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NATALINA’S LOOK
Every beauty regimen should start with great skin. Natalina uses L’oréal Age Perfect Hydra-nutrition Golden Balm Night to keep her skin nourished. “I find as I get older, my skin gets drier. It’s just what my skin needs.” To get her full beauty look, try L’oréal Paris Visible Lift Foundation in Creamy Natural, Colour Riche Lipstick in British Red and Le Vernis à L’huile by Colour Riche in Greige Amoureaux.
HER STORY
“If you had asked me years ago if I ever pictured myself at a professional photo shoot, I would have said no,” admits Natalina Bombino Campagnolo. Yet, this past summer, the 50-year-old entrepreneur applied to be a part of the Canadian Living x L’oréal Paris Perfect Age campaign, knowing the opportunity to be celebrated and pampered was an experience she couldn’t pass up. When she received the email telling her she was selected to be one of four inspiring women profiled in Canadian Living, her friends and family were thrilled,
four years ago, Natalina fulfilled her own dream of starting a culinary school— inspiring both herself and her family to see her in a new light.
“Sometimes, I have to pinch myself; I think, Wow, this is job.” my
but no one more so than her daughter, Laura. The 13-year-old met the news that her mom was going to get a magazine makeover—complete with a professional wardrobe stylist, makeup artist and photographer—with wide-eyed excitement; it was like something out of a fairy tale.
Natalina has learned that, sometimes, you have to write your own fairy tale. She had been a stay-at-home mom for 12 years when her husband lost his job. Yet, somehow, when faced with this potentially scary life change, she found the courage to follow her long-standing dream of going to cooking school. With Laura, her youngest of four children and only daughter, heading to Grade 1 at the time, Natalina embraced the opportunity to focus on herself and hone her talents. While many of her friends were winding down their careers or opting for less work, Natalina decided to pursue what always made her happiest: creating delicious Italian food.
But taking the first step wasn’t easy. To put herself through school, Natalina had to pick up a part-time job on top of attending classes, which meant spending more time away from her family than ever before. And while she felt like she was in a good place to do so with her older children, she admits to having pangs of guilt about leaving her youngest to follow her passion. “The boys had so much one-on-one time with me. Along came Laura, my only girl, and I had all these things going on.” With Natalina coming from a long line of strong Italian women who had put their families before everything else, this was a departure from how her mother had raised her. But Natalina’s husband was supportive and volunteered some sage advice. “He told me, ‘You can be a good wife and mother and achieve your personal goals as well,’” Natalina says. “It occurred to me that the timing was perfect. Laura was my youngest; she was the girl, and she got to see this transformation in me.”
Two years after attending culinary school, Natalina opened her own Italian cooking school outside of Guelph, Ont. “A lot of people thought I was crazy at 46 to invest time and money into this.” She now shares her passion for Italian cuisine with others, and regularly travels to Europe to host culinary tours through the southern regions of Italy. “Sometimes, I have to pinch myself; I think, Wow, this is my job,” she says. “When others say they can tell I love what I do, I know I made the right choice.”