own office in London Terrace in Chelsea, a block from my house.’

And that’s where she’s heading now, off over the Atlantic for post-show planning meetings with Wintour in the Vogue office.

The way America is going isn’t exactly great, but she has eternal faith that fashion — which has been all talk about optimism for next spring — will play its traditional role and step in to distract readers from their worries.

‘I have to keep my head in a bubble and find something romantic,’ she muses. ‘I think I can work with the Fifties idea which is out there. I always like the Fifties. I can always find something romantic in that. I love girls, I love photographers. Nothing’s changed.’

Grace Coddington in her role for Smythson

MEN’S STYLE What to buy now

Big Ben’s bit on the side

by TEO VAN DEN BROEKE, style director OF esquire UK

Aesop Hwyl eau de parfum, £83 (aesop.com)

Ben Machell is all made up — he wishes

A Fabled opening

Aesop Affiliation gift set, £95 (aesop.com)

Cult Australian grooming brand Aesop — which is as loved for the immaculate packaging of its products as it is for the quality potions housed within — opens a new flagship store on Chelsea’s Duke of York Square this November. Though the new space will stock all the old favourites (Resurrection Aromatique Hand Wash? Yes, please), it’s the new Hwyl fragrance that we’re most excited about.

Created in collaboration with French perfumer Barnabé Fillion, the mossy scent was inspired

by Japan’s hiba trees, no less. Aesop, 22–24 Duke of York Square, Chelsea, SW3

Personal Shopper

Mr Porter, the global online men’s fashion retailer, has launched its own label.

Created by a team of in-house designers, Mr P has been cooked up to provide discerning men like, well, you, with a perennial wardrobe of elegant staples. The inaugural capsule collection, which is inspired by the wardrobe of Lucian Freud, consists of 53 pieces, including a 15-gauge cashmere sweater, some Japanese selvedge jeans and, my personal favourite, a leather flight jacket. ‘We like to think we have an unparalleled view of the male wardrobe, garnering the combined knowledge of our buyers and editors,’ says Mr Porter managing director, Toby Bateman. ‘Mr P is ultimately the result of that: smart details, easy pieces and enduring style.’

Jonny Cochrane; Josh Shinner

Creed Viking, £255 (creed fragrances .co.uk)

Slicker than water

The House of Creed has been making extraordinary fragrances since 1760. My favourite is the smoky Royal Oud, but the brand’s new offering — created under the aegis of Olivier Creed, direct descendent of founder James Henry Creed — is a strong contender for my new No 1. Housed in a striking red flagon, Viking is inspired by the dexterity and strength of Viking longships. The scent is moody and sexy, with notes of peppercorn, peppermint and Bulgarian rose.

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ome men like to go on about how they don’t like make-up. I am not one of them. I’ve spent most of my life in close proximity to female beauty products and have, over the years, developed a healthy respect for slap of all shades. At times, curiosity. At times, frankly, a twinge of jealousy.

It’s not that I particularly want to wear mascara or foundation or lip gloss, but I am a sucker for functionality. And the fact is that, pound for pound, I’m not sure man has developed a more efficient innovation than compact, portable cosmetics. I suppose that, on some level, I just feel like I’m missing out. It’s the same feeling I get when I see kids wearing those trainers with hidden wheels: ‘That looks incredibly useful. Shame I’m an adult,’ I think.

“There is no more efficient innovation than compact, portable cosmetics” I’ve never felt comfortable with the way that makeup is so often used, sneeringly, by male songwriters as a metaphor for shallowness and feminine deceit. If some girl’s mugged you off, I’m pretty sure the fact she was wearing foundation had nothing to do with it.

I happen to like perfume. It smells nice. It probably helps that, as a young child, I developed an incredibly high tolerance to it on account of my gran dragging me and my sister round department-store beauty counters, demanding free squirts of everything. If you’ve ever seen one of those TV documentaries following police training with tear gas, temporarily blinded recruits shuffling out of a building with their hands on each other’s shoulders, it was a bit like that.

Only in the Leeds branch of Debenhams.

There is also something mystical about women’s beauty products. This is partly because I’m banned from touching any of my girlfriend’s face creams, etc, which only increases their beguiling quality. Every Christmas, in a solemn, ceremonial act, I would present my mum with her Oil of Ulay (this was before it became ‘Olay’, a name change I found genuinely disappointing) as though it was frankincense or myrrh. My dad? I just lobbed him a chocolate orange.

Not quite the same, is it. You can understand how this could have an effect on a young boy. Sometimes, in secret, I would sneak into her room and apply a tiny amount to my skin, just to see what would happen.

And invariably, I’d spend the rest of the day feeling pretty good about myself. Confident. Glowing.

Honestly, how is that not magic?

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Future perfect

So how will you look in 2018? From wellness trends to hi-tech procedures, Annabel Rivkin introduces the innovations and happenings you need to know

Benjamin Madgwick

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he beauty industry is a radical space. An early adopting space. A riskembracing space. For all the strobing and contouring, blogging and vlogging, Kardashians and influencers, there is a hungry appetite for innovation and an almost uniquely fast response time when it comes to collective concerns, be they veganism, gender-fluidity or colour. Transparency and digital connection have transformed beauty into a democratic arena; one where things happen. And here we find ourselves at the crossroads: will the next powerful narrative be all bots and avatars or will low-fi start to resonate in a bullish backlash?

The truth is, both ends of the spectrum — from almost scarily advanced to retro-Luddite — are peeking over the horizon and they are going to be battling for your attention and your spend. Forget Alien vs Predator, next year is set to be Techie vs Tree-hugger, Ground-breaking vs Granola. Anyway, my beauties, whether you are au naturel or brilliantly bionic, here are some of the next big things...

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Atlantic INVASION

Glossier has landed from New York — consider the floodgates opened.

Americana is the new Koreana when it comes to fresh and relevant beauty conversations. Silicon Valley tech advances combined with California’s wellness obsession and New York’s hustle has birthed a flurry of brands arriving here soon. Milk make-up (from the loins of splashy photography studio, Milk) is hip as hell, with blotting paper in Rizla-style packets, lipstains that look like marker pens and cutie blush oils. Drunk Elephant is ‘clean-clinical’, non-irritating skincare with a trouble-shooting attitude in naïve, nursery-style packaging. Its TLC Sukari Babyfacial is a monumental sell-out, stuffed as it is with a whopping 25 per cent of AHAs, including glycolic acid, for a smoothing anti-wrinkle effect. Do not use this on a baby.

MILK MAKEUP Lip Marker

DRUNK ELEPHANT Lala Retro Whipped Cream (drunkelephant.com)

DRUNK ELEPHANT B-Hydra Intensive Hydration Gel

MILK MAKEUP Cooling Water (milkmakeup.com)

FEEL ULTRASONIC

Do you have a nose for the future? Cosmetic surgeon Jag Chana has pioneered a rhinoplasty (nose job) technique that uses ultrasound rather than scalpels. Ultrasonic energy can sculpt the nose with extreme precision while reducing swelling, bruising and downtime. Post-Brexit vote, we are seeing a vogue for more conservative lifestyle choices as people become increasingly change-wary. So less house-selling, more house-renovation. Less full-on surgery and more non-invasive tweakments.

HIT REFRESH

Jean-Philippe Woodland; Natasha Pszenicki

Tech-buster: deal with your Instagram face at FaceGym

You know about environmental aggressors. But what about digital aggressors, as identified by Victoria Buchanan of The Future Laboratory.

‘We need to combat our digital habits,’ she says. ‘Expect to see more protective solutions and services.’

After all, we spend more time in front of a screen than we do under the sun.

And again, you’ve heard of the T-Zone; well, welcome to the Y-Zone. This is the lower-face, throat and décolletage that is constantly compromised when we scrunch up to look down at our phones up to 150 times a day. Hello tech neck. See YSL’s Beauty’s Y-Zone skincare launches and also FaceGym’s Phone Face package, which specifically targets Instagram addicts.

You know who you are. #stressed

YSL Youth Liberator Y Shape Crème, £67 (yslbeauty.co.uk)

MILK MAKEUP Holographic Powder Quad

LIXIR Electrogel Cleanser, £25, at victoriahealth.com

GO MINIMAL

How many serums? How many masks, acids and oils can one person cope with? If product fatigue is setting in, turn your attention towards skincare with a capsule wardrobe mentality.

Simplicity is set to be the mot de 2018. Say hello to London-born brand Lixir with its ‘must-do’ trio of vitamin C paste, Universal Emulsion and Electrogel Cleanser. These three wonders — partnered with three highly active night-time ‘molecule’ serums — are it. Expect more cleverly edited propositions to land imminently.

27.10.17 ES MAGAZINE 25

VEG OUT

Say what you like about vegans but we are in full-blown ingredient fear right now. Combine that with a widely felt need to put cash in the karma bank and vegan beauty is wiggling its way to the front line. People now actually read those tiny, Latin-y ‘INCI’ listings on the back of lotions and potions, each ingredient more impenetrable than the last. So fadtastically hempy vegan preaching has given way to a meaningful movement towards a transparently animalfriendly protocol. Even the biggest brands are having to listen to the consumer who makes a noise online. So watch out for vegan and cruelty-free superbrands such as edgy Kat Von D, brow supremo Anastasia Beverly Hills, super-glam Illamasqua, skin-coverage sensation Cover FX, make-up brush initiative Eco Tools and wait for the universe to throw some blessings in your direction…

ECOTOOLS Sheer Powder brush, £6.66 (ecotools.com)

Looking after the little guys: more brands are becoming animal-friendly, just like Cara Kat Von D Rock Candy lipstick, £34 (set of six), at debenhams. com

USE YOUR LOAF Go CRYPTO

The beauty industry has always been daring and now, it seems, it is encouraging bitcoin owners to open their online wallets and kickstart the future of payment. Historically, cryptocurrency has been rumoured to favour drugs, arms and other dodgy commodities, but… it’s sick of that life of crime and is going straight. Lush and Sephora have both started accepting bitcoin payment which, by the way, is unaffected by global currency fluctuations. So, if there were, say, a disastrous election or referendum result that saw the value of, say, the British pound plummet, you could shop at international retailers without paying twice as much as locals. Every cloud, guys.

A bit cleaner: pay for your Lush soap with bitcoin

Bread. Hello old friend. But no.

But yes. But no. The past 10 years have not been kind to gluten. It makes you fat, they say. It makes you wrinkly, they say. And spotty.

And bloated… in the face. Sexy.

Anyway, whether or not you subscribed to that demonisation, here comes a supplement to level the playing field. Tribitor comes in a sachet, dissolves in water and Tribitor, £25 (tribitor.com) promises to reduce the insulin spike that sugar in bread can cause, as well as counteracting the gluten-led glycation process that threatens to break down much-needed collagen while causing acne. It’ll help with booze bloat too. This, I’m sure you’ll agree, is truly excellent news.

JOIN THE GREEN PARTY

Is Generation Green the new Millennial Pink?

Hmmm. If you ask Pantone it might soon be all about Nile Green and Forest Green. First of all, green is nicely gender neutral (phew) and it also chimes conveniently with the eco/vegan/Mother Earth conversation. So far, so well done us.

There’s green packaging springing up left, right and centre, notably Soaper Duper, which is fully recycled (made from the tops of your discarded semi-skimmed milk bottles), completely free of nasties, cheap and properly delicious. But will green hair replace pink hair?

And will creams go green, and what about green lipstick?

Why the hell not?

Train like THE ELITE

Chris Grayner; Jean-Philippe Woodland; Nick Knight for SHOWstudio.com; Alamy

Cold comfort: KXU offers cryotherapy to aid recovery

We are all fully sold on the idea that strong is the new skinny. But a crucial ingredient in maintaining and increasing strength and stamina is going to be injuryproofing. I mean, you can’t do your yearly iron man with a dodgy knee, now can you? Say hello to the AlterG anti-gravity treadmill at BodySpace at the Corinthia hotel, which uses air pressure to reduce your running bodyweight by 80 per cent, so you can hone in on technique and reduce strain on joints.

Meanwhile, pre-workout cryotherapy at boutique health club KXU helps to promote faster recovery. So, no excuse now, people. No excuse. Ready, steady… BOOM.

GET SCIENTIFIC

SOAPER DUPER Ginger and Sea Salt Body Scrub, £7.50, at tesco.com

JOIN THE ZZZ LIST

SkinDoc Formula by Dr Dirk Kremer, POA, at harleystreet aesthetics.com

Ever snack on a placenta? Rolled around on an amniotic sack? Bear with me: we have long known that all that liverish stuff is indecently packed with nutrients but… slightly ick. Step forward Dr Dirk Kremer with his bio-identical placenta serums — grown in a test tube rather than harvested from a womb. All of the regenerative skin benefits, none of the yuckiness. Kremer has spent significant amounts of time working in a burns unit and stem-cell research labs, so he really understands skin regeneration and human growth factors that could actually influence the way we are genetically predisposed to age. In other words, insurance policy rather than damage limitation. All the woo-hoo with none of the woo-woo.

SLIP silk eye mask, £45, at net-a-porter.com

Who sleeps? Here’s the good news: it is apparently a modern construct that we need eight hours of continuous sleep to function fully. What we need is (here’s the great news) naps. Seize every napportunity and proceed until apprehended. Naps are the green juices of circadian rhythm. This Works, famed for its sleep sprays, is poised to enter the realm of power napping — short sleeps that help you wake up feeling a million dollars. Nap pods are popping up all over and my website, The Midult, is launching The Lying Down Club at the transformed John Lewis bed department (6pm-8pm, 29-30 Nov; thelyingdownclub.com).

Think linen porn, sound-reducing headphones and foot massages. Like the quiet bit at the end of yoga. Without the torture. Or the chanting. But I’ll be there if you feel like a chat…

27.10.17 ES MAGAZINE 29

scene & herb

Jean-Philippe Woodland; Getty. TOM DIXON Bump Vase cone, £100; Bump Vase tall; £120, Bump Vase Short, £55 (tomdaixon.net)

Thought natural remedies had been relegated to old wives’ tales?

Think again. Ruby Warrington meets the new guard of herbalists

I

t was while working as a model in the 1990s that Rachel Landon first discovered the healing power of herbs. As her career took her from London to Paris and then New York, ‘I felt like I was living on my nerves’, she says. ‘From then I found it difficult to digest food and then the stress started to progress into problems sleeping. I was really nervous and was living on that adrenal stress.’ Looking for ways to cope, she cleaned up her diet and cut out meat after moving to New York. She eventually found peace of mind in herbal remedies such as amla honey, chamomile infusions and gotu kola tinctures to help support her digestion and aid sleep.

The effects, she says, were so profound, that when her modelling career wound down she decided to study herbal medicine professionally. Twenty years later she is now one of London’s most in-demand herbalists and a figurehead for the latest wellness trend to be pepping up the capital.

Based in north-west London and operating as Wilder Botanics, she has a client list that includes famous faces from her fashion industry background (celebrity make-up artist Kay Montano is a fan), as well as high-flying Londoners accustomed to burning the candle at both ends.

A 60-minute consultation costs £80 and includes a custom herbal ‘blend’ — usually taken as a tea or tincture.

‘The majority come to me exhausted. They’re perplexed as to why they still feel tired, even after eight hours’ sleep,’ she says, arguing that overstimulation from screens and mobile phones, and the chemicals in everything from beauty products to the food we eat, can disrupt the nervous, digestive and hormonal systems.

Her solutions focus on adaptogens. This group of herbs, prized for their reported ability to support the adrenal system, regulate hormones and manage stress, includes the likes of ashwagandha, astragalus, ginseng and rhodiola.

Landon isn’t the only herbal guru catering to London’s burned-out high flyers. Dr Nish Joshi, of Wimpole Street detox centre The Joshi Clinic, will launch a new line of herbal supplements later this year. And online herbal apothecary The Herball — founded by Michael Isted, a former drinks consultant for the luxury hotel industry — stocks seasonal infusions alongside herbal bitters and ‘hydrosols’ (plant extracts distilled in water or oil, that can be used in cooking and to flavour cocktails). Likewise, Farmacy, a new ‘farm-to-face’ skincare line available at cultbeauty.co.uk, cites an echinacea-infused Green Clean beauty balm as its best seller.

Then there’s Purearth, a London-based line of

Jasmine Hemsley, below, focuses on the healing properties of Ayurvedic herbs in her new book

27.10.17 es magazine 31

“people are waking up to the power of plants and how they can use them to protect their immunity”

Hero herbalists: Pukka’s Sebastian Pole and Purearth’s Tenna Anette

herb-infused, cold-pressed juices from Tenna Anette, a detox and raw-food expert, and her former-model-booker partner, Angelina Riccio. ‘We love the tonic herbs from ancient practices such as chaga, he shou wu, goji, turmeric and ginger, as these really boost the immune system and are known for their beautifying properties,’ says Anett. A newly launched ‘anti-pollution’ blend for kids (‘to help shield your little ones from environmental toxins’) contains sea buckthorn and activated coconut charcoal.

Indeed, should anyone be under the impression that herbal remedies remain the stuff of old wives’ tales, the recent sale of Pukka Herbs to food and personal care giant Unilever for an undisclosed but presumably sizable amount is an indication that consumer demand is on the rise. ‘We’ve had exceptional growth in our supplements in the last few years growing 25 per cent each year; we have a range of 49 supplements and use 200 different species of organic plants in them,’ says Sebastian Pole, the brand’s herbalist founder. According to a Euromonitor report, the herbal, fruit and green tea market is currently worth £1.45bn — Pukka itself turning over £30m annually when the company was sold in July. ‘It’s been incredible. People are waking up to the power of plants and how they can use them to protect their immunity, to balance levels of stress and help their nervous system.’

The foodie crew is getting in on the act, too, with Jasmine Hemsley putting the focus on the healing properties of Ayurvedic herbs in her new book, East Meets West. In Ayurveda, a system of medicine that originated more than 2,000 years ago in India, ‘herbs are considered nature’s medicine and best taken in small doses on a daily basis in our food. They include berries, bark, and leaves,’ she says. Common Ayurvedic herbs, as found sprinkled throughout the recipes in her book, include mustard seeds, ginger, cumin and coriander, all with their own distinct healing properties. ‘Just be sure to keep mixing it up and not to over spice,’ cautions Hemsley.

‘Herbs and spices are so effective they can interfere with other supplements or pharmaceutical medicines you may be taking.’

Meanwhile forager and herbal chef Jemma Foster’s herb-infused supper clubs, Mama Xanadu’s Alchemy Bar, have been popping up across the capital, drawing on ‘mythology, folklore and anthropology to illustrate the traditional uses of plants for healing, and how people can use them in their lives.’ Appealing to an experimental, boho crowd, Foster also hosts monthly Wild Alchemy Sessions at 42 Acres in Shoreditch, while fans include singer Lianne La Havas.

First introduced to medicinal herbs at the age of 12 when her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she Foster says she ‘began researching alternatives to modern treatments, which led me to a traditional medicine woman in a neigh-

32 es magazine 27.10.17

An Atlas of Natural Beauty, by L’Officine Universelle Buly, £20; Super Herbs, by Rachel Landon, £10.48; East

by West, by Jasmine Hemsley, £17, all at amazon.co.uk

The Herball founder, Michael Isted

bouring village to where we lived in Oxfordshire. She prescribed herbs to alleviate anxiety and counter the negative effects of morphine, enabling my mother to achieve some clarity of mind.’ Foster claims that she later treated her own glandular fever with liquorice and elderberry, ‘which helped reduce muscular swelling and aches, and aided sleep’.

So what’s causing the herbal revival? ‘People are waking up to the fact that they can look after their own health,’ says Pole. ‘Plants have been at the heart of our health forever and herbalism empowers people to look after their bodies throughout their lives rather than just treating the problem at the end.’

After all, ‘most of the drugs used in modern medicine are derived from plants and fungus’, says Theresa Richardson, consultant eye surgeon for Imperial College Healthcare Trust — even if she warns against taking large amounts of unregulated herbs. ‘My husband developed ulcerative colitis after ingesting large quantities of wheat grass,’ she says, claiming more clinical trials are needed before doctors can safely prescribe herbal remedies. Richardson, who treats eye problems resulting from diabetes, says she would welcome more herbs being used in hospitals, a view she says is shared by colleagues. ‘My belief is that cinnamon bark could be used effectively to control diabetes, but we need the science to prove it.’

Of course, herbs are most effective when combined with other lifestyle practices such as yoga, meditation and a healthy diet, as Landon discovered back in the Nineties. But their potential for making real improvements to our health should not be discounted. Just look at Acciaroli, a small town in southern Italy that hit the headlines last year thanks to a disproportionately high percentage of the population living past 100, and with many residents still having sex into their 90s — which studies have attributed to high levels of rosemary consumed by locals, helping to improve micro-circulation and cognitive function.

Herbs. Not only are they good for your hormones and your heart, they could be the key to a long and active sex life, too. How will you get your hit?

Go with the

blow

From the elfin fringe to the modern mullet (yes, really), hair stylist and Dyson ambassador Larry King introduces the season’s new looks

PhotographS BY JEAMES PEARSON-howes beauty editor katie service fashion styling BY eniola dare

the MODERN MULLET

Larry’s tip: ‘The modern mullet cut is not for the faint-hearted. You have one length around the forehead and another on the cheeks. It’s grungy but you can soften it by blowdrying the hair to a smooth texture.’

Pureology Clean Volume Weightless Mousse, £12.99, at lookfantastic.com.

Dyson Supersonic hairdryer, £299.99, at johnlewis.com VICTORIA, VICTORIA BECKHAM jumper, £355 (victoriabeckham.com)

34 es magazine 27.10.17

THE CUT FOR CURLS

Larry’s tip: ‘This cut for curly hair uses layers to create a modern feel of a 1980s look, which is all the rage at the moment. Apply a smoothing product to soaking wet hair — not towel-dried, it has to be really wet. Diffuse hair by drying on medium heat and speed, trying to touch your hair only with the diffuser to minimise frizz.’

Redken Curvaceous Full Swirl Cream Serum, £11.22, at lookfantastic.com.

Dyson Supersonic hairdryer, as before JOSEPH blazer, £495 (joseph-fashion.com).

ANNELISE MICHELSON earrings, £379 (annelise michelson.com)

27.10.17 es magazine 35

THE ELFIN FRINGE

Larry’s tip: ‘To make this elfin look work you have to ensure your micro fringe is cut well above the eyebrow but still has enough length to be broken up and not sit rigidly on the forehead. Use a small round brush to blow-dry the fringe, keeping airflow from above, drying all of the fringe forward. To finish, use your fingers to separate.’

Kiehl’s Creme with silk groom, £18, at feelunique.com.

Dyson Supersonic hairdryer, as before STELLA McCartney top, £720 (stellamccartney.com).

ALIGHIERI earrings, £95 (shop.alighieri.co.uk).

ANTIQUES AVENUE Oval blue brooch, £22 (antiques avenue.co.uk)

36 es magazine 27.10.17

The Beatles Bowl

Larry’s tip: ‘The modern take on the 1970s bowl cut — it’s shorter than a crop but cooler than a pixie cut. Apply your volume product to damp hair to give your hair slight control when blow-drying and then use the air flow of the Dyson to push the hair from side to side as if you are wrapping the hair around the head. This way it will sit nice and straight.’

Sam McKnight Cool Girl texturizing spray, £25, at libertylondon.com.

Phyto Phytovolume Actif spray, £14.95, at allbeauty.com.

Dyson Supersonic hairdryer, as before SELF PORTRAIT dress, £290 (self-portrait-studio.com).

ALIGHIERI earrings, £210 (shop.alighieri.co.uk)

27.10.17 es magazine 37

Models: Grace Anderson and Barbara Maldonado at Premier Model Management.

Make-up by James Molloy at Premier using Rimmel London. Nails by Sabrina Gayle at the Wall Group using YSL Beauty.

Hair art direction assistant: Scott Ade at Larry King salons. Set design by Jake Phillips.

Hand model: Tiffany C at Hired Hands

THE JET

Larry’s tip: ‘The key to adding a rock’n’roll twist to your hair is plenty of mousse and then rough drying with your hairdryer, working the hair between your fingers like you’re sprinkling salt.

Keep the airflow pointed downwards so that the look stays flat at the roots with the most amount of texture at the ends.’

Redken Styling Full Effect Mousse, £9.50, at lookfantastic.com.

Dyson Supersonic hairdryer, as before ALEXA CHUNG shirt, £235, at matchesfashion.com.

ANNELISE MICHELSON earrings, £335 (annelisemichelson.com)

38 es magazine 27.10.17

CHARLES WORTHINGTON Radiance Restore Environmental Protection Mist, £6.99, at boots.com

PERCY & REED Perfecting Wonder Overnight Recovery, £20 (percyand reed.com)

JOHN FRIEDA Frizz Ease Extra Strength, £6.99, at Superdrug.com

High & DRY

O N S up e r s o ni c DYS ha

ir d

ry ,£ er 29

9. 9

The smoothest primers, treatments and texturisers to power up your blow-dry, whatever your hair type

DAVINES Love Curl Primer, £19, at theshedhairand beauty.co.uk

9, at johnlewis. m

John-Philippe Woodland

co

SACHAJUAN Ocean Mist Volume Shampoo, £20, at cult beauty.co.uk

REDKEN Curvaceous Ringlet, £11.20, at feelunique. com

SEBASTIAN Twisted Curl Magnifier, £25.95, atthebeautybooth.com

BATISTE Speed It Up Blow Dry Accelerator, £4.49, at boots.com KEVIN MURPHY Bedroom Hair, £22 (kevin murphy store.com)

LABEL M Intensive Mask, £9.95, at allbeauty.com OUAI Finishing Crème, £20, at asos.com

27.10.17 ES MAGAZINE 39

PhotographS BY holly whittaker

She’s got the

WAH factor

She revolutionised the nail industry by opening the WAH Nails salon at the age of 24. Now Sharmadean Reid is on a girl empowerment mission with her new networked platform for beauty pros. Frankie McCoy gets the gloss

‘T

here are hundreds of thousands of girls who are choosing beauty as a career and no one is serving them, no one is helping them run their businesses,’ explains Sharmadean Reid earnestly.

‘They’re hustlers, and yet they’re living hand to mouth… I see myself as this champion for them.’ Indeed, 33-year-old Reid is a great flag bearer for any female entrepreneur, beauty junkie or not. After all, this is the woman who at the age of 24 founded WAH Nails, the Dalston nail bar that transformed the nail scene and became a global phenomenon for its radical neon-patterned, Swarovskicrystalled designs. Now she’s about to disrupt the industry again with Beautystack, a ‘networked platform for influential beauty professionals’.

We meet surrounded by the hum of tapping MacBooks in the pastel-hued co-working space, The Office Group, just off Tottenham Court Road, from which Reid runs her beauty empire. The first thing my eyes flick to are, obviously, Reid’s nails — clear varnish and sprinkled with minute daisies — but I’ve also never seen make-up so flawless outside of a retouched advert. But then, Reid is a self-confessed beauty junkie. ‘This week I’ve had a massage, my lashes done… I’m gonna have a facial today.

I don’t think one week goes by when I don’t have something done because I f***ing love it, I really do’, she says.

It’s this obsession with the ever-expanding universe of brows, braids and blusher that convinced Reid to launch the angel investor-funded platform Beautystack, which will also act as a website builder for beauticians to post pictures of their work and take bookings. Right now there are no proper business tools for beauty professionals and, even more bizarrely, despite beauty fundamentally being in the eye of the beholder, few booking sites use visuals to promote their stylists. Instead, as Reid says, you have to ‘scroll through and click a random salon and book a manicure. I know that if I see a specific haircut

40 es magazine 27.10.17

or a specific make-up style, I want to book that exact thing with that exact person.’

The professional beauticians permitted to join will be vetted by Reid (‘What I’m looking for is people who specialise in a particular thing. Like, this is the only girl who can do that particular eyebrow, or that particular braid. Very specialist and niche’; they also have to be active on social media). But, more than a platform to guarantee girls a specific brow shape or nail design, Beautystack will also act as a beauty network for the millions of beauty junkies like Reid. ‘If you’re properly obsessed with something — a game, fishing, beauty — you sometimes really want to be just around people who are into that stuff,’ she says. ‘To me, gaming is the direct brother to beauty.’ Both are fringe communities yet, while something like the gaming platform Twitch ‘powers billions of dollars of community-driven sales’, nothing exists for the similarly big-money beauty industry. ‘I really admire how obsessive these gamers are, how much money they’re prepared to spend on it.’

Reid hasn’t always been this hooked on beauty. She grew up ‘a complete tomboy’ in Wolverhampton, the eldest of her single mum’s four kids, in a huge Jamaican family who, she grins, were ‘always like… you can be whatever you want to be’. Obsessed with MTV and magazines, she knew at the age of 12 that she wanted to be involved in the fashion world; when she went for her interview to study fashion communication at Central Saint Martins five years later, she was told then and there that she had a place.

Arriving in London a month before her degree started, Reid bagged a job with Diesel artistic director Nicola Formichetti by sending him pop-up books made from magazine pages of his shoots, and continued to work with him and his friend, Louis Vuitton artistic designer Kim Jones, while she was studying. In her third-year work placement she worked under Jo-Ann Furniss, then editorin-chief at Arena Homme+, where she learnt ‘how to get people to do what you want, which is key to life’. Here she met legendary photographers such as Alasdair McLellan

Getty

Glittering prize: Sharmadean Reid in the frow with FKA twigs, below, and with Susie Bubble, right

and Juergen Teller — ‘I was this kid from Wolverhampton. These were all my heroes.’ Now she sits frow with FKA twigs and parties with Sophia Webster, but insists she’s never been starstruck. ‘We’re all kind of human and everyone’s fallible. Celebrities have no interest to me.’

While she was hobnobbing with the high-fashion crowd by day, the self-described ‘international uptown-downtown girl’ was also handing out copies of WAH (We Ain’t Hoes) at nightclubs, a fanzine she had started to highlight girls in hip-hop, influenced by nights spent raving in Hackney to dubstep and grime. Then, in 2008, came a pivotal moment: Reid, now a stylist for Nike, had her nails done — an integral part of the hip-hop scene — ‘and it was crap. It was such a rubbish experience.’ So she decided to set up WAH Nails, a meeting-place for girls like herself. A friend, Meghan, who had recently inherited money, gave her £17,000 in return for the promise of a job while her thenboyfriend (and father of her son, Roman) built the salon from scratch. ‘I wasn’t interested in beauty until I started WAH,’ she says. ‘The nails were an excuse to come and hang out.’ WAH Nails opened in summer 2009; a year later Reid gave the Dalston space to her friends at hair salon Bleach London to focus on the wildly successful nail-bar concession in Topshop Oxford Street. In the middle of all this, Reid was pregnant.

She and Roman’s father broke up when their son was eight months old. They co-parent, with Reid looking after Roman Sunday to Wednesday and working half days on Monday and Tuesday to hang out with her son, now six, after school. Today Reid declares that ‘childcare is the number one problem in this country. It’s shocking because the maths doesn’t add up — the maternity pay versus the time,’ she says. ‘Once maternity pay ends, government-funded childcare doesn’t begin for another two years, so what the hell are you supposed to do in those two years?’ She blames this on the fact that ‘politics doesn’t have enough normal people. How can you be making rules about childcare if you’ve never had a childcare problem?’ And she cites Jacob ‘never changed a nappy’ Rees-Mogg as an example of the ‘perpetuating cycles of power’ in politics.

Reid is obsessed with originality and difference. She closed the WAH concession at Topshop after four years, she says, ‘because I felt we were losing the vibe of what the business was — it was becoming a bit too factory-like, and WAH was never about being a factory. We couldn’t

“I started WAH to have my own youth club, not to have a Sainsbury’s”

WAH to go: one of the designs by WAH Nails

play our own music, we couldn’t stay late, we couldn’t have parties. I started WAH to have my own youth club, not to have a Sainsbury’s.’ She moved back to Wolverhampton for two years — ‘to get some head space’ — and hit upon the idea of Beautystack. By this time, Reid had launched a WAH nail-varnish range with Boots, written two WAH nail-design books and the salon had a global following (it has 450,000 Instagram followers).

Reid was also about to receive an MBE for services to the nail and beauty industry (which she only learned about and collected after someone from the Cabinet Office, having failed to contact her, created an Instagram profile to directly message her).

Reid is indifferent to such honours (‘I don’t need other people’s recognition’). Besides, she’s not even close to being done serving the beauty industry. As well as Beautystack and WAH’s current Soho salon, she also founded FutureGirlCorp last year, a series of workshops hosted by herself and aimed at aspiring young businesswomen. FutureGirlCorp was launched as ‘a way for me to share my experience of building a business as young girl. No one helped me with WAH and I made a ton of mistakes’ — like not having a proper hiring process or employee contracts.

She’s also a keen advocate for charity Art Against Knives. One of the directors started a nail bar on a council estate to get girls off the street; Reid found them on Instagram five years ago and supplied them with huge quantities of products and books. The bar now provides accredited training for budding nail technicians and at a recent event she broke down in tears. ‘They’re doing this because I invented WAH! These girls are off the streets, not being abused, not getting into gangs or drugs because they’ve found nails as a career.’ Her ‘only mission in life, really’ is ‘to help other girls be economically independent’.

And when Beautystack launches next year, those girls — those hundreds of thousands of hustling beauty junkies — will have their day. ‘We’re going to move into the “age of the expert”. And I want to be the person that is helping power those experts,’ says Reid.

With that she’s off, to get that facial and conquer the world, pausing only to adjust her hair in a mirror next to the lift emblazoned with the words ‘You Are Worth It’.

27.10.17 es magazine 43

How AGE became GOLDEN Rather than trying to slow it down, the beauty industry has begun to celebrate the ageing process. And it’s about time, says Rebecca Newman

Life models: Lauren Hutton walking the runway for Bottega Veneta; below, Maye Musk

Getty

A

mar vellous cha nge is happening in the world of beauty. Where the emphasis has, for too long, been on the Sisyphean task of not getting old, there is at last a shift towards embracing age — even in learning to love our wrinkles.

On the one hand, fashion is celebrating the style of models like Maye Musk, the 69year-old who walked three shows in New York Fashion Week recently. On the other, there’s a growing recognition that the overblown, pillow-smooth face is far less attractive than one alive with a smile and laughter lines (‘Our medals of the passage of life’, as this month’s Vogue Italia cover girl Lauren Hutton, 73, calls them).

US beauty magazine Allure has gone so far as to ban ‘anti-ageing stories’ on the principle that age is a part of life, not a condition we need to battle. In

short, it seems the aesthetics industry may at last be growing up.

‘The message we have been receiving that youth is some kind of grail is toxic to the female psyche,’ says award-winning dermatologist Dr Stefanie Williams. ‘It has led to younger women having too much work too soon, and older women walking round frankly looking terrible.’ Clinical facialist Kate Kerr adds: ‘The message is no longer anti-ageing, but ageing healthily. I don’t care if I look my age, but I don’t want to look gaunt or tired: I want to look amazing, fresh and radiant.’

This is not to say that we can throw the towel in. A bit like the work required to achieve ‘no make-up’ make-up, the new natural look requires effort. ‘Living busy, stressful lives, we can find we age quickly and look far older than we feel,’ says Williams. ‘Accelerated or premature ageing can leave us looking sad or angry.

We want to minimise the

various burdens on our skin and enable our faces to mature in a way that is balanced and harmonious.’

According to leading dermatologist Dr Michael Prager, ‘Ageing is a tug of war between damaging free radicals in the environment and the antioxidants (fruit, veg, appropriate skincare) that neutralise them.

Every breath you take in London causes free radical damage, mostly from traffic pollution.’ Unless you live a countryside idyll, eating your own produce and so forth, ageing gracefully is not something that just happens, explains Prager: it must be a considered choice.

So how do we city dwellers give our faces the best chance to age well — to relax into something more in the general direction of Helena Christensen rather than Dot Cotton?

In her new book, Look Great, not Done!

The Art & Science of Ageing Well — How Aesthetic Treatments can Work for You (out next Wednesday), Williams uses the metaphor of the face as a house, and highlights the importance of addressing the

27.10.17 es magazine 45

“The message is no longer anti-ageing, but ageing healthily. I don’t care if I look my age… but I want to look amazing”

Raw beauty: Liya Kebede, left, and Élise Crombez, above

whole architecture of the face, from the bone, through the dermis, up to the skin. ‘If you only ever tend to the surface of the skin and not the foundations, then you may look fine for a while but then suddenly subsidence will set in and your whole face may fall — you see it in the public eye when someone looks terrific for years, then apparently overnight everything crumbles.’

To understand the importance of looking at the face as a whole, it is worth grasping the changes that occur over time to what Williams calls the ‘foundations’: the fat pads under our cheeks and the bones of our skull. ‘From our early 30s we lose volume in the fat pads and the bone structures underneath deflate.’ Yes, our cheekbones and the rest of our skull actually start to shrink, so there is literally less holding everything up. On top of that we start to experience muscle and tissue loss. ‘Your skin envelope is then too big, which leads to sagging and to an exhausted look.’

While it is very hard to prevent the bone reabsorption, ever more sophisticated treatments can provide a new scaffolding for the muscles and ligaments of the face. ‘A small amount of contouring filler — which is thicker than the filler commonly used on wrinkles — will lift the fabric of cheeks,’ says Williams. This lifting prevents the muscles and ligaments from getting over-stretched, and will therefore mitigate jowls developing. ‘It is,’ adds Prager ‘a

Naturally timeless: ‘mature’ catwalk stars, from top, Kirsten Owen, Michele Hicks, Guinevere van Seenus, Nadja Auermann, Cecilia Chancellor and Esther de Jong

preventative measure that will slow premature ageing.’

The next key layer to consider is the dermis, the deeper layer of skin that lies on top of the subcutaneous fat. It contains cells called fibroblasts that create collagen and elastin, two crucial structural fibres, as well as hyaluronic acid, which draws water into our connective tissues, keeping them plump and hydrated. Many of the newest aesthetic treatments are aimed at regenerating these cells.

Marylebone-based dermatologist Dr Joney De Souza recommends eTwo Sublime, a laser treatment that combi nes radiofrequency with infrared light, which stimulates collagen (and has been shown to keep collagen levels constant over the course of an eight-year study). Kate Kerr uses a Venus Viva laser, which employs focused radio frequency to heat the fibroblasts, encouraging them to produce elastin more quickly than the body breaks it down — thus

improving elasticity. It also works on the surface layer of the skin, tightening pores and improving texture and discolouration. ‘A pigmented skin will appear even older than a lined skin: our eye is drawn to contrasts in skin colour, exacerbating peaks and troughs.’

Happily, when it comes to maintaining a glowing, radiant and healthy complexion over the years, good DIY skincare is as important as regenerative treatments (and rather less expensive). ‘A treatment is like going to the dentist, but you have to do your daily brushing,’ says De Souza. ‘You must keep your skin cells active. As well as cleansing and exfoliation, you need to use agents such retinol (the vitamin A derivative), which speed cell turnover.’

T

hen, of course, there is always your lifestyle. ‘Don’t think you can have a bad lifestyle and spend more money on beauty,’ cautions Prager. ‘It doesn’t work.’ So the usual rules — good nutrition with a wide range of vegetables, moderate sugar and alcohol, sun protection — still apply.

Does all this spell the death knell for Botox? Not entirely. While the days of identikit frozen faces are numbered, thank goodness, Williams points out that used judiciously — in tiny amounts, aka ‘tweakments’ — Botox can retrain muscles.

‘For people that consistently squint into a screen, it may well be that Botox tweakments can prevent the deep forehead grooves that leave you constantly looking cross.’

So, achieving a skin that you are happy in, and that remains the best version of yourself over the years will take work. But done with care, it should mean we can enjoy our face as it changes over time and not, Nora Ephronlike, regret the passing of our ever-fading looks. Victoria Beckham recently announced she prefers how she looks at 43 to how she did at 25, and now so can the rest of us. ‘It is the first time in history we can look better as we age,’ says Williams. And hooray to that.

27.10.17 es magazine 47

BEAUTY

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Shoot from the lip Is there anything more powerful in your beauty arsenal than a punchy lipstick? Annabel Rivkin puts the latest launches to the test

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HOLLYWOOD LIPS IN DANGEROUS LIAISON, £24 (charlottetilbury.com) Very creamy. Feels expensive.

Feels very grown-up. It’s a power colour — a boardroom hue. A kind of browny, winey neutral that isn’t really a neutral. I would never in a million years wear it. I’ll never be this grown-up. It’s sort of very glamorous headmistress territory.

This might belong to someone who has a fully-functioning capsule wardrobe and an ISA. I am not she.

John-Philippe Woodland

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COTTON CANDY SUPER MATTE LIPSTICK IN PINK £1.50 (primark.com) This is a very tasteful mid pink.

It feels faintly bridal or even a bit like it would suit a newsreader.

The texture is incredibly dry and it’s highly pigmented, so I find that it works best under a clear gloss — but it’s too mainstream for me. On its own it makes my lips feel a bit chapped and neglected. Not sure it works hard enough in the end.

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ARMANI ECSTASY SHINE LIPSTICK IN 400, £29 (armanibeauty.co.uk) Almost cerise. And rather blue in tone. This is not my colour. But it’s got a really nice, satisfying texture.

It feels the way a lipstick should: ladylike and yet risqué. I’m confused as to whether it reminds me of my mother’s posh Lauder lipsticks or the incredibly crappy ones I bought at the seaside Post Office on holiday with my midnight feast money. But it makes me feel rather sentimental.

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ROUGE LOUBOUTIN METALISSIME SILKY SATIN £75 (christianlouboutin.com.)

Oh, good God it’s a metallic.

Somewhere between a rust and a plum. I think even a year ago I would have hated this, but something about it feels incredibly relevant and Studio 54-ish. I love the texture; it’s creamy/ sticky enough to feel like you bothered. This is one to be worn at night. I quite felt like dancing when I put it on and I hate dancing. I might even wear this at Christmas parties.

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ROUGE DIOR LIQUID IN RECKLESS MATTE, £26.50 (dior.com) At first you think this is subtle, but it’s got some poppy orange tones that somehow highlight all the imperfections in your face, so I’d need immaculate skin to pull this off. But the texture is nicely sheer and highly pigmented, and if you got it right it might feel really modern. Perfect foundation, bit of mascara and this lipstick would be the way to keep it relevant rather than granny.

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ULTRA HD MATTE LIP COLOUR IN HD GLITZ

BY REVLON, £8.99, at superdrug.com Tastes horrible. Really sickening and sweet. Like cheap, synthetic peaches.

I don’t know what to say. I mean when would one ever wear this? Except for Halloween. It’s annoying because if you were going to wear blue, you would surely need it to stay put so that you could make your statement.

But because it’s so smeary you can’t get sense of a solid colour; just bits of pink lip poking grotesquely through.

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CHANTECAILLE LIP SLEEK IN TANGO £32, at spacenk.com This is more of a tint. It seems to fall somewhere between a lipstick and a gloss. It’s so gentle that it would be good for people who are nervous about lipstick. It’s a pumped-up coral colour and I think men would like it; it’s unthreatening.

And it could be kissed off in a nanosecond. Feels like holiday lippy — light tan and a bit of this and anything could happen.

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TOM FORD PATENT FINISH LIP COLOR IN TRUE CORAL £40, at harrods.com Very red, very glossy, bright cherry-coloured. Like what a kid thinks lipstick should look like. Really fun, really sticky and really silly. It’s an instant mood enhancer. It’ll give you a 1950s movie star mouth. Pouty, glossy and actually in the end not very sexy, but kitsch. Made me laugh but also made me feel as if I were in fancy dress.

27.10.17 ES MAGAZINE 49

HERMÈS Twilly d’Hermès, £47, at johnlewis.com.

CHANEL Gabrielle, £79 (chanel.com).

Memo Marfa, £195, at harveynichols.com.

Atelier Cologne Café Tuberosa, £110, at selfridges.com

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f all the perfume ingredients in the world, tuberose can be the most divisive. The flower possesses a strong, if a touch overpowering, scent — and characterises those ball-breaking (and headache-inducing) oriental perfumes of the Eighties. It’s the note that hits you square on the nose in Christian Dior’s Poison for example. It was also used back in the 18th century in the South of France to mask the stench inside its leather tanneries.

But the potent floral is trending again in the world of beauty and beyond. From Chanel, which launched its tuberose-laced Gabrielle eau de parfum in September, to London postal florist FlowerBx, which has picked it as its chic bunch of the month.

It’s an interesting movement, given that many modern perfumers prefer not to use it at all (it’s notoriously tricky to formulate with). Francis Kurkdjian — the man behind Narciso Rodriguez For Her, My Burberry and his eponymous brand Maison Francis Kurkdjian — won’t touch it and haute perfumer Roja Dove affectionately calls it ‘the harlot of perfumery’ owing to a carnal molecule that it emits to attract pollinators.

Opinions in the world of cologne are starting to change too. Christophe Cervasel, co-founder of Atelier, uses it in his latest

50 es magazine 27.10.17

Fashion’s least favourite scent is making a comeback.

Katie Service hails the return of eau de Eighties ILLUSTRATION BY ANNA BU KLIEWEr

cologne, Café Tuberosa. To offset the floral, he has added a note of coffee to act as ‘a sparring partner’ to its aggression. ‘We made sure the tiger was contained,’ he explains.

‘We built a very feminine fragrance with a masculine facet to balance it.’

Despite its punchy reputation, tuberose is a surprisingly delicate flower. Compared with, say, a rose, which stays in the soil for 10 years without needing to be moved, tuberose requires year-round care as the bulbs must be dug up and separated for winter. In Grasse, where Chanel has planted the only tuberose fields in France (and the biggest in Europe), having bought a box of bulbs from a retiring farmer six years ago, they blossom only twice a year and are harvested by a team of pickers in crisp cream aprons over two weeks. The blossoms have to be handpicked and pressed when still in bud.

And they are worth their weight in gold.

It takes 1,200kg of buds to produce Clive Christian Jump Up and Kiss Me Ecstatic Feminine, £525, at harrods.com

200g of absolute (a concentrate of the fragrance), making it one of the world’s most expensive perfume materials.

‘Regular tuberose grown in India smells quite green, leathery and very waxy,’ says Olivier Polge, Chanel’s in-house perfumer (and son of Jacques Polge, who created Chance for the brand). ‘With the Grasse soil, the microclimate and the new extraction process we use without solvents, the result smells so much lighter, soft and very floral. It’s like giving a totally new colour to a painter.’

So what tuberose should you try? There’s a vast wardrobe to choose from this autumn, including the new juice from Hermès, Twilly — a young fizzy fragrance with notes of ginger — and Harvey Nichols’ bestseller, Memo Marfa, a bright shining tuberose sprinkled with spices. For something more grown-up, try Prada’s La Femme Intense (£109; johnlewis.com) or Carolina Herrera’s Tuberosen (£195; harrods.com), which conjures up the smell of lipstick and uptown Manhattan. Others not to miss are the beautifully housed Elizabeth and James Nirvana White solid perfume (£38; at Fenwick), which looks like a vintage Zippo lighter, and Clive Christian’s Jump Up and Kiss Me, which does exactly what it says on the bottle. Long live the great tuberose revival.

Jean-Philippe Woodland

Tuberose strikes

beauty

You beauty!

ON THE SOAPBOX

Kensington dentist Rhona Eskander sets the record straight on at-home tooth-whitening

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elieve it or not, illegal tooth-whitening is a huge issue in London.

More and more people are buying unregulated products from shopping centres and beauticians. The danger is that these so-called ‘at home tooth whitening’ products are either doing nothing or are so strong that they are resulting in burnt gums and ultra-sensitive teeth.

The only chemicals that will safely whiten your teeth are hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide. Dosage is key: in the UK, products should only contain up to 6 per cent hydrogen peroxide or 16 per cent carbamide peroxide. Keep an eye on this — there are plenty of products on the market that use illegal doses.

Be wary of fads, too. At the moment, charcoal whitening, coconut-based products and coconut oilpulling (essentially swilling oil around your mouth) are all the rage. But there is no scientific evidence to prove that they have any whitening properties.

That said, coconut can have a cleansing effect on teeth, which may make them look whiter temporarily.

The truth is you don’t know why your teeth are discoloured — it could be tooth decay, it could be gum disease, but by popping into Boots and picking something off the shelf you are not treating the problem. Avoid selfdiagnosis, see a professional for advice and be smart when buying products: the proof will be in those pearly whites.

S Annabel Rivkin does a detox without the tears

Josh Shinner; Natasha Pszenicki; Alamy

Headspace

Our faces hold more tension than you might think, though Beata Aleksandrowicz’s deep facial massage (think reflexology for your face) combined with cranial sacral therapy might begin to relieve some of that built-up pressure. Pure Massage Face Therapy, designed as a course of six sessions, £185 for 60 minutes (beata.website)

ome people can do week-long juice fasts while living their lives. They hop on the Tube to work, act like functional members of society and get the hell on with it. I am not one of those people. I do quite like a juice fast — shaves a bit off the waistline (temporarily), brightens the eyes (briefly) and presses reset on greed. But, for me, it requires institutionalisation, dressing gowns, tears and, usually, a flight somewhere faintly disheartening. I used to do two a year but I got fed up with the crying, so I’m pressing pause on the insanitorium-in-the-mountains vibe.

As ever, there is a middle way. Detox food-delivery services have sprung up like weeds of late, but the key is not to waste your money on something preachy yet disgusting. Or something so dainty that — after a supper invisible to the naked eye — you raid the fridge at 11pm.

Spring Green, which starts from £36 a day, promises all the cleansing, all the intelligent eating, all the nutrient-rich, collagen-stimulating, wheat-free, plant-based virtue that you could ever desire with little of the deprivation. Honestly, it’s delicious and there is plenty of it. Zingy ‘tonics’ to gulp down first thing; salmon with crunchy raw salad and black rice; green burgers (loved these… who knew?) and a delicious eggy pancake thingy with chicken and butterbean hummus.

There are teeny little snack pots (roasted beans and peas) that you sneer at but — oddly — hit the spot.

After three days I felt considerably less toxic, less bloated and a little slinkier. A week or two could really do some righteous work. No great hardship.

And I didn’t cry once. (springgreenlondon.com)

27.10.17 es magazine 53

feast

grace & flavour Grace Dent reignites a love affair with Brixton where she warms to friendly, non-earnest Salon

“Salon’s ‘nduja croquettes are certainly one of the nicest things I’ve eaten in 2017”

Ambience food

Jonny Cochrane; illustration by Jonathan Calugi @ Machas

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f Brixton were a lover, he would think I’d ghosted him. I began ignoring SW9 about six months ago. Brixton didn’t do anything wrong; it was me. I had better offers. And during my absence I also heard chat that the place is changing for the worse anyway. Regentrified out of all recognition, apparently; its soul scrubbed clean. Having returned last week, I’m not sure I buy that. Yes, the past five years have seen shifts in demographic, plus attempts to make the postcode shinier, but Brixton Village, for example, the covered arcade that is home to a dozen small restaurants and shops, is still far from tediously sanitised. It’s still higgledypiggledy and in places it’s still whiffy.

And then there’s the growing buzz about Salon; small, independent, a little tatty and a lot ostentatious, offering brunch menus with homesmoked salmon on rye soda bread with duck egg, greens and sriracha hollandaise. I’d also seen photos of three-cheese cornbread and a vivid shakshuka. Promises of things like this got me on the Victoria line. Because if three-cheese cornbread doesn’t make you a bit smiley-withheart-eyes emoji, I don’t think we can be friends.

Salon opened in 2012 but closed recently for refurbishment and a re-ponder. This was a notion I rather loved. All people and places should be permitted second acts. Or third and fourth ones.

All-new Salon, I’d heard, would have more space for pickling, preserving, butchery, syrupmaking and all the things the team loves to do.

There would be room for a wine shop and a womb-like bar on the ground floor. I liked chef Nicholas Balfe’s vow to make the place, yes, a

SALON BRIXTON 18 Market Row, Brixton, SW9 (020 7501 9152; salonbrixton.co.uk)

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‘Nduja croquettes

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Set menus

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Meat supplements

£12

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Glasses of Ciuri Etna bianco

£45

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Glass of Grand Itata Cinsault £7.80

TotAL

£6.50 £66

£137.30

little more complex in menu and wine list, but not any more formal. Praise be for that. Dinners at no-faff places like Salon are pure joy for me. I love anywhere I can turn up early, confess I’ve misjudged my timings, read the Evening Standard for half an hour with my heels off drinking glasses of Xarel-lo Miranius.

Salon’s ‘nduja croquettes are certainly one of the nicest things I’ve eaten in 2017. They pack substance, crispness, heat and sweetness and arrive on a dewy aioli puddle. They’re served in the bar and in the upstairs restaurant, same as the excellent house-made soda and foccacia breads with whey butter.

Dinner is a set menu; a shorter option and an extended one. I opted for the smaller one as, believe me, life is too bloody short to agree to any chef’s extended menu. Don’t encourage them.

You’ll still be there at midnight while he (it’s always a he) is sending out palate-cleansing sorbet that the waitress will tell you reminds chef of caravan holidays he had with Nana.

The Salon gang aren’t like this by the way.

They’re friendly and not remotely earnest. My guest and I spent a glorious two hours making bowls of smoked squash with girolles and trompettes vanish, plus a pretty plate of cod with kohlrabi infused in elderflower with some sesame.

Salon’s dinner menu is sweetly pretentious but loveble. A main of Creedy Carver duck appears with a singular spindly albeit delicious titivated carrot, crab apple and kale. Each course comes with a story of the ingredients being homepickled or in-house nurtured or delivered from a nearby allotment. Pudding was portions of roast apple on black-pepper ice cream with shards of crisp sourdough. I still cannot work out whether black-pepper ice cream is archly delicious or a culinary abomination, but this intrigue carried me through the entire bowl.

Salon by day is homely and at night is experimental, possibly challenging to some diners, but completely worth leaving one’s postcode for. I have learned my lesson about blanking Brixton; there are wonderful things happening in SW9.

27.10.17 es magazine 55

feast

tart london Jemima Jones and Lucy Carr-Ellison get in

the Halloween spirit with roasted pumpkin

Easy like Sunday lunchtime: the Tart girls host a feast for friends and family

Jemima Jones (left) and Lucy Carr-Ellison

Josh Shinner

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utumn has truly set in — golden-brown leaves are whirling handsomely through London’s streets and filling us with seasonal excitement. At this time of year the pumpkin reigns supreme. No food symbolises blustery autumn quite like it.

Groceries stock their shelves with different shapes, colours and sizes; delicious sweet treats made from the orange flesh appear, from cookies to pies to ice creams; and coffee shops are filled with the aroma of spiced pumpkin lattes. And, of course, a pumpkin — with its top sliced off, insides gutted and carved with a ghoulish smile — is the ultimate symbol of Halloween.

Halloween originated in Celtic Ireland, marking the passage from the summer harvest season to dark winter. Gruesome faces were carved into turnips and potatoes to scare away passing invaders, while big bonfires were lit to unsettle the spirits and drive them away. Irish immigrants brought the tradition to America, home of the pumpkin, and it became an integral part of Halloween festivities.

There’s something very therapeutic about carving a pumpkin. And when you’ve finished admiring your artwork, you can slice it up to make this tasty recipe. It’s a perfect starter or sharing dish for the end of the harvest season.

Serves 4

Roasted pumpkin with buffalo mozzarella

Half a medium-sized pumpkin, cut into wedges 7 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar 6 garlic cloves 4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves picked off 2 sprigs sage, finely chopped ½ tsp dried chilli 1 tbsp pine nuts Small bunch fresh oregano Small bunch basil Juice of ½ lemon Sea salt and pepper Two balls of buffalo mozzarella 1 red chilli, finely chopped Handful of pea shoots

Preheat oven to 200C. Line a large baking tray with parchment and arrange the pumpkin wedges in a single layer. Drizzle over 3 tbsp of olive oil and the vinegar, then scatter over the garlic, thyme, sage, chilli and plenty of seasoning. Mix by hand and roast for 20 minutes.

Place pine nuts on a separate tray and toast in the oven for 3-5 minutes until golden.

Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves from their skins and blitz in a blender with the oregano, basil, the remaining olive oil and lemon juice.

Season to taste. Arrange the pumpkin on a serving platter. Tear the mozzarella balls in half and arrange on top, then scatter over the pine nuts, chopped chilli and pea shoots, and drizzle over the herby oil.

27.10.17 es magazine 57

In the MIX

Collagen graduates Can smart drinks really revamp your skin? Frankie McCoy drinks up

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mprove your skin by drinking? Well, yes, obviously by drinking more water — H2O from the tap is a fail-safe face saver. But if mere water isn’t rescuing you from dry cheeks and crow’s feet, there’s collagen-enriched water.

Collagen, the protein that strengthens, elasticises and firms your skin, is being popped into bottles of quirkily packaged fruity water across town, with producers claiming that it’ll drastically improve skin elasticity all winter long.

Beauty & Go’s colourful bottles of bioactive beauty drinks, for example, come in four superfood sweet-coloured flavours, from the yellow mandarin, ginkgo biloba and guarana Skin Vitality, to Skin Revive (pomegranate, raspberry and persimmon), which tastes like Robinsons Summer Fruits squash, except with a jelly-ish mouth feel (although that could be psychological).

Besides the collagen, each bottle contains vitamins and antioxidants to ward off winter sniffles. ‘The bioactive collagen peptides in Beauty & Go stimulate the body’s collagen production,’ says its resident nutritionist Daisy Whitbread. What’s more, ‘the 100 per cent natural ingredients protect skin against environmental damage by improving its barrier function’, while ‘hyaluronic acid and aloe vera moisturise skin from within and antioxidants protect against free radical damage and ageing.’

Celebrations all round, then.

Not everyone is convinced by the claims of the collagen water industry, mind you.

Dietitian Sian Porter points out that when we consume collagen-enriched products, ‘collagen would be broken down in the body like other proteins and used for growth, repair, renewal, energy — whatever your body needs it for. You have no control really where the body “puts things”, so collagen for skin does not mean it will be used for

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‘T Face facts: Skinology’s cocktail with collagen. Left, Beauty & Go drinks

skin.’ Still, one study in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology released last year showed an improvement in the skin in women who consumed a collagen peptide drink every day for eight weeks. Plus, of course, merely drinking more water will help. And it’s easy to knock back bottles of the Oasislike Bella Berry, for instance, which comes in superfruit (pomegranate, blueberry, acai), summer fruit (raspberry, apple, pear) and tropical (pineapple, lime, mint) flavours, the last of which is particularly refreshing when ice cold. The snazzily packaged drinks, made with proper pressed fruit juice, contain not just collagen (marine collagen, made from the scales of saltwater fish — don’t worry, no fishy taste lingers) but other nutrients: collagen-boosting vitamins C, E and multiple Bs, plus zinc.

If you’d rather stick to shots, there’s Skinade in 15ml bottles — ideal fuel for the winter months, as head of marketing Louise Marchesin points out. ‘As winter comes, so does dry, dull skin. The big differences in temperature between the inside and the outside are devastating for skin hydration.’

You have to drink it every day for a month to see results, but that’s not a massive hardship given that not only does it have fewer than 40 calories and a host of other vitamins, it also tastes nice — of peach and mango. Want pampering with your collagen smoothie? At Askinology spa’s Facial Bar in the City, you can round off your deep-clean facial with collagenboosted fruit cocktails (sadly non-boozy) such as the Bottling it: tropical fruit Singa collagen is Pore Skin. Winter’s added to drinks, right, here, people — it’s and shots, time to get a skinful. below

Douglas Blyde fixes a cocktail for the man who designs the bars

here are three responses to a piece of design: yes, no and wow. Wow is the one to aim for.’

So said celebrated graphic designer, Milton Glaser, creator of the ‘I❤NY’ logo.

I feel a sense of well-upholstered ‘Wow’ at bar counters lovingly crafted by designer Martin Brudnizki, which include The Ivy, Le Caprice, Sexy Fish and Scarfes Bar. I first met Brudnizki at Le Caprice, which he subtly rejuvenated for its 30th anniversary. ‘I’ll always sit at a bar given a choice,’ he told me, blue eyes shimmering, in the restaurant which brought counter dining to London.

‘In here women of a certain age look 20 years younger at night,’ he added with a catching giggle, referring to the rose-tinged lighting.

More recently, I interviewed Brudnizki for an event celebrating his British-made Cocktail Collection in collaboration with furniture-maker George Smith. Taking inspiration from the image of ‘a 1950s woman perching in Dior with cocktail glass’, and named after old London members clubs, the low, plush chairs and sofas are obtainable by private customers and also feature at Annabel’s mark II. Brudnizki re-dressed the club he likens to Alice in Wonderland (‘down the rabbit hole, a magical world’) in ‘maximalist über-deluxe’. Look out for his fingerprint on the forthcoming Coral Room bar at the Bloomsbury Hotel, too, ‘packed with drawings by Luke Edward Hall’.

Born in Sweden to a German mother and Polish father, Brudnizki bears a dislike of ‘funereal’ black and ‘no, no camouflage’ beige. But peach is ‘ready for reinvention’.

For Cocktail Collection’s launch, I oversaw ‘Chase longue’, a drink fusing 40ml William’s pink grapefruit gin from Herefordshire farmer-distiller Chase (£36.61, masterofmalt.com), 10ml dry vermouth, 10ml Luxardo cherry liqueur and two dashes of rhubarb bitters, stirred then strained into a Martini glass and spritzed with grapefruit. Combined with Brudnizki’s furniture, it fittingly wowed… (georgesmith.com)

Jonny Cochrane; glassware available at waterford.co.uk

FEAST

HOMEWORK

Iona Cheval mirror

by Russell Pinch, £2,140, at conranshop. co.uk

BY lILY WORCESTER

Clear toothbrush holder by Nomess, £25, at conran shop.co.uk Dioniso 6 mirror

by Glas Italia, £1,571, at store. wallpaper.com

Soap dispenser, £12.99 (hm.com)

Mirror, £70; brush holder, £24 (oliverbonas.com)

Senzo dressing table, £349, at swooneditions.com

Bathroom storage, from £75 (tomdixon.net)

Mirror, mirror

We all dream of our own fabulous beauty station at home, with its glass perfume bottles and chic compacts on display. But the truth is often a far cry from this, with beauty paraphernalia stuffed under your sink in a Ziplock bag left over from your last holiday or scattered about.

According to Marie Kondo, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying, ‘clutter is caused by a failure to return things to where they belong’, so tackle the problem head on. Invest in some key organising pieces: we love this contemporary take on a 1950s dressing table from made.com, with its clean lines and tapered solid ash legs. If you’re short on space and after a cool alternative to basic Perspex drawers, Tom Dixon’s collection of blue glass containers will finish off your bathroom nicely.

Centenary vanity case, £640 (globetrotter.com) Soap dish, £18 (anthropologie.com)

Medium Powder Brush by Make Up For Ever, £39.50, at debenhams.com

Mirror, £65 (urban outfitters.com)

Cosmetics storage, £32, at myflowermeadow.etsy.com

Penn dressing table, £279 (made.com)

Century WSS wallmounted soap dish by Decor Walther, £219, at amara.com

Limited Edition StylPro Brush Cleaner & Dryer, £49.99, at (boots.com)

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escape

Palm door: an ocean-view villa at Zil Pasyon; left, the sumptuous interior

EDITED by dipal acharya

into the blue Dipal Acharya laps up the island life on the Seychelles

O

n approach, Félicité looks just like your standard tropical island — all lush coco palms and dramatic granite boulders, neatly framed by the vast Indian Ocean.

But this small mass of land in the Seychelles archipelago — just 652 acres — is now also home to Six Senses’ latest outpost, Zil Pasyon, a honeymooner’s paradise.

My new husband and I had arrived on the island by boat (although there is the option of charting a chopper if you are feeling particularly flush) after a 10-day wedding extravaganza and were desperate to decompress.

Luckily, we were in the right place.

Take the gorgeous private villas, carved expertly into the island’s granite rockface, which felt more spacious than your average London flat.

Under the expert eye of London-based architectural practice, Studio RHE, the cool Asian-inspired wooden interiors are offset by enormous fourposter beds swathed in mosquito nets, floor-to-ceiling wraparound windows and your own private inroom wine cellar, stocked with the best international varieties (and a bottle or two of the punchy local Takamaka rum in the mini-bar, too, just for good measure).

On the days when we couldn’t quite manage to make it down to the hotel’s main pool or one of the four restaurants on site, we’d have to make do with our own private

sundeck and plunge pool, spending mornings having breakfast in bed — the resort has a handy no-room-servicecharge policy — and sunbathing while catching up on the latest Eugenides or the daily papers delivered via a hotel app directly to your smart device to minimise its carbon footprint.

property is its spa, and Zil Pasyon is no exception. Accessed through a labyrinthine network of granite pathways and Indiana Jones-style rope bridges, Morning on the yoga deck there was the usual hammamsauna operation, products from The Organic Pharmacy and Terres d’Afrique, as well as an Instaworthy infinity pool.

“Laid-back luxury?

But the pièce de résistance was its yoga pavilion (aerial, This was verging pranayama and hatha yoga were on sybaritic bliss” all on offer) and five treatment rooms Each villa also comes with its own Gem overlooking the ocean, so that your facial/ (guest experience manager), a dedicated massage/morning meditation could be girl (or boy) Friday to cater to your every beautifully soundtracked by the surf. need. Whether it was an early morning For those in need of a more scientifically hike with the island’s conservation expert, driven treatment, on-site therapists offer an Anna, a private film screening or cocktails integrated wellness screening — essentially at sunset on one of the island’s summits, a health MOT to determine your fat mass, our Gem, Marvin, managed it all oxygen saturation and general wellbeing — seamlessly. Laid-back luxury? This was to suggest small lifestyle changes that verging on sybaritic bliss. could make a big improvement.

Of course, the beating heart of every SS Naturally, there are myriad activities to keep guests entertained for a week spent Night fantastic: evening on Félicité (it’s also a snorkeller’s idea of by the shared pool heaven with those crystalline waters and indigenous turtles), but the combination of sun, spa and sleep on this serene island was exactly what we needed to reset.

The Turquoise Holidays Company offers seven nights at Six Senses Zil Pasyon from £4,225 per person, including flights, accommodation, breakfast and transfers. (turquoiseholidays.co.uk; 01494 678 400)

27.10.17 es magazine 65

my london

bella freud as told to lily worcester

Home is…

Ladbroke Grove (below), with my son Jimmy who is nearly 17. I’ve lived in the area for 25 years.

Best meal you’ve had?

I love snacks and I’ve had some really mind-blowing ones at the Rose Bakery (left) in Dover Street Market.

They had these blueberry and raisin scones and they were pretty off the scale. I hate butter so I have them with jam and cream.

What was the last play you saw?

I saw Oslo at the Harold Pinter Theatre, which I really didn’t like. The Oslo process didn’t do it for me. It was a macabre mocking of real life events.

Best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

My husband James said to me, ‘You have to be able to listen to what people say.’ If I’m going to come up with a good argument, I have to be able to hear what people have to say and not just barge in with my opinion.

If you had to be locked in a London building overnight which would it be?

The Electric Cinema (below).

I’d just watch films all night.

The designer paints the town red with Christian Louboutin, loves Ronnie Scott’s and wants a sleepover at the Electric Who is your hero?

Phoebe Philo — she’s a great friend, I have a lot of admiration for what she does and how she does it. Her work is so full of integrity and it’s fun, and that’s a really beguiling combination.

If you could buy any building which would it be?

The In & Out club just off Piccadilly. I’d do it up as if it had never been interfered with by modernity. I’d have a salon in there and a lovely bedroom in the ballroom. It would be fun.

Where would you go for a nightcap?

Somewhere where I could get a cup of tea — I love having a cup of tea in the middle of the night. I suppose I would go to The Fumoir (left) at Claridge’s for a jasmine tea.

What do you collect?

I like photographs and I’ve bought a few. I bought a Robert Mapplethorpe print.

It’s of a young guy looking very gay and sexy.

Best place for a first date?

When you are feeling extremely self-conscious and excited, sitting side by side is easier than face to face. So I’d go for a walk around the Serpentine (above) and probably end up having a black coffee in the café. I’d be far too nervous to eat.

Who do you call when you want to have fun?

Christian Louboutin (below) is always a really fun person to go out with. We often have lunch in Scott’s and that’s just heaven on earth.

Psychoanalysis perfume and candle are available at Bella Freud, 49 Chiltern Street, W1 (bellafreud.com)

Getty; Alamy; Darren Gerrish

Which is your favourite club?

Ronnie Scott’s. I’ve seen amazing people play there, like Nina Simone. I’ve been going since I was a teenager.